After reading that story about Essendon, and how they will supposedly have difficulty keeping many of their up and coming stars (ie johnsons, caracella, ramanauskas etc etc), I was wondering about where this situation is headed for the AFL.
When you look at other sports around the world (esp american) the salary cap ( as much as I agree with the principal of it) has created a situation where fans of clubs, are looking at totally different player groups on their teams, after each pre-season, because clubs are making player decisons with money as the main consideration rather than performance. Its not a problem of any proportion now in the AFL. You may lose a Barry Young or whatever.
But in years to come, will AFL fans be faced with having their best players swapped and traded around on a yearly basis ???
Right now- players stay with their teams, often out of loyalty. And they take a pay cut compared to what they could be earning elsewhere. Fans like us get to know all the players on our team over a number of years, and the team you watched last year, is pretty likely to resemble what you see this year.
Im just worried that in years to come, the free agent- trade system will change this comfortable state of affairs.
anyway- ill leave a link to an article by James Brown of fox sports, which talks about the situation currently in NFL in the US, which I think is pretty relevant to the AFL.
(i know alot of you hate gridiron and anything american- but the article shows what we as AFL fans may have to put up with in years to come).
If your interested.
Arch.
When you look at other sports around the world (esp american) the salary cap ( as much as I agree with the principal of it) has created a situation where fans of clubs, are looking at totally different player groups on their teams, after each pre-season, because clubs are making player decisons with money as the main consideration rather than performance. Its not a problem of any proportion now in the AFL. You may lose a Barry Young or whatever.
But in years to come, will AFL fans be faced with having their best players swapped and traded around on a yearly basis ???
Right now- players stay with their teams, often out of loyalty. And they take a pay cut compared to what they could be earning elsewhere. Fans like us get to know all the players on our team over a number of years, and the team you watched last year, is pretty likely to resemble what you see this year.
Im just worried that in years to come, the free agent- trade system will change this comfortable state of affairs.
anyway- ill leave a link to an article by James Brown of fox sports, which talks about the situation currently in NFL in the US, which I think is pretty relevant to the AFL.
(i know alot of you hate gridiron and anything american- but the article shows what we as AFL fans may have to put up with in years to come).
If your interested.
Arch.