At times, the AFL are a bunch of gutless squibs. Every time someone in the media breathlessly utters ‘not a good look for the game’ they feel the need to react. Which is why we have such a useless rule – they need to be seen to be doing something about it.
There’s no incentive for Freo to take their best team. It’s no-one’s fault, it’s just a necessary consequence of giving the trophy to the winning team in a Grand Final, not the best team in round 23. Yeah, it’s not ideal for Port fans, but neither is missing the finals. One of those things was within Port’s control.
It’s probably in Port’s interest to lose. That’s the AFL’s fault for incentivising losing by awarding a better pick to a team that has lost more games. The AFL could do something about that. There are a number of options, but setting the draft order at round 17 – once each team has played each other - would be a very simple way to do this. But they haven’t, so they have to make a rule so that the AFL and clubs can been seen to be acting with integrity and trying to win every game.
Meanwhile, problems like the inequality of the draw that genuinely affect the outcome of a season get swept under the carpet. Is Port playing a weakened team in round 23 really a bigger deal than certain teams playing Carlton or Brisbane twice?
Also, the AFL consistently disregards our travel concerns, which means sometimes we have to take mitigation into our own hands. Our options really only extend to giving more rest to players.
Hopefully it’s a nice sunny day in Adelaide, families get to have a watered down beer and an overpriced hotdog, enjoy each other’s company as their team smashes an understrength team, and they can talk about how Port can improve next year. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
