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PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
Just what is going on at the AFL these days?
The current league leaders seem more determined to find bizarre new ways of raising money from players and clubs than actually looking after the welfare of the game, it's players and clubs and the interests of supporters. The latest cash grab, as reported in this morning's Age is a threat to fine players who choose to cut down their footy socks $5000 per offence.
I must admit that I'm fairly cinical as to the reasons behind these types of penalties for such trivial issues. Given that I live in Geelong, and the City of Greater Geelong takes any opportunity to rake money from those who live or even visit here (there is now no free parking close to the city centre, just as one example) and that I have been a pretty outspoken opponent of the new fixed speed cameras on the Prinvces Highway between Geelong and Melbourne (statistically one of the safest stretches of road in the state, if not the country), so I may already have a well-developed bias against moves such as the AFL's latest brilliant idea.
As pointed out by Michael Gleeson in this morning's Age, you can hardly say the punishment fits the crime. The players' Code of Conduct allows for maximum fines of $5000 for a first offence such as drink driving or making an ass of oneself in public (I won't go into Collingwood's shenanigans to get around that maximum recently). Is a similar fine for cutting down one' socks reasonable?
Aside from proportionality, is this such a big deal? Do we need to treat grown, professional sportsmen like Year 7 high school students? Does anyone really care whether or not they can see a player's socks? And is there any difference between cutting them down and simply rolling them down and tucking them into your boots, from an asthetic point of view? NB. simply rolling them down does not seem to be a problem under the new ruling.
Until I gave footy away a couple of seasons ago, I always played with my socks pulled up, but that was just the way I wore them. My junior coaches drilled into me that I should wear them pulled up, and it seems to have stuck. I didn't view those who wore their socks down as less of a man, player, or someone less proud of their club or the respectful of the games' history, etc. Really, what's the harm? What's next from the AFL? $10,000 fines for having a jumper untucked? $5000 for wearing dark jocks under white shorts? $20,000 for failing to shave before a game? $15,000 for having a head like Nathan Buckley?
Seriously, the AFL need to pull their heads in and remember that they are customdians of the game, not simply a money-generating business who claws every dollar they can from anyone interested in footy. Perhaps if they took all of the money they gained from these ridiculous fines and put it all into grassroots footy or charity some good may be said to have come from it. But, in a time when the AFL generates more money than ever before, is there any point/need for such trivial money-grabbing exercises?
The current league leaders seem more determined to find bizarre new ways of raising money from players and clubs than actually looking after the welfare of the game, it's players and clubs and the interests of supporters. The latest cash grab, as reported in this morning's Age is a threat to fine players who choose to cut down their footy socks $5000 per offence.
I must admit that I'm fairly cinical as to the reasons behind these types of penalties for such trivial issues. Given that I live in Geelong, and the City of Greater Geelong takes any opportunity to rake money from those who live or even visit here (there is now no free parking close to the city centre, just as one example) and that I have been a pretty outspoken opponent of the new fixed speed cameras on the Prinvces Highway between Geelong and Melbourne (statistically one of the safest stretches of road in the state, if not the country), so I may already have a well-developed bias against moves such as the AFL's latest brilliant idea.
As pointed out by Michael Gleeson in this morning's Age, you can hardly say the punishment fits the crime. The players' Code of Conduct allows for maximum fines of $5000 for a first offence such as drink driving or making an ass of oneself in public (I won't go into Collingwood's shenanigans to get around that maximum recently). Is a similar fine for cutting down one' socks reasonable?
Aside from proportionality, is this such a big deal? Do we need to treat grown, professional sportsmen like Year 7 high school students? Does anyone really care whether or not they can see a player's socks? And is there any difference between cutting them down and simply rolling them down and tucking them into your boots, from an asthetic point of view? NB. simply rolling them down does not seem to be a problem under the new ruling.
Until I gave footy away a couple of seasons ago, I always played with my socks pulled up, but that was just the way I wore them. My junior coaches drilled into me that I should wear them pulled up, and it seems to have stuck. I didn't view those who wore their socks down as less of a man, player, or someone less proud of their club or the respectful of the games' history, etc. Really, what's the harm? What's next from the AFL? $10,000 fines for having a jumper untucked? $5000 for wearing dark jocks under white shorts? $20,000 for failing to shave before a game? $15,000 for having a head like Nathan Buckley?
Seriously, the AFL need to pull their heads in and remember that they are customdians of the game, not simply a money-generating business who claws every dollar they can from anyone interested in footy. Perhaps if they took all of the money they gained from these ridiculous fines and put it all into grassroots footy or charity some good may be said to have come from it. But, in a time when the AFL generates more money than ever before, is there any point/need for such trivial money-grabbing exercises?