Eddie McGuire believes the sanitisation of the game is part of the reason why fans are not flocking back to AFL venues.
In 2022, crowds are down 16 per cent from the most recent COVID-free season of 2019, with the fallout from the pandemic still evident.
But there are more reasons as to why supporters are staying away, according to McGuire, who feels the game itself has been cleaned up to the point where people are frustrated.
McGuire says the pile on when somebody does something only slightly out of taste is also to blame.
“We’re worried about the crowds at the moment and yes, COVID has played a big part in it, there’s no doubt about that,” McGuire said on Footy Classified.
“But part of the reason I reckon is I can’t pick up the paper without somebody getting slaughtered. Everyone is an idiot in football or corrupt or Dustin Martin plays two good games after being off the field because of personal reasons and suddenly he’s going to Sydney. What does that do for the kids who love Dustin Martin?
“There’s always these things.
“This week, I was a bit outraged on this. I understand and was on the rules committee to try and stop head-high tackles and concussion. I led the way on that committee to stop punches, jumper punches and people getting hit behind play.
“But I’m a firm believer that this is a contact sport that is an invasion sport.”
The former Collingwood president referenced the suspensions handed out to Richmond’s Marlion Pickett and Sydney’s James Rowbottom, for what he deems to be fair and incidental actions, as two clear examples of the sanitisation of the game.
“Marlion Pickett is smart enough to see that his teammate had the run of the ball and he applied what was a fair bump,” he added.
“The Hawthorn player (Dylan Moore) gets up, he doesn’t have concussion, he might have a corky because he actually got hit properly because he (Pickett) plants his foot. It looks bad because his head goes back, but he didn’t get hit. He (Pickett) went to the Tribunal, but he didn’t even give a free kick, quite rightly to me. He (Moore) hits, goes down, there’s no problem, he’s taken a bit of a dive I reckon, to be perfectly honest.
“My point is he goes to the Tribunal and I think we are sanitising the game beyond what it needs to. I think it has to be sanitised for the protection of players.
“He (Damien Hardwick) knew he (Pickett) was going to get done because that’s what they (the AFL) are doing. I don’t think at any stage he did anything wrong. It was within five metres of the ball, he didn’t jump off the ground, he planted his foot, he hit him wth a hip and shoulder, everything was perfect about that.”
McGuire says it doesn’t end with the Pickett incident.
He also believes Rowbottom was extremely unlucky to cop a one-match sanction for an accidental head clash with Essendon’s Zach Merrett.
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“The other one that went to the Tribunal, James Rowbottom,” McGuire continued.
“He actually gets pushed by his teammate, he’s off balance, Merrett dropped the ball and they clashed heads.
“In one-25th of a second, what is he supposed to do? Get a pole vault and go over the top of him? Pushed, didn’t put his arms up, had a head clash and he’s rolling his body even out of reflex to get out of the way of it.
“What else could he do? This is a kid who has never been reported, not even (from) the under-11s in his entire career.”
Matthew Lloyd chimed in: “If you hit them in the head when you could have had an alternative, you get a week.”
McGuire replied: “What was his alternative there? Not go for the ball?
“You would have put him on Sunday morning, saying have a look at this bloke, didn’t go for the ball, he didn’t do this.
“Merrett dropped the ball, it went sideways, what do you reckon he’s going to do? How do you deviate when he’s off balance and he got pushed?
“It was incidental contact, there was nothing he could do.
“It was enough to get rubbed out.”
In conclusion, McGuire feels the physical nature of the game is being lost and that the sanitisation has simply “gone too far”.
“We’re losing the physicality,” he said.
“I’m not promulgating this, but you asked me a simple question about why are people are starting to get the brace and bits with the game and not want to go, that’s part of it.
“It’s gone too far.”