I just think it gives a purer sporting contest when their isn’t all these artificial controls and rules around what clubs can do to improve themselves.
I think the AFL competition has become more and more like a merry-go-round... if you’re shit, you just wait, and eventually the system rewards you for it and gives you massive leg-ups. I really think it’s devalued the premiership - they’re not as hard to win now as they were under a free market.
It has also taken a fair bit of romance out of the sport imo – what’s wrong with being a smaller, battling club? One of the great things in sport is the genuine upset, the giant killing. It really doesn’t happen anymore in the AFL. There’s upsets, sure, but there’s no great feeling or meaning to them in a historical sense – the same clubs’ positions will be reversed in a few years.
People say a free market is unfair – I don’t think it is at all. So not all clubs are equal... so what? Not everyone is born equal. That’s life. If you make good decisions (both short and long term) and execute well, you get rewarded. If you’re shit, and you make shit decisions, you live with it – you don’t get rewarded for it.
Sydney are a great illustration imo – here is a club that consistently makes good decisions, and gets the rewards. In the AFL, they’re actually thought of as unique amongst the majority of clubs who simply ride the merry-go-round and let the “system” do the work for them. Sydney actually has to battle the system to maintain their competitiveness!