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Cut draw to 17 rounds: Tigers' boss

Date: November 21 2012

Michael Gleeson

THE AFL should consider cutting the season to 17 rounds with all teams playing each other once and introducing breaks for marquee games such as the return of state of origin as a means to overhaul the draw, which remains the most glaring inequity in football, Richmond president Gary March said.

The AFL should also consider a longer mandatory break for clubs and coaches as they battle with the burn-out of a ''never-ending season''. March believes cutting the season so that all teams play one another once will remove the inequity of unfair differences between clubs over the teams they play twice.

He also suggested that teams alternate between playing nine home games one year and eight the next. The introduction of marquee games and recasting the finals system to stretch an extra week were two suggestions as a sop to broadcasters for the cut in the season from 23 to 17 rounds.

He said he would raise the issue with other presidents and the AFL, believing the issue was overdue for serious debate.

''The AFL has done an outstanding job with the draw for next year in making the draw as equitable as it is - but it is still unfair,'' March said.

''And it will always be unfair as long as teams don't all play each other the same number of times.

''No serious sports code in the world operates on a system where teams do not play one another the same number of times.

''We need to start looking for a solution because the current format frustrates everyone.

''Hawthorn's draw for next year for instance is the toughest draw of any team and the team that beat them in the grand final plays GWS twice because of the obvious reasons of the expansion and the local derby, so there are reasons for it, but it doesn't make it fair.''

March said he was as concerned by the pressure on coaching and football staff by the lack of a break between seasons.

''The trade period now goes for a month with free agency, and then it is into the draft, and before they even get to that the players are back and training again,'' he said.

''We are trying to juggle one and two-week periods where coaches can take a break and still you are in contact with them. We [all clubs] are burning our people out.

''I think we need to look at a mandatory break like they do in the NFL where all players and football staff are given a decent chunk of a break.

''The AFL is concerned by the increase in the number of staff but when you are trying to juggle people being on leave you almost have to have more people to cover them being off.

''Of course, some clubs are going to have longer breaks because they don't make finals, but the same thing happens in the NFL with sides missing the play-offs and yet they have a mandatory long break.

''All of October and November should be a compulsory off-season for all players and not the situation now with players of different levels of experience being off for different periods of time.''

March said he supported a pre-season competition and felt the present arrangement worked as well as any.

''I am raising this as something that we as an industry need to discuss,'' he said. ''I know the obvious issue with shortening a season is the impact on the money from broadcasters, but I think giving something back to the broadcasters through the marquee games could offset that.

''In the NRL, state of origin is as big as the grand final for broadcasters, so that is something we can look at, whether it is a return of state of origin or it is east versus west or north v south, we could look at those sorts of concepts.''

The AFL has in recent years, with the two new teams, reaffirmed its commitment to the length of the season and has previously rejected calls to consider state of origin.


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