A Level Playing Field

[Tiger Spirit]

Concessions now causing inequity
Patrick Smih
The Australian
June 16, 2004

THE AFL guards it closely. The document does not leave the building. Anyone wishing to see it must go to AFL House. Only there can interested parties run their eyes over it.

It is considered by many to be the blueprint for the domination of the competition. Some call it football's Holy Grail.

The document is thick. It is full of graphs and tables that track footballers from one state to another. It analyses salaries and promotional money. It took some of the best brains in football to carefully piece together. It is more than 12 months since it was completed and took nearly as many months to prepare.
The fortunes of the competition and particular clubs are spelt out clearly for this year as well as 2005 and 2006.

Collingwood, Essendon and Brisbane have sought permission to read the document. It is telling they are the only clubs in the past three grand finals.

Officials are strip-searched before they are ushered into a room sparse with furniture. There's a table, some chairs and precious little else. A senior official places the document on the table and leaves. You are not permitted to photocopy any information but you can take notes.

Intermittently, a high-ranking league official will check the club officials are following protocol. When the club men have finished, the AFL official is summoned. The document is removed and placed back in a safe, secure spot deep within the building. The club officials are then escorted from the offices.

That may be over-dramatising the procedure slightly but not by much. Officials are merely frisked and not strip-searched. It does, though, explain how powerful and compelling the document is.

Many say it has delivered Brisbane three successive premierships and more than likely a fourth.

It is the document that argues clinically and effectively for the rich salary cap concessions enjoyed by Brisbane. The document -- scrutinised three times by the AFL commission last year before it was ratified -- argues eloquently that Brisbane, a developing market, has to pay its players above market rates because of the go-home factor.

In the past the Lions have been allowed to pay 110 per cent of the salary cap. In their three-year reign at the top the club has been able to pay its players $1.6million more than all league clubs other than Sydney.

That formula has been amended this year. This season the club can pay 109 per cent of the salary, 107.5 per cent in 2005 and no more than $360,000 above the cap in 2006.

The Lions are allowed to pay the extra money because the AFL recognises clubs in developing markets are forced to draft players from interstate.

Eventually the pull for those players to go home is strong and the Lions must be able to have the facility to match offers from clubs in their original states.

The go-home factor is indisputable and the scrupulously researched document proves it emphatically.

However, there is another dynamic in football now and one the AFL had not anticipated. Make that no-one anticipated. And it is so overwhelming the AFL has no choice but to abandon salary cap concessions to Brisbane as soon as practically and legally possible.

The Brisbane administration, coaching staff and playing list have circumvented the go-home factor. The natural pull to return to a player's home state has been nullified.

No doubt it is mostly down to coach Leigh Matthews. He has been able to create an environment where players will take pay cuts to stay rather than pay increases to leave.

Stars including Justin Leppitsch, Luke Power, Simon Black, Jonathan Brown and Nigel Lappin are just a few players who have resisted huge offers to return to clubs in their home states.

Effectively, the club has only lost Des Headland from its premiership squad. Headland returned to Western Australia after playing in the 2002 premiership.

The go-home formula has been superseded by the stay-together factor. Brisbane has created an environment where players have sacrificed money, incentives and playing opportunities to be part of what might be the greatest dynasty in football history.

That anybody could at first be so successful, then so professional and inventive to achieve this was not considered possible. Salary cap concessions were meant to balance out an inequity. Now they create one.

The AFL must change its policy. Money must be poured into football in Queensland so it can develop its own players for Brisbane and not into Brisbane players.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9856311%255E12270,00.html

[Tiger Spirit]

It is the document that argues clinically and effectively for the rich salary cap concessions enjoyed by Brisbane. The document -- scrutinised three times by the AFL commission last year before it was ratified -- argues eloquently that Brisbane, a developing market, has to pay its players above market rates because of the go-home factor.

The go-home factor is indisputable and the scrupulously researched document proves it emphatically.

