Dave’s Football Blog

Geelong star Nathan Ablett is considering returning to the AFL next season. Yeah, that was about as hard to predict as the Melbourne Demons being in last place by now.

World Footy News proposes a 24-team Australian Football League with two 12-team divisions. Maybe we should see if the league can handle going to 18 first.

The AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match takes place this weekend at Melbourne Cricket Ground, part of Australian football’s whole 150th anniversary celebration. A team of AFL players from Victoria will square off on a team of AFL players from … well, pretty much everywhere else in Australia and the world, really, and ultimately, this game asks us a very important question: is a half-assed State of Origin game better than no State of Origin at all?

Because this match is really nothing but a massive compromise. The AFL clearly wants nothing to do with State of Origin anymore, because it sees itself as a continent-wide competition now, which makes State of Origin redundant. The players, however, clearly want the series to make a comeback. Some are even shrugging off minor injury concerns to play in this Hall of Fame match. When was the last time you heard of an NFL player shrugging off an injury to play in the Pro Bowl?

Clearly, State of Origin still means something to these guys, and it certainly has a rich tradition in Australian sport. The NRL still holds its State of Origin series. So why has the AFL abandoned it?

Simply put, fans stopped caring in the 1990s. The VFL became the AFL and went national, and attendance for State of Origin games declined to the point where it wasn’t worth holding the series anymore. Will this match change that? Or is this just a one-off compromise that the AFL will use to satisfy the players and historians, then shove back in the closet?

The AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match will air in America on Setanta Sports at 3:00 PM on Saturday afternoon. If you’re curious about Aussie Rules, this would be a good game to watch. Judging from the rosters, there’s going to be a shitload of talent on that oval.

The footy press down under is all agog over Jonathan Brown’s new contract demands. The Brisbane Lion goal machine — who only uses that Vaseline to keep the sweat out of his eyes, honest — is reportedly asking for a 5-year, AU$6 million deal. This would make him the highest-paid player in the AFL.

Let me repeat that for you. AU$1.2 million a year would make Jonathan Brown the highest-paid Australian football player on the planet. Based on today’s exchange rates, $1.2 million in Australia is about $1.13 million in America. It’s also about £570,000 in England, or €712,000 in the rest of Europe.

Let’s compare this for a moment to what the Minnesota Vikings are paying Jared Allen, the Pro Bowl defensive end they just acquired from the Chiefs for three draft picks. According to reports, Allen will receive a 6-year, $74 million deal, with $31 million guaranteed. The price difference between the contracts of Jared Allen and Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney — who, IMHO, has been a better pass-rusher and will be again if he recovers from that lisfranc injury — could pay Jonathan Brown for almost two seasons.

Indeed, £570,000 wouldn’t cover Cristiano Ronaldo’s hooker budget for one season. According to futebolfinance.com (hat tip to EPL Talk for the link), the Manchester United goal machine will make in more in five weeks than Brown would make in a year. Indeed, the Red Devils have 12, count ‘em, twelve players who will make more this season than Brown would get for the life of that contract he wants. Chelsea tops that with 15 players. Five years of Jonathan Brown is worth one year of Carlo Cudicini.

Now, I’m sure the economics of Australian footy are very different than the economics of the NFL and the Premier League, both of which have far more lucrative domestic and international TV deals. Plus, the NFL and the EPL practically own football in their home nations, something the AFL doesn’t quite do yet. And let’s not lie — who among us wouldn’t be pretty happy with $1.2 million a year for 5 years?

Still, that’s quite the salary gap, isn’t it? It’s a wonder that more young AFL stars don’t consider taking their athletic abilities to other football codes. Perhaps the AFL is the last fully professional football league on the planet that’s more about the love of the game and the glory of a Saturday afternoon than the straight cash, homey. After all, if Jonathan Brown really wanted to get paid, he would have learned to be a striker or a wide receiver years ago.

I admit that I haven’t done a particularly great job keeping up with the AFL so far on here. The Premier League has gotten most of my attention lately, and after watching two live games on Saturday morning, staying on the couch and watching a recorded Aussie Rules match for another 2-3 hours only reminds me of my rapidly expanding gut.

