"Footy's Freaky Friday": Whateley dismisses wildcard hysteria

Let me take you back 35 years to the Letters to the Editor.

"AFL final-six series is a grab for money.

"I am disappointed that the Australian Football League has decide to introduce a final-six series for the season of 1991

"It seems that the AFL wishes to make as much money as possible from the expanded competition."

Let me take you back 33 years.

This is The Age editorial: "The AFL should think again on the proposal for an eight-team finals series.

"If introduced the system would result in the ludicrous situation in which more teams would qualify for the finals than would miss out. Perhaps we should let all AFL teams in the finals series

"But the danger in an eight-team finals series is that it would reward mediocrity. Finals should reward excellence, and the finals should be an exclusive club, which only excellent teams can join.

"Finals should not simply be seen as another way for football promoters to gouge more money from footy fans."

Let me take you to a 1994 column under the headline: FINAL EIGHT PLANS ADD TO A LITANY OF MISHAPS.

"An organisation that, so many times over the past decade, under various administrative structures, has regarded the hip pocket as more important than football’s integrity should take heed.

"The eight promises a competition top-heavy with finalists.

"Of course some will argue that many great sporting competitions use finals systems that are rather more expansive that the AFL’s has traditionally been. Some even provide wildcard entry. But for almost a century VFL/AFL has been a phenomenon among such competitions, drawing and maintaining crowds from a relatively low population base.

"The reasons are many, but one of them is undoubtedly September. Unlike those other sports our finals are elite, simply structured and not too numerous, which makes them memorable.

"For these administrators to compromise the integrity of a great sporting competition in a desperate rush for finals-generated cash is to get their priorities appallingly wrong."

A bit of light reading yesterday to reinforce the truth this has all happened before.

So you’ll forgive me if I’m not mourning the death of footy as some embarrassingly claimed yesterday.

There have been no shortage of memorable Finals since the sky was falling in 1995.

The game remains a phenomenon having grown by every measure and has strengthened its hold over us.

And what was missed in all the negativity was the advent of the final eight would gift us the treasures of dual preliminary finals – the best change in my time following the game.

So there were traditions upheld in the ferociously negative response to the now final 10.

"Insecure AFL’s wildcard move fuelled not by fans – but by greed."

"A majority of teams get to play finals… tenth is the embodiment of mediocrity."

Cash grabs and mediocrity - we've lived it all before.

The lesson of history is things will likely be OK and the world won’t end. We might have some fun and we might discover something we didn't realise would enhance the game.

But yesterday was both instructive and troubling.

If I were Andrew Dillon there’s one aspect that would keep me awake at night.

How does the AFL navigate a period where everything it does prompts unrestrained outrage from its constituency?

How did we get here is not hard to answer… how do we get out of such a destructive environment is something else.

Yesterday is quite the nexus if you take one step back.

The AFL declared its motivation - fans love games of jeopardy, consequence and mass appeal.

That is reflected in the empiricals of attendance and television ratings.

The vocal fan base say they hate these games.

The AFL is giving the fans more footy and the fans are rejecting it.

Yet it’s highly likely when these games are played attendances will be huge and television ratings enormous, supporting the AFL’s original contention, which is rejected by the fanbase.

That’s a vicious cycle, that's a doom loop if ever there was one.

A sport that stands still is going backwards.

The AFL has stood still for two years… disastrously.

Now it is trying to get moving again.

The vocal fanbase wants the sport to stand still.

What’s fascinating is Peter V’Landys is rushing forward like no sports administrator before in this country.

His actions have united the NRL world in a way no one ever thought possible - galvanising the sport from club to fanbase and sidelining the old warlords.

In the AFL world we are giving the impression of hating the game and tearing at it relentlessly.

The traditional character of these two codes have changed alarmingly.

It’s Footy’s Freaky Friday.

So how does the AFL lead through a period when everything it does prompts such a vicious backlash in a permanent state of outrage.

That’s the biggest challenge the game is facing right now.