A week in football

by LES EVERETT

AS I write the AFL trading week is still in progress.

It's a week when footy fans should just turn away. It's horrible but we're drawn to it.

If you're a Fremantle fan, for example, you may have found yourself twisting and turning like - say Jeff Farmer at the MCG. Darren Gaspar might have gone from the best defender in the land to an over priced, one dimensional back man who can't kick; Trent Croad from one of those Hawk show ponies to the acrhetypal modern footballer; Heath Black from essential to dispensable.

Early in the week I sent a one word email to a friend in Melbourne. It was innocent enough. "Wiz?" The replies (email and phone) were the heartfelt outpourings of someone questioning the very meaning of life - would the poster of the number 33 Demon in the dunny have to come down; had footy finally become too corporate; why couldn't the Dees recognise that Farmer was their best player? Would it lead to the downfall of the club administration and a Joe Gutnick comeback?

In 1998 I was in Melbourne for the first couple of weeks of the finals. Two things stick in my memory - the sheer exhilaration of Farmer's football and the number of kids wearing 33 on the back of their Melbourne jumpers. The Wiz caused enough consternation in 1999 when he changed to number eight. What his departure will mean to the Dees is impossible to fathom.

At this time of the year lots of football followers will be asking questions as players demand and receive obscene pay deals and clubs trade and discard players like cattle. Under the present salary cap rules, clubs must pay a bit less than 95% of their $5.5million limit - it's worth repeating that the Fremantle players have received the same amount of money as those from Essendon over the past few seasons. And the chances are that the Dockers are actually paying 100% of their $5.5million - when the team's not performing you've got to pay over the odds to keep good players at the club.

It's a great deal for the athletes - nutted out for them by Andrew Demetriou who is now the AFL's 2IC but used to head up the players' union. Of course this means some pretty average players have very big pay packets so we shouldn't get too concerned about reports about what Peter Bell or the aforementioned Jeff Farmer are getting - they've proved themselves.

Slowly but surely the AFL is growing into a thoroughly unlikable beast. Why should players feel loyalty towards clubs that will happily exchange them for draft picks or youth? Can clubs afford to show loyalty to players who cost the earth no matter what they deliver?

And most importantly, why should the fans care? When they stop, the whole show stops.

Australian Rules football remains a fantastic game to watch. We've got to keep watch on those who control it because weeks like this one could make us stop believing in it. But for now the Wiz is a Docker and to use the words of Michael Voss, another who has proved himself - you bloody beauty!

He's a Docker

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