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SWANSBEST
4th July 2003, 08:05 AM
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PATRICK SMITH
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Second Coming required to resolve MCG issue

July 04, 2003
THE administration changes in the AFL are moving forward at a pace.

The league has already made an official approach to the person they think best equipped to replace Graeme Samuel on the commission.

Samuel finished up as a commissioner on Monday. He has been so influential the AFL set up a scholarship in his name.

His legend grows by the day. Whoever is picked to fill his shoes must be able to swing $500 million broadcast deals, build stadiums, flog $110 million in real estate, cure cancer, deliver peace to all mankind, walk on the moon. And play the didgeridoo while eating a bowl of spaghetti bolognaise and whistle Dixie.

AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson told a meeting of club heavies yesterday that a decision was imminent. This could be the Second Coming.

As for Jackson's replacement, it has come down to the final five. The applicants have begun their round of meetings with the AFL sub-committee of commission chairman Ron Evans, Bob Hammond and Colin Carter.

If the AFL's general manager, football operations, Andrew Demetriou gets the top job as expected then three of the most important positions in the game's leadership will have been changed almost overnight. It is a significant moment in the game's history.

Jackson's contribution to football has been documented. He has championed the national cause and continues to do so in the last hours of his administration.

He will leave the game with one major regret and that is the impasse between the AFL and the Melbourne Cricket Club over the spread of the finals at the MCG. Jackson has not given up the battle yet.

The AFL signed a contract with the MCC not two years ago that ensures the MCG stages a game in every week of the finals. It has become a nightmare for the AFL as non-Victorian clubs dominate the competition. Under the MCC clause teams from South Australia, Western Australia, Sydney and Brisbane may be forced to play finals on the MCG when they have qualified to play them at home.

The MCC is determined to enforce the contract, no matter how embarrassing it is to the AFL.

So yesterday Jackson tried to rally support from club chief executives. He pointed out the club administrators and their presidents are happy to thump the table on issues that he regarded as obscure and unimportant but they remain mute on something that strikes at the very integrity of the competition.

Jackson is quite right. The Victorian clubs weep publicly for an even playing field. So long as it tilts their way.

That is why they fought against the draft concessions to Brisbane and Sydney and why they threatened court action if the AFL continued to allow the northern clubs concessions of $500,000 and more in the salary cap.

If there is a theme that runs through every club in the competition it is self interest.

This is not the first time Jackson has asked the clubs for public support on the MCG issue. The response is always the same.

The chief executives argue that they are paid to ensure their clubs get the very best deal possible. On everything from draft, salary cap to playing venues. So why would presidents fight to ensure that their club might have to play Fremantle at Subiaco when the present rules might mean Fremantle must travel to Melbourne?

The clubs argue with some clarity that it is the commission's job to look after the competition. The clubs gave the commissioners that power in 1984 and they are not about to do the commission's bidding now.

If the clubs will not join in Jackson's War then the AFL will resort to guerilla warfare. Jackson told the clubs the MCC will pay a heavy penalty for not rolling over on the finals issue.

The chief executive told the clubs that the MCG would be allotted its bare minimum of 41 games. The AFL would honour its other contractual obligations ? 10 of the best 12 games must be assigned to the MCG but after that the ground will be cut no favours. The MCG will be home to the dregs of the fixture after that.

The immediate beneficiary, of course, is the Telstra Dome. It might have a rotten surface ? a working party heads off overseas this month to find a cure for the bald dome ? but it is popular with the public. The AFL will not be afraid to send important fixtures there.

The AFL is right to say that the MCG contract hurts the national competition. But the MCC and the AFL have fought such a public and bloody brawl over the issue both appear to be further away from a solution than ever before.

It might just be that both sides will have to hand over the issue to independent arbitrators. Right now they are only digging deeper trenches.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6695818%255E12270,00.html

footyhead
4th July 2003, 02:28 PM
They had better fix this bloody mess other wise AFL will always be the but of jokes around the country, and Melbourne will be seen as the back water mentality driven hole that it can somtimes excell at being.