Nevertheless, I did catch some of the Geelong Cats v. Sydney Swans game over the weekend. The more I watch Geelong, the more impressed I am with their style of play. They just run right down the central corridor like a force of nature, just daring you to stop them — and you can’t do it, can you? They’re running roughshod over this league.

Other teams can slow the Cats down for a little while, which the Swans did during the 2nd & 3rd quarters, but you almost feel like the Cats are just toying with their opponents. They’re just a plastic mouse, and the Cats will pounce on it at their leisure — BOOM! Goal, goal, goal, it’s over.

That said, someone will beat the Cats this year. There have only been two NFL teams that have gone undefeated in the regular season, and only one of them won a title. (Not sure about any undefeated teams in the AFL, and honestly, I’m too lazy to look this morning.) The AFL season is a longer slog than the NFL season — 22 games v. 16 — and eventually injuries, fatigue and the pressure built up from the press will drag a team down. Better to be dragged down in the middle of the season and take the pressure off to build up for a stretch run.

Sure, every team wants to win every game they play, but ultimately, that’s not the goal. The goal is to hoist the trophy at the end of the season. We saw with the New England Patriots in America how much pressure builds up as a team builds a huge winning streak. What happened? They finally lost a close one in the Super Bowl. I’m pretty sure these Cats don’t want that.

That said, they are looking awfully unbeatable right about now. The game I want to see, though, is Geelong v. Hawthorn, July 25. Lance Franklin is just raining goals from the sky right now. That could be the game of the year, couldn’t it?

So I posted video of the Barry Hall sucker punch on this blog on Sunday, then on FanHouse on Monday. With Leather picked it up from my blog on Monday, too. Guess where it ends up on Tuesday?

Yes, indeed, it’s all over ESPN. Clearly, that’s the work of Tony Reali, host of Around the Horn and “statboy” on Pardon the Interruption, who once famously told Jay Mariotti, “Don’t take my Deadspin away from me.” Reali even knew (and reported) that Barry Hall had been suspended for seven games.

A few thoughts:

- Michael Wilbon admits to not knowing the rules to Australian football. He could learn them here or here.

- Woody Paige said he actually prefers Aussie Rules over the NFL and soccer. Given his past anti-soccer screeds, half of that does not surprise me in the least.

- Barry Melrose, hockey analyst, is “shocked by the violence.” Ha ha.

If this gets us any closer to seeing AFL games on basic cable, we can all thank Barry Hall for that. He may be just a fool with a sharp left hook, but he’s raised the profile of his sport exponentially in America. This is the most anyone has talked about Australian football on ESPN since that network actually showed VFL games back in the 80s.

You’re welcome.

(Thanks to Ryano for the ESPN video.)

The clip of Barry Hall's sucker punch of Brent Staker actually made ESPN's Pardon the Interruption yesterday. I'm sure my posting of that video to FanHouse had nothing to do with that. Ha.

And you thought the Sydney v. West Coast rivalry had fallen off when the Swans slipped and the Eagles lost key players. Hey, maybe it had, and Barry Hall just wanted to pump it back up a bit.

Rematch on June 7. Can’t wait.

Everyone gets up for a local rivalry. Duke v. Carolina? Liverpool v. Everton? Boca Juniors v. River Plate? Those are the big games. If you won only two games a year, you’d live with it if those two wins were against them.

The Showdown — Adelaide Crows v. Port Adelaide Power — is no different. In fact, it looked a little rougher than usual out there this year:

If that had happened in a soccer game, we’d be hearing about red cards and multi-match bans and violent behavior and such. Nah, this is Aussie Rules, kid. Port Adelaide’s not getting punished at all. Oh, and Port players are saying they’ll probably do it again.

I’ve still only seen one half of that game. I’d watch the rest tonight, but Memphis v. Kansas, while not a local derby, is proving to be most entertaining…

Melbourne Demons head coach Dean Bailey can talk all he wants about being competitive — and that’s exactly what he does in this video — but that won’t change the fact that the Geelong Cats are going to give his Demons a horrific beating on Sunday, will it?

(Spotted on The AFL Show)