Scrap practice and give us the real thing

As talk continues to grow about the possible extension of the season, Sebastian Hassett says the AFL can no longer ignore a huge blight on equity of the game.

IF John Howard can call on the people of Australia for a national debate about nuclear power, then surely I can implore our citizens to engage in an equally important discussion: extending the AFL season.

And at least with the debate that doesn’t concern destroying the earth, the benefits are obvious, immediate and have no effects other then to give us a bigger, better, and most importantly, fairer competition.

At the moment, we have a misfit season, complicated by the fact that it's not a random or equitable draw – something that can easily be overcome with a lengthening of the season to 30 rounds.

There are so many matches already fixed into the existing 22-round schedule - and certain clashes that must happen twice - that any semblance of fairness went out the window a long time ago.

The arguments of the doubters are, at best, feeble. Too much of an ask for players. Bigger membership bills. An overload of football for fans.

An overload of footy? Get back to me in November, when you've already watched 72 hours of sketchy WAFL videos in an attempt to get a better of idea of whether your skinny 174cm, 68 kg midfielder taken with pick 56 from Peel Thunder really does have 'game-breaking' attributes.

Competitive football could be played for two-thirds of the year quite comfortably, as it's really only three more weeks than what we've got now. Hardly an overload.

Quite simply, the AFL just needs to streamline operations. Basically, they