I agree with you, Shane, on the AFL pumping it’s media machine here, and that WAFL clubs get hurt (the poor WAFL has been slammed lately) but not sure I agree that some clubs are being hurt unfairly or that this system is broken.
Sure, Freo and a couple other clubs picked 18/19 year olds, but more than half the players picked were over 23 and picked as ready-to-play. In terms of O’Rielly - we lost a tall forward to injury, we picked up a tall forward. How is that the system NOT working?
And finally, how is injury hit clubs being given a leg-up a bad thing? There’s some blame to go to medicos, but for the most part we accept that AFL injuries come down to luck and drastically effect how a club’s season goes. Why not try to balance that out? Seems a fine idea to me. Take out the luck and let teams/clubs win or lose on merit not the will of the injury-gods.
I see this system, as is, being a good part of the competition. As time goes on, interest will fade, and we won’t hve to our up with the same media circus. Clubs may be more inclined to give players more one to recover, chuck them on the injury list and grab a top-up player, instead of rushing them to match-selection and risking heir health. Injury hit clubs will be less disadvantaged and we get a stronger competition. As for the hit that the WAFL takes - i have no solution there. But the mighty easts will be back on top soon; we’re about due for a premiership.
