Membership still has its privileges
MEDIA Watch recently cast its eye over Geelong president Colin Carter's suggestion club memberships should guarantee their holders nothing more than a sense of belonging.

Carter, an AFL Commissioner from 1993-2008, suggested to Saturday's Age that one of the traditional benefits of club membership - subsidised admission - should be phased out.  

"I think one of our challenges is to wean people off this idea that membership means discount admission," Carter said.

"It's almost selfish these days to be a supporter and not be a member. It hardly costs anything."

Carter cited the example of powerhouse Spanish soccer club Barcelona, saying its 190,000 members got nothing for their 150-euro membership fee "except a hell of a ride".

But AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has made it clear he does not support his former AFL Commission colleague's view, Thursday's Age reports.

At a press conference on Wednesday to discuss the AFL's Mid-Year Review, Demetriou said club members had every right to expect their membership would buy a seat at most games they wished to attend.

"Colin [Carter] has been to Barcelona and he's a bit besotted by Barcelona, which is an unbelievable club," Demetriou said.

"But the fundamental difference is that Barcelona has capacity issues and we have space at our grounds.

"Collingwood plays at the MCG and might attract 70,000 fans but there's generally room for more. You don't see 50,000 fans fill Etihad Stadium every week."

Demetriou said the competition was "nowhere near the stage" where fans would be asked to "financially contribute to their clubs without the expectation of attending games".

Media Watch is glad to hear this. The right to attend games and membership go hand in hand. For many, buying a membership is their commitment to both financially support their club and to get along and watch it.

For most, their membership card is their ticket to a specified number of games.

This expectation is too deeply ingrained for the notion of membership to be shifted now. Members expect some bang for their buck and, without it, they're likely to drop off in droves.    

Coaching experience being wasted

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson may be 69 but after guiding his team to yet another Premier League title this year he's still widely considered the best manager in soccer.

Similarly, Major League Baseball manager Jim Leyland is 66 but having led the Detroit Tigers to victory in the 2006 American League Championship Series, there is no suggestion he's reached his use-by date.

However, AFL clubs seem to be increasingly favouring youth over experience when they select coaches.

AFL Coaches' Association chief executive Danny Frawley told the Herald Sun's online program Front & Square the competition had lost a lot of senior coaching "intellectual property" in recent seasons.

Frawley pointed to the fact former premiership coach Paul Roos, Mark Thompson and Mark Williams were all no longer senior coaches, even though Thompson and Williams remain in the game as senior assistant coaches at Essendon and Greater Western Sydney respectively.

Frawley said the average age of a senior coach in 2000 had been 46, where it was now 42. That age would fall to 40 if Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, 58 in August, was taken out of the equation, Frawley said.

And that's what will happen next year if Malthouse honours a contract to become Collingwood's director of coaching under incoming coach Nathan Buckley.

Frawley said Malthouse remained "at the top of the game" and would be the "first person" he would talk to if he were at a club looking for a new coach.

As Media Watch has observed more than once recently, it seems inevitable there will be coaching vacancies at the end of this season. Like Frawley, we're also confident the football nous Malthouse has acquired over 27 years of coaching will be highly in demand.

But he's more likely to be the exception rather than any sign of a more general shift back towards experienced coaches.

Just remember when Denis Pagan was sacked by Carlton late in the 2007 season, there was hardly a rush of sides clamouring for his services.

This despite the fact Pagan had 15 years' experience as an AFL coach and had led North Melbourne to two premierships. The fact he was nearing 60 seemed to outweigh his outstanding credentials.
 
Advantage rule to be reviewed
The new advantage rule has caused its share of controversies in 2011.

The most notable was the incorrect umpiring decision disallowing Scott Pendlebury's play-on 'goal' against Geelong in round eight. The most recent was last round's decision that Daniel Cross had played on near the top of the Western Bulldogs' goalsquare against St Kilda, costing the Bulldogs an almost certain goal.

Introduced at the start of this season, the new rule was designed to put the onus back on players, rather than the umpires, to decide whether to take advantage after a free kick.

It was widely supported by the clubs after its trial in the NAB Cup but their confidence in it has since waned.

At Wednesday's press conference on the AFL's Mid-Year Review, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said players and umpires had been slow to adjust to the new rule.

The Age reported Anderson said the League was monitoring the rule "very closely" but said it would not be reviewed before the end of the season.

"I think [players] have got better in recent weeks. You see more players holding up, slowing up, not taking the advantage," Anderson said.

The Age also spoke with three unnamed club football managers, whose generally agreed the rule was well intentioned but not panning out as planned.

One said the rule should be abolished.

It is good to hear Anderson is open to a review of the rule. It seems to Media Watch much of the age-old dissatisfaction with the advantage rule - both now and when the umpires applied it - lies in the fact players are conditioned to stop on hearing the umpire's whistle.

Which means a player who decides to play on and take advantage can get a far greater break on his opponents than he would have got if play had been allowed to continue. In other words, the advantage is too great.

One suggestion that has been recently raised by a number of players is that the advantage rule should not be paid for any free kicks awarded at stoppages. Its basis is essentially that stoppages are where the advantage rule is most likely to give players playing on an unfair advantage.

It's food for Anderson's post-season thought.

In short

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou says the world won't fall apart if second-year Melbourne midfielder Tom Scully signs with Greater Western Sydney from 2012, The Age and Herald Sun report. Demetriou said Scully would not be the first top draft pick to leave his original club after a short period, citing the examples of Nathan Buckley (who moved from the Brisbane Bears to Collingwood), Jeff White (Fremantle to Melbourne), Shannon Grant (Sydney Swans to North Melbourne) and Anthony Roccca (Swans to Collingwood). Demetriou said the onus was on Melbourne to re-sign Scully.

Former Adelaide defender Wayne Weidemann has dubbed this year's Crows side the dullest in the club's 20-year history, The Advertiser reports. Weidemann said Crows coach Neil Craig had produced "a bunch of altar boys" who were not allowed to play with flair.

West Coast and Fremantle have reopened talks with the WA Football Commission in an effort to reignite their stalled bid to field reserves teams in the WAFL, The West Australian reports. Three days after the AFL clubs' proposal was rejected, the Eagles met with WAFC officials on Tuesday, with Freo expected to do the same next Monday.

As the final details of the free-agency system are finalised, The Age reports suitor clubs will not be able to manipulate the system with contracts structured to pay a player very highly in one year but much lower in others. Senior Age writer Jake Niall said to keep a restricted free agent, his existing club only had to match the total sum of another club's offer, and was free to spread payments evenly over the contract's duration for salary cap purposes. 

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.