The asterisk, and why it shouldn’t ruin Richmond’s run at historyMay 1, 2020
Max Laughton
FOX SPORTSAnd in sports, nothing suggests something is wrong more than the simple asterisk.
While in Australia, fans are more familiar with the * mark next to a not-out cricketer, across the global landscape, the asterisk suggests a lack of purity. That someone, or some team, did something... but they didn’t really.
Once the 2020 AFL season was shortened, some critics suggested its premier wouldn’t be a true premier; that by virtue of the year being different, it wasn’t the same as all others.
“I’ve heard the asterisk label bandied around and it is a different season, a different time, but we’ll be happy to have an asterisk next to our name,” Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said in early April.
But what exactly does the asterisk mean in sport? Should it really apply to this AFL season? And if it does, what does that mean for Richmond - a club striving for a historic feat of greatness?
EXPLAINING THE ASTERISKAsterisks have been used since the Middle Ages, in an attempt by the author to connect one passage of text to a footnote, or separate comment.
In sport, the mark is most commonly associated with baseball.
Back in 1961, the New York Yankees’ Roger Maris broke the single-season home run record, smashing 61 dingers to surpass the legendary Babe Ruth (60).
However Maris did so in the first season of 162 games - eight more than Ruth’s 154-game season. And so the commissioner of baseball, Ford Frick, called on the keepers of the sport’s record books to put a “distinctive mark” next to Maris’ record, to refer to the fact his friend Ruth still held the 154-game record.
A New York sports writer, Dick Young, took this to mean Maris’ record held an asterisk, which it has been associated with ever since.
Then in the late 1990s, when baseball went through an offensive explosion - partially spurred on by the use of steroids - the asterisk returned. Maris’ record was smashed by Mark McGwire, then Barry Bonds, both of whom had grown grotesquely swollen in recent years.
Most famously though was when Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s career home run record of 755. The ball for his 756th home run is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame - with an asterisk on it.
No-one is suggesting anyone would be cheating by winning this year’s AFL premiership; instead that because of the sheer number of differences between this season - whenever it is played - and previous ones, it deserves some marker signifying that.
SO HOW WOULD THIS APPLY TO RICHMOND?While every team would be desperate to win the 2020 flag, you could argue the Tigers would be most negatively impacted by an asterisk being placed on it.
After all, Damien Hardwick’s sign is trying to enter rare air, as one of the few teams in VFL/AFL history to win three premierships in four years.
It has only happened eight times - ten, if you count a pair of overlaps which we’ll explain in a second - and we’d argue to win three in four is the mark of a dynasty.
One flag is hard enough to win, and three in three years is incredible, but adding a fourth year onto that shows a certain amount of impressive longevity.
Just look at the teams the Tigers are trying to join as some of the greatest in league history.
THREE FLAGS IN FOUR YEARS (or better)Carlton - 1906, 07, 08 [Threepeat]
Collingwood - 1927, 28, 29, 30 [Fourpeat]
Melbourne - 1939, 40, 41 [Threepeat]
Melbourne - 1955, 56, 57 (OR 57, 59, 60) [Threepeat OR Three in Four]
Carlton - 1979, 81, 82 [Three in Four]
Hawthorn - 1986, 88, 89 (OR 88, 89, 91) [Three in Four, twice]
Brisbane Lions - 2001, 02, 03 [Threepeat]
Hawthorn - 2013, 14, 15 [Threepeat]
These are inarguably some of footy’s greatest ever teams - the ‘Machine’ Magpies, the early aughts Lions, the modern-day Hawks.
Richmond is the betting favourite to win the 2020 premiership, and would join these teams if it did so. That is why this year is so important to them.
BUT DOES THIS YEAR REALLY DESERVE AN ASTERISK?An AFL flag has never before had an asterisk placed on it - despite some years with massive difficulties and changes, compared to others.
The only thing we can really compare this coronavirus-forced hiatus to is the two World Wars, which each had different impacts on the relevant VFL seasons.
Early in World War I, the VFL voted as to whether it would play the 1915 season, passing 13-4. The season began the day before the Gallipoli landing.
The season most different to all others was 1916. From nine teams, the VFL was reduced to just four - Carlton, Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond. They all made the finals, and so after winning just two games all year, Fitzroy had a chance at the flag... and won it.
Teams gradually rejoined over the ensuing three seasons, with Melbourne the last to return in 1919.
During World War II, no Brownlows were given out, and Geelong was forced out of the competition through 1942 and 1943 because its fans couldn’t attend games in Melbourne (there were restrictions on rail and road travel).
There were also slight changes in some future seasons. In 1952 for example, there was one extra round - this was used for a ‘National Day’, in which all six VFL games were played outside of Melbourne.
The number of rounds was also constantly shifting, moving between 18, 20, 19, 18, 22, 24, 22 and 24 and finally falling on the current number of 23.
WITH ALL OF THAT, DOES 2020 REALLY DESERVE AN ASTERISK?So, just how different will footy be this year?
We’ll have fewer rounds, shorter games and potentially more interchanges than in recent seasons. The games are also likely to be compacted closer together.
But is that much worse than 1916, when the wooden spooner won the flag, and there were fewer than half as many teams as the year before?
Not once have we seen Fitzroy’s premiership from that year declared invalid, or even really tainted. South Melbourne won just three flags before moving to Sydney, and one of those was in 1918, a WWI-impacted season. That one still counts.
There is one constant through VFL and AFL history: change.
We’d have to agree with Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s view on this.
“If you want to put asterisks up, I’d start with salary cap years,” he said on Triple M last month.
“Then I’d move through, what do you do, the war years?
“Do you put the years, Darc, where we didn’t have a grand final, which was the Bombers’ first win in the original season, where whoever finished on top got the premiership?
“I mean I think once you set the terms of what the season is, that’s the season and away you go.
“Every year we’ve ever played we’ve had a compromised draw since we went away from 22 games and 12 teams… if the AFL gets a season away this year, that’s the season.
“Whoever holds up the cup gets the cup, they’re the premier of that competition.”
Let’s all agree: if the Tigers win the 2020 flag, they join the dynasty club. If GWS, Fremantle or Gold Coast wins its first flag, it’ll never be proclaimed invalid.
(Well, actually, if the Suns win it, we’ll be questioning reality a tiny bit.)
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-asterisk-on-2020-premiership-is-richmond-a-dynasty-afl-dynasties-asterisk-in-sports-best-afl-teams-ever/news-story/4895e56abd2173ae847460da1b8eefd9