However, there is another dynamic in football now and one the AFL had not anticipated. Make that no-one anticipated. And it is so overwhelming the AFL has no choice but to abandon salary cap concessions to Brisbane as soon as practically and legally possible.

The Brisbane administration, coaching staff and playing list have circumvented the go-home factor. The natural pull to return to a player's home state has been nullified.

The go-home formula has been superseded by the stay-together factor. Brisbane has created an environment where players have sacrificed money, incentives and playing opportunities to be part of what might be the greatest dynasty in football history.

That anybody could at first be so successful, then so professional and inventive to achieve this was not considered possible. Salary cap concessions were meant to balance out an inequity. Now they create one.

Clubs live and die by how smart they are in coping with the circumstances presented to them at any one time.  And you can’t put rules in place to stop people from being resourceful, innovative and using their brains.  So it doesn’t matter what rules are put in place, the well run Clubs will always find a way around things and, as Brisbane has done, benefited from the rules put in place.

Rules just give the smart ones an opportunity to show just how innovative and resourceful they are.  Rules do not and never will create a level playing field, as long as people are able to use their intelligence.

[WilliamPowell]

That article would be the most intelligent thing Patrick Smith's ever written

Seriously though, if the Lions were cellar dwellers then I could accept the concessions - because it would be hard to hold onto players but they have no problems keeping their players becasue the team is successful.

Teams on or near the bottom of the ladder face a greater challenge in keeping players from interstate IMO. Victorian based teams in particular have faced the problem of losing say a player from WA for a long time.

On the other side of the coin a team like the Eagles will have to face the possibility of a Judd wanting to come home and they get no cocessions in their attempts to retain their players.

Where is the equality in that?

[WilliamPowell]

Rules just give the smart ones an opportunity to show just how innovative and resourceful they are.  Rules do not and never will create a level playing field, as long as people are able to use their intelligence.

Agreed that the smart ones will always come out on top because of their resourcefulness.

But shouldn't the sames rules be applied to everyone?

There by giving every team the opportunity to sink or swim?

[Tiger Spirit]

I understand what you’re saying WP, but if Clubs want to be in the AFL then they have to deal with the rules put in place.  Even when they don’t make any sense.

The Brisbane thing was never an issue until they became successful.  If Clubs can get the rule changed now then go for it, but if they’re worried about the success of other Clubs more than their own, I’d be worried.

I’m sure that each Club thinks they are hard done by in some respect.  There are rules for just about everything you can think of.  The more that happens the more rules are put in place.  Rules do not stop any Club, regardless of who they are or where they are on the ladder, if they use a bit of initiative and are prepared to do some work.

Whether they are the same rules or different rules, there are no rules that smart people cannot get around.

People are fixated by the rules put in place and it becomes like this huge barrier that can never be overcome.  But the ones who are resourceful enough will always find a way to overcome whatever the obstacle is.  They don’t sit there, feel sorry for themselves and throw their hands in the air because it’s all too hard.  They just get on with things and don’t let these things paralyse them like it can others.

[Tigertailz]

Quite a fascinating article WP.
Credit where credits due to Brisbane in this regard.
They have managed to create quite a cohesive team on and off field, considering the lousy beginnings thay had.i.e Carrara.
Yeah sure they have had concessions, but to install people into positions to manage and flaunt those concessions sucessfully is equally important.
As a result Brisbane is the envy of us all.

[Puntroadroar]

If they want a level playing field then make Collingwood play in Perth Twice a year and stop letting them dictate what games the want as blockbusters

We will never have a level playing field with 16 teams and 22 rounds, not to mention any draft concessions.

i think its ironic that Collingwood can jump up and down about uneven playing field when they get the best deal out of all Vic Clubs concerning the fixturing

P@#s off Collingwood

[WilliamPowell]

i think its ironic that Collingwood can jump up and down about uneven playing field when they get the best deal out of all Vic Clubs concerning the fixturing

Exactly! Woderfully put PRR