- Oct 3, 2003
- 26,916
- 30,910
- AFL Club
- Adelaide
- Other Teams
- Soft spot for Brisbane
Okay - I'm opening up this can of worms. Or kettle of fish. One of them.
Every major sport in the world allows trading until late in the season, stopping a few weeks before their finals begin.
We don't, because I think we still have a hangover from this being an amateur sport, and we have these Australian ideas about mateship and looking out for folks. Despite the fact that this is a multi million dollar enterprise, and if my work wanted me to change jobs "mid-season" it wouldn't matter one bit ...
Sides descover that they are in different positions as the season go on and need to change their expectations. Of course, they're bound by their list until a week's window at season end. If we were able to realiase that Bock, say, wasn't in our plans now, we could look for a trade while he still had some value, instead of waiting until the end of the year when all value is gone.
Perhaps we suddenly have serious reservations about Reilly. Perhaps we think our flanker stocks are too high, and we shift one for a junior or even a pick. Perhaps we know that we're not ever going to use Burton as a forward, but other sides are intrigued to try, so we trade him while we can get highest value.
The thing is - I think these things actually get fans more interested in a sport - lord knows, living here in the US one of the things that people always talk about on the sports talk-radio is "if we can just trade for this guy, we could be a contender". It makes things interesting all season long, because there's always opportunity and intrigue.
I know we don't like it here, but maybe it's not worth sides wiping off a whole season at the loss of millions of supporter's dollars, when for a couple of good trades the season could be saved.
Every major sport in the world allows trading until late in the season, stopping a few weeks before their finals begin.
We don't, because I think we still have a hangover from this being an amateur sport, and we have these Australian ideas about mateship and looking out for folks. Despite the fact that this is a multi million dollar enterprise, and if my work wanted me to change jobs "mid-season" it wouldn't matter one bit ...
Sides descover that they are in different positions as the season go on and need to change their expectations. Of course, they're bound by their list until a week's window at season end. If we were able to realiase that Bock, say, wasn't in our plans now, we could look for a trade while he still had some value, instead of waiting until the end of the year when all value is gone.
Perhaps we suddenly have serious reservations about Reilly. Perhaps we think our flanker stocks are too high, and we shift one for a junior or even a pick. Perhaps we know that we're not ever going to use Burton as a forward, but other sides are intrigued to try, so we trade him while we can get highest value.
The thing is - I think these things actually get fans more interested in a sport - lord knows, living here in the US one of the things that people always talk about on the sports talk-radio is "if we can just trade for this guy, we could be a contender". It makes things interesting all season long, because there's always opportunity and intrigue.
I know we don't like it here, but maybe it's not worth sides wiping off a whole season at the loss of millions of supporter's dollars, when for a couple of good trades the season could be saved.