AT THE heart of the AFL's push to move to 18 clubs is the increased revenue it will bring the game by having an extra match for broadcast every week.
And even before the Giants join the League next year and the weekly AFL schedule expands from eight to nine matches, some encouraging figures have emerged to suggest that the League's renewed expansion into northern Australia will help its reach and its bottom line.
Writing in The Australian, Patrick Smith reports that new figures show that 77,000 more people have attended AFL games in Queensland up to round 19, an increase of 28 per cent on 2010. Even better, an additional 1.2 million Queensland viewers are now watching AFL games on TV.
Smith writes that the ninth game each week has been valued at $150 million over the life of the new five-year TV deal that kicks in next season and the figures out of Queensland - which had to increase anyway with the addition of the Gold Coast - will give succour to the number-crunchers at AFL headquarters.
"The figure for the ninth game will drive recurrent growth," Demetriou told the newspaper. "The AFL has set aside $220m over six years to underpin and develop Gold Coast and GWS. That is a finite figure. The ninth game will continue to deliver bigger earnings with each new broadcast deal.
"We have always said that one of the reasons we wanted second teams in Queensland and Sydney, on the Gold Coast and in western Sydney, was to grow the game, both in spectators and TV ratings. A game every week in those markets will do that. The ratings show how the extra team enhances the broadcast rights."
Media Watch is better with words than with numbers. But the figures out of Queensland would appear to be encouraging for the AFL, particularly given that the Lions have been in poor form for most of the year and the Suns are just starting out and have been non-competitive for the most part.
Tippett tipped to move
If it's August, then the AFL trade market will be starting to heat up and Adelaide supporters would have woken up to news in The Age that Kurt Tippett, who the club forked out a small fortune to re-sign at the end of 2009, might again be considering a move to Gold Coast.
Caroline Wilson writes that Tippett's deal with the Crows allows him to move to the club of his choice at the end of 2012, for a second-and possibly third-round selection, but the club is already weighing up whether to do a deal with Gold Coast a year early, perhaps to lure one of the future stars on the Suns list over to AAMI Stadium.
We reckon there is an air of inevitability about the Southport-born and bred Tippett eventually returning home to play for the Suns. A bit like how Anthony Rocca was always going to join his brother at Collingwood after starting his career with the Sydney Swans.
That being the case, we reckon the Crows should try to strike the right deal when they can. Tippett could be worth two or three wins to the Suns next year and they'd love to get him, so we reckon there's a deal to be made in October if the Crows have the stomach for it.
Demons dig deep
It has always amazed Media Watch that for a club with links to the city's business establishment, Melbourne for so long tottered just above or just below the breadline. In one of his many achievements as president, Jim Stynes used the club's connections with the top end of town to eradicate the club's debt once and for all and put some money aside to grow the club and importantly, assist with player retention.
According to The Age, Wednesday night will be a time for the Demons to flex their new-found financial muscle, with the Melbourne Heroes Foundation set for an evening of wining and dining in the sumptuous surrounds of the Myer Mural Hall.
Stynes is undergoing surgery on a stomach tumour and won't be there, but new football director Garry Lyon will be, as will club vice-president Don McLardy, who told Michael Gleeson: "Our focus has changed from a defensive position of raising money to wipe out debt to an offensive position of building assets, paying 100 per cent of the salary cap and player retention."
Doubtless, the retention of Tom Scully will be a key agenda item for the dinner. "We have a powerful group of people in terms of influence, executives and business leaders and people who are high quality in all fields of industry. But we know if it comes down to money [to keep a player such as Scully from GWS] we cannot compete, but if it comes down to access to business networks and opportunity and contacts and reach, then no club can compete with Melbourne," he said.
It's an impressive spiel from McLardy, but if this is the first time that this sort of activity has been undertaken at Melbourne then we'd be truly staggered. Other clubs have been using their business networks to help with player recruitment and retention for years.
In other competitions such as the Victorian Amateur Football Association, it is the opportunities afforded by club sponsors and supporters that often dictate a player's choice of clubs. How many of the Old Xaverians went to Xavier College?
Long and short of it
As the hand-wringing continues over the glut of one-sided games continue, the list of potential solutions starts to grow. Some are arguing for fewer games, others for shorter games.
Again in The Age, Michael Gleeson writes that the League will investigate playing the first 17 and a half minutes of each quarter without time-on (except for major injuries) and only introduce time-on for the last two and a half minutes of each quarter, which is more or less the same rule as used in the NAB Cup.
The average match now takes 123 minutes to play, as opposed to 119 minutes just four years ago. Some quarters are running in excess of 35 minutes.
In the Herald Sun, Jason Akermanis weighed in, calling for shorter seasons and shorter games.
Craig in demand
Also in the Herald Sun, the League's practice of inviting former coaches in for a cup of tea and a plate of Tim Tams could result in a new job at headquarters for former Adelaide coach Neil Craig.
League football operations manager Adrian Anderson said Craig had something valuable to offer the AFL industry. "If it's not for the AFL, it will be with somebody else," Anderson said. "It's certainly something we'd be interested in exploring if it's something that interests Neil," Anderson said.
An overseeing role with the Brisbane Lions would still be the most likely position for Craig in 2012. He will love life in Queensland - he can wear shorts every day of the year.
A Shuey in
Not content with having one and perhaps two teams in the finals this year, Western Australians are now demanding that the NAB AFL Rising Star Award also find its way across the Nullarbor in 2011.
Armed with the support of leading player analyst David King and the voting for the AFL Coaches Association Award, The West Australian is claiming that West Coast midfielder Luke Shuey should win the award ahead of Essendon's Dyson Heppell, who has been anointed as near-certainty by the Victorian media.
Sportsbet has Heppell a $1.50 favourite, followed by Shuey at $2.50.
"I've watched a lot of these guys. I think Luke Shuey has had the better year," King told the newspaper.
"He's won his own ball and had an impact on the midfield against seasoned campaigners. Heppell has been good in what he's done. His impact with the football is tremendous. But he plays a different game.
"Luke has been able to catch and kill his own. Dyson has relied on others winning the ball and giving it to him. Coaches would love both of them. If I was a coach I'd fall in love with both players."
Craig O'Donoghue wrote the story for The West Australian and his professionalism shone through all the way. He is an Essendon supporter.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
