Entertainment not enough to win a flag
Jake Niall | May 7, 2009
OVER the past five days, I've written articles that dissected two of the game's best and most magnetic players: Brendan Fevola and Matthew Richardson.
In both instances, the question was posed of what these superstars were worth to their team: did they make their teams better, or not? And in each case, an important consideration of their value was given scant attention: entertainment.
Fevola and especially Richardson are entertainers whose individual flair and personalities have helped sustain their clubs during prolonged on-field recessions. "Richo" is the reason many Tiger fans stuck with the club in dark times, just as Tony Lockett kept St Kilda people in the fold when it otherwise might have folded, and then raised the profile of the game to unprecedented heights in Sydney.
More than ever, football is part of the entertainment industry. The game literally competes with movies, Nintendo and DVDs on that consumer level.
Simultaneously, as football strives for our dollars and attention, the game has reached a frightening level of professionalism. Players are asked to conform to rigid team rules, while their club scrutinises and analyses almost everything they do, from diets and sleep patterns to tackling techniques and family background.
Professionalism — the child of the money that television (an entertainment vehicle) has made possible — invariably stomps on the individuality of certain players; Fevola, for instance, is under pressure from his coaches to become more team-conscious.
More than once lately, I've wondered how Gary Ablett snr, surely the most entertaining player the game has produced in a quarter-century, would deal with today's rigours. How would "Gazza" handle the peer assessments that made his better-adjusted son knuckle down? Would he accept a role that had him spend a game blocking for a teammate?
Geelong's marketing department would want Ablett leaping skyward and booting goals from outside 50 on the boundary. It would cash in on his electrifying individual feats.
But the football department, which has a power of veto over marketing, wouldn't want Ablett snr kicking 14 in losing teams. It would want him to chase and tackle — his peers would probably demand it. Mark Thompson would expect him to centre the ball instead of taking the shot from an improbable angle. I doubt "Bomber" would be comfortable with 120-plus goals in a season from one super player, for that matter.
Entertainment and professionalism in the AFL are uncomfortable bedfellows. As the competition — financial and football — becomes ever more ferocious, clubs will have to choose between these conflicting modern forces. Leigh Matthews noted how fans preferred high scoring, despite the fact that defence won matches and flags.
Richmond's decision to recruit Ben Cousins is a case in point. The Tigers finally chose to draft Cousins, not because he would help them win a premiership, but due to the groundswell that Cousins' celebrity and controversy had created. This was an instance in which an entertainment consideration — Cousins meant more members, crowds, interest — outweighed his age, hamstrings and the distractions that he would invariably bring.
Most coaches pay little heed to the bread-and-circuses part of the game, in the belief that they are judged on wins and losses. Paul Roos has copped stuff for Sydney's game style, which is perhaps the most selfless and least individualistic of all clubs, and thus perceived as boring.
As the competition has expanded from 12 to 16 teams, with the 17th and 18th clubs in utero, premierships have become far more difficult to win. A 20-year drought — once the source of merriment at Collingwood's expense — will be the norm.
In that landscape, entertainment is arguably of greater importance to the fans. They want spectacular players who express individuality — often the very type of performers that the professional game condemns.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/entertainment-not-enough-to-win-a-flag/2009/05/06/1241289239375.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap11994: In his second season, the raw-boned ex-Tasmanian excited fans with 56 goals, and 108, often spectacular marks. He was a father-son selection in 1992. Matthew's father Alan played 110 games for Richmond and South Melbourne between 1959 and 1971.
Photo: Tony Mcdonough
