Sheedy’s AFL angst All-time great holds fears for future of competition
AFL players could return as semiprofessionals with part-time jobs and each club restricted to four coaches, according to AFL legend Kevin Sheedy.
As the financial calamity of the coronavirus puts the future of the 18team competition in jeopardy, Sheedy insisted drastic action was required to safeguard the clubs.
He said it was the greatest challenge to football he had seen in more than 50 years in the game.
Sheedy called on the AFL to postpone this year’s national draft to allow for a “super draft” in 2021.
The AFL and its 800-plus players are in dispute over the pay cut required. The league rejected the AFL Players’ Association’s offer of a 50 per cent reduction.
Sheedy has urged the players to tread warily, saying the devastating financial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic threaten some of the 18 AFL clubs with extinction.
“My greatest concern is that we don’t have 18 teams at the end of this,” Sheedy said. “That’s a genuine fear for me because we have worked so hard to build those teams, only to have this virus create havoc.
“We have to do everything we can to preserve the 18 clubs.”
Sheedy said a return to the semiprofessional competition of the early to mid-1990s remained a distinct possibility.
It is estimated the game could lose revenue this year of $500 million to $1 billion.
Sheedy said players might have to look at taking part-time jobs to supplement their diminished income, particularly as it might mean retaining all 18 clubs.
“We might have to go back to that (semi-professional football) to build up again,” the four-time Essendon premiership coach said.
“They really should have part-time jobs anyway, or they should be studying. I don’t see any problem with that,” he said.
“No competition has grown as fast as the AFL. We just might have to slow things up a bit.”
Sheedy supports an AFL crackdown on football department expenditure and said limiting clubs to four coaches might create a better game.
“One of the things we have got with more coaches and expanded footy departments is we kick fewer goals,” he said.
He would be happy for the AFL to retain quarters of 16 minutes plus timeon – as in Round 1 – as long as it cuts interchange rotations to 60 a game.
“It doesn’t take much more than some commonsense to readjust the game, and when the fans come back, they will come back in droves, no doubt about that,” he said.