Original Moody Blue
Cancelled
- Nov 14, 2020
- 1,166
- 1,496
- AFL Club
- Carlton
The AFL had to borrow 600 million to keep the game afloat. For the first time in decades they now have to add paying interest to their books.Even at mates rates they are going to be paying $30-60 mill in interest. Assuming they went to the NAB, they are basically receiving free advertising for the next decade, as they would have factored their annual sponsorship in the rate.With the unusually high injury toll across the AFL and the increased physical demand of the game this year due to cut rotations and man on the mark rule - will the AFL revert list sizes back to 44 main list & 3 cat b rookies?
I think there is real merit given matchday squads are now 23 players, the rules around concussion layoffs and also the financial aspect of crowds back at games.
Although I feel the AFL will likely keep the current list sizes as we aren't quite getting the crowd numbers of old and there is still some volatility around COVID, which is a risk. More players also means more coaches, and hopefully the soft cap is increased this off-season too.
I would still love to see 44 main list players with additional cat b rookies. I love the symmetry of 44 main list - 22 in the ones, 22 in the twos.
What do we think the likelihood of this is?
There are 260,000 members from Carlton, Collingwood, and Hawthorn who are probably seriously re-evaluating their memberships 2022. The days of the sucker members paying for the AFL's extravagancies are over. Gil's time is up, and he needs to step aside and let someone else do the job. Not sure how people will judge his legacy, but the advent of the AFLW no doubt provided the AFL with much more exposure and opened the game to a new sector that could only dream of playing AFL at the highest level.
The near-empty stadium for Richmond & GWS tells me all is not well. I am fairly sure the Directors of Marvel would not have been impressed with Hardwick rubbishing their sponsorship, by rubbishing the stadium. In these times of austerity and trying to woo sponsorship, such an ill-thought and stupid comment only damaged the game.
After Round 9 every club is facing serious injury issues. How many clubs will get to the line without having to use top-up players? This will have a flow-on effect into 2022. Clubs playing in the finals will have to sacrifice some games to ensure their list stays healthy.
The rotations need to be doubled, and they need to consider an extended bench of 6 which will cover the injury component. At every stoppage, the umpire blows time on which adds significant times to a match. Perhaps this time on should only apply in the last quarter?






"Goddess"