2005 Pre-Season Competition

The "Who cares cup" returns.

The Wizard Cup marks the beginning of the 2004 season with the Dons winning over Freo and Brisbane in their first two games.

Now I'm as keen as anyone to get the footy back and happening, but c'mon... THIS isn't footy.

I know all the reasons for having the competition are valid. But the rules that are being used to try and create some interest just fall flat. The only one that I even remotely acknowledge as having any merit is the 'play-on' if the ball returns to play after hitting a post. Even this rule has more to do with creating mayhem on field in the hope that someone other than the die-hard fans will take a look at what is, in reality, nothing more that a chance for the coaches to try out young kids. So if that's what it REALLY is all about, why bother?

Because the clubs need the exposure before round one in the hope of boosting the membership numbers. Surely there must be a better way...

Lets move back to the "round robin" format, at least then more than four teams have a chance to play more than one game in the spotlight of TV.

Do away with all the stupid rules. If lots of people go to the footy during the year under the normal rules, what idiot made the assumption that it was the rules that were keeping people away from the pre-season competition? Obviously someone with no understanding of logic!

Make it so that the young kids are the highlight. I'm not 100% on how to do this (and even if I was I wouldn't be giving the answer away for free... the AFL can pay me for that) but if the coaches will use the preseason as a trial period for the draftees then the marketing should reflect that. Burying the problem under some rule changes doesn't fool anyone. Why don't the AFL see this as an opportunity rather than a problem?

Probably because they are more concered with keeping the TV triumvirate happy rather than with actually doing the right thing by both the footy clubs and the fans... but that doesn't really suprise you now does it.

Anyone who has visited the Fan Rant would know that last year I gave the Wizzard Cup an absolute bagging... so why stop now?

The truth is that the 16 clubs playing in this pre-season comp will go into it with at least three different motivations.

1) Win. The money and memberships that a pre-season victory generates is reason enough for the less well off teams and those who have underperformed recently.

Teams in this camp: Kangaroos, Western Bulldogs, Ricmond, Hawthorn, Fremantle

2) Work Younger players into the team. A pretty common occurance, many teams view the start to the year and nothing more than a glorified practice match. The fact that so many teams do this forced the AFL to change the competition from a round robin over to a knock-out. Teams were seeing if they won the first game, if they did then they would field a strong team in the following rounds, if not, they would play 50%+ kids.

Teams in this camp: Adelaide, West Coast, ... most in fact except for those teams looking at it as:

3) Protect & Plan for the season ahead. Some teams believe they have a reasonable shot at the big prize this year. Those will view the pre-season as a chance to hone their set-plays, bring some players up to full fitness and decide on personal. Along with this comes the onus on players to remain un-injured durinng the comp.

Teams in tthis camp: St.Kilda, Geelong, Brisbane, Port Adelaide.

So where does that leave Essendon?

Truthfully, we are probably more in the second group than the last. Our team is thinner in experienced players given the retirement of Wellman, Misiti and Mercuri. Players like Bradley and Laycock need to be given some game time to deal with the new burden of pre-season pumped up muscles and the b urden of hightened expectation.

But the team we play in the first round is Carlton, a team more in the first grouping than us. A couple of bad years & falling memberships place the blues in the 'win it' camp. So the two teams running out of the field go out there with different aims. Which is why whe've seen the pre-season turn into a joke.

How to fix the pre-season competition.

Woo... big call huh! Uncy Herb claims to know how to fix the pre-season problems? A few people will be thinking "yeah... right!"

I've been thinking about this for almost two years. The answer is NOT to change the rules in the hope that the crowds turn up for the novelty factor.

If teams are going into the games with different aims, then it seems simple that the answer is to force them to all go in with the same aim.

Huh?

Okay... bare with me here.

Essendon are going in with a mid-strength team, while Carlton will go in with as close to full strength as they dare. You can't force Essendon to field a team that is better... so the answer is to force Carlton to field a worse one.

Wait a minute... stop laughing... keep reading...It'll make sense soon, I promise!

I don't mean that we should make Kouta run around with a blind-fold on. Rather the AFL should make sure that each club fields the same mix of youngsters and experienced players.

The Wizzard Next Big Thing Cup.

Each team cannot field more than 10 of their 20 most experienced players for any one game.

Easy... the numbers might need to be massaged, but essentially the idea is to make sure that every team fields one that is going to be competitive, and of relatively equal experience.

Rather than seeing the fielding of young players as a weakness (that needs 9 point goals to overcome), see the young players as a draw card... as a strength. Fans will see more equal teams, and thus more chance of even/interesting games. The sponsors will get more exposure if more fans turn up. Turn your weakness' into your strengths.

"Come and see the future champions battle it out in the Wizzard 'next big thing' Cup".

Just a little bit of lateral thinking that perhaps the AFL would like to licence off me! Certainly it seems to be a much better idea for the clubs, for fans and for sponsers.

Any comments are welcome, just drop me a line via the contact page.

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