Mend fixture to end tank talk
Mark Stevens | July 16, 2009
IT DOESN'T take much to rile rank-and-file supporters. But they have two common gripes:
No. 1: The fixture is all over the shop and difficult to follow.
No.2: When you start barracking against your own team to ensure it gains an early draft pick, there is something horribly wrong.
But there is one simple solution to fix both problems: Go back to a more traditional draw and award the priority picks after Round 15 to stop all the tanking talk.
The AFL should next year return to the commonsense scenario of all 16 clubs playing each other once in the first 15 weeks.
Teams playing each other twice in the first 10 weeks is ridiculous. Some teams having to wait until Round 20 to meet for the first time is even more mind-boggling.
Returning to the traditional model would have the welcome flow-on effect of again making Round 15 a reasonable benchmark for assessing the performance of clubs.
A better benchmark than after Round 22, in fact, given which clubs you play twice can be so crucial in determining ladder order.
So rather than scrap the priority picks completely, they should be awarded after Round 15 when every team has played each other once.
The AFL could cut the qualification from no more than four wins to no more than three, in keeping with the shorter span.
The ladder after Round 22 would still determine draft order, but any priority pick would be decided earlier.
Richmond assistant coach David King raised a similar plan last year - and it makes sense. There would be a far smaller window for tanking speculation and the headlines that come with it.
There may be some jostling for spots from Rounds 13-15, but the AFL would rid itself of the current problem of seven weeks of tank talk from now until the end of the season.
And there would be significantly less incentive for clubs heading into Round 15 to look to draft picks rather than the four points.
Why would you consider tanking when you are still mathematically in the hunt for the finals? In the weeks leading up to Round 15, far more clubs are still in the mix.
The tanking talk gains momentum as clubs drop out of finals contention and face up to two months simply playing out time with an eye to next year.
So much of the footy played between now and Round 22 is junk because some clubs are going full-throttle for a premiership and others are shuffling kids and eyeing draft picks.
With the priority picks out of the way, lowly clubs are far more likely to be competitive in the final weeks of the season.
Sure, there may jockeying for spots in the final rounds, but that is difficult to manufacture. It is far easier to make sure you don't win a certain number of games.
But by the time the final rounds arrive, the big carrot - that tasty priority pick - would already be gobbled up.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25788205-19742,00.html
