CITY HALL MAY NEED TO STEP IN
NEWTOWN & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon has called on the City of Greater Geelong to intervene as a turf war threatens to develop between football and cricket.
McMahon, who has devised a radical plan to launch the 2020 local football season in September and eat into three months of the cricket season, believes it is time for the council to step in.
With McMahon firmly believing that football is unlikely to kick off in the next two months due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Eagles’ senior coach wants the council to ensure both sports can coexist.
The Geelong Cricket Association has agreed to push its 2020-21 season back to November to allow local football to play finals in October, but it remains to be seen whether GCA president Rob Vines will budge further.
“It could be taken out their hands because I personally think this should be a council arrangement, not a GCA and an AFL Barwon arrangement,” McMahon said.
“Legislation would need to be changed to start with to make it happen; and it would be a one-off. What’s wrong with football getting 15 weeks and cricket getting 15 weeks?
“I personally think it’s a small price to pay if you condense what is two of the biggest sports in Geelong — football being the biggest — and in that 15 weeks it would be Auskick, junior footy, the lot.”
As clubs return to compromised training programs, McMahon believes local footy could avoid such hassles by delaying the season.
“My gut feel is most clubs will say ‘It’s too hard, I don’t want to know about it’. If there was an option on the table to revisit it in July with the view to play in September and we’ll be able to have crowds, why can’t we visit it?” he said.
McMahon has spoken to key people in both cricket and football circles to start the ball rolling. He says there is a need to be open-minded “and change things radically”.
“Cricket can start on January 7 and they would get their 15 weeks and then football would start two or three weeks after Easter,” McMahon said
“We know interleague football is cooked, we know representative football is cooked and it will probably never happen again, so you have the one bye.
“If our 2021 season gets pushed back another three weeks, that would mean our grand final would be the same weekend as the AFL Grand Final and the GFL would play their grand final on the Friday, the public holiday.
“I think we’d get a record crowd at our grand final if we did that.”