4 POINTS FROM CHRIS SCOTT’S PRESSA
The dinner at AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan’s house
It was good, I always find it good. I think it’s an important day on the calendar, to be honest. It’s entertaining for one. But secondly, I don’t think the world’s problems are solved over those few hours but it’s good to hear the different perspectives from coaches but also from the AFL as well. I think it’s nice to have that informal environment where they can actually outline what they think the priorities of the game are and, importantly, what the challenges are and how the coaches and clubs can help. It doesn’t happen as often as any of us would’ve like it to. I think sometimes the communication can be a bit formal and in-season we all have different priorities. The week-to-week can be quite difficult but every now and then it’s nice to take a step back and look at the overall health of the game and what the red flags are. At any point of time the industry could point to things that are possible disasters for us if we’re not prepared and it’s nice to have everyone on the same page as much as possible as to what strategies could be employed to mitigate those risks.
What was discussed?
I don’t think it’s giving away too much to say some of the topical issues in the footy world were spoken about — and when I say the footy world I mean the football codes. The obvious similarities between the Adam Goodes situation and how that was handled and how a similar situation might be handled into the future. And then the Israel Folau situation — some of the similarities between and differences between the AFL’s policy and the NRL’s policy on certain issues — the rights and wrongs of that. They’re not issues that the coaches should have too much influence over but it is nice, I think, even for the AFL to hear some different perspective on those issues.
How the game is being played/coached in 2019
There were different perspectives put forward (at Gil’s). I think the one that resonated most with me is that the game’s in great shape, and virtually all the metrics that the AFL values reflect that. There’s a little bit of conversation — and this is happening more broadly — that the negative news stories tend to trump over the positive ones. The people that think the skill level of today’s players is worse than 25 years ago are living in a fantasy land. If you were to transport a player from 25 years ago into today’s footy they would get killed. I think there’s some pretty good evidence if you go back and look at the vision of games 25 years ago, especially the games that weren’t the marquee games, and compare them to now. I know which one I’d rather watch.
The state of the game
I think in a perfect world the AFL would like really, really close games that aren’t decided until the last couple of seconds of the game where both teams kick well over 100 points. And it’s really difficult to orchestrate. You can try to do it with rule changes a little bit. To my eye the game is much better to watch this year because of the lack of congestion. It’s much better to watch because if you’re four points up with 10 seconds to go at a centre bounce you can absolutely lose the game — where that was almost impossible last year. We’re going through a little bit of a phase where some of the footy is a little bit slower and I think that will change over time without any rule changes. It’ll sort itself out. If you think this is a bit of a boring patch just wait until the smell of spring’s in the air and all will be fine.