AFL marketing gets an itch, tradition scratched
By Caroline Wilson
The Age
April 11, 2006
Mooted alternative jumpers for Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood.
THE AFL has provoked a showdown with its most powerful club, Collingwood, by finally decreeing that every club in the competition must design "an alternate" jumper by the end of next month.
While Carlton and Essendon appear resigned to bowing to AFL pressure and are already considering a series of radically different guernseys — Essendon's predominantly red and Carlton's boasting significantly less navy blue — an enraged Magpies president Eddie McGuire last night issued the following message:
"Here's a newsflash for the AFL," said McGuire. "Collingwood wears black and white stripes. There are two things the AFL cannot tell Collingwood. One is where to play and the other is what to wear.
"We have played every game in the history of the AFL in black and white stripes. We've been doing that since 1892. When the competition started in 1896 we were the only club with vertical stripes. We're not about to change that because somebody in the AFL marketing department got an itch."
While the AFL wrote to the clubs in February outlining its new rules, it has only just released the commercial operations department's on-field policy, which states under section 3.3 entitled 'New Playing Strip Designs': "A main playing uniform and an 'alternate' playing uniform are mandatory for all clubs."
The Magpies had said they would be prepared to alternate from a black jumper with white stripes to a white jumper with black stripes. That change is understood to have failed to appease the AFL, which still believes that Collingwood's jumper has occasional clashes — for example, with its next opponent, the Kangaroos.
While the Kangaroos, whose jumpers alternate between major match-day sponsors Primus and Mazda, host the Easter Monday clash, they will be forced to deviate from vertical stripes to their alternative logo jumper to accommodate Collingwood.
"The Kangaroos have worn various jumpers over the years and they are very good about doing the right thing by us just as we support them getting money from the competitive balance fund," said McGuire. "We gave up our licensing rights in the mid-'80s for the sake of the competition and the least the AFL can do is protect our brand.
"I don't know what the AFL's motive is in all this but we don't have much confidence in them. They don't know what they're talking about. Already this year we've seen the Adelaide Crows play in navy blue socks against us and Hawthorn on Sunday with black and white all over their backs. It took me five years to get them to work out what the umpires should be wearing."
Essendon president Neil McKissock said yesterday that the Bombers' new guernsey — which would be worn between one and three times during the premiership season — would be predominantly red.
"We threw around a few designs at our last board meeting and we won't be moving away from red and black," said McKissock. "They have written a rule which has mandated that we wear an away jumper when we play Richmond, Melbourne and St Kilda in away games. It is under the terms of the new AFL licensing agreement and we have to comply because it overrides our constitution."
Carlton chief executive Michael Malouf said: "The club hasn't reached an official position on this, but the board is aware that we need to consider a clash jumper. Our legal advice is that the AFL's licensing rules dictate this and we're looking at designs at a management level."
As revealed in The Sunday Age last May, the Blues have previously considered introducing a silver clash guernsey with a navy crest.
But McGuire remains adamant the Magpies won't change: "We won't be hiding behind our constitution or our members. We won't be asking anyone to legislate on our behalf. Our members know how far we are prepared to go and to be perfectly honest our players are pretty disappointed about this as well.
"This is the thing that binds football clubs together and once you start tampering with your heritage then you're tampering with your club."
The new AFL guidelines also state that each club may wear an "event" playing uniform once each season to celebrate significant club milestones or events.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/10/1144521268397.html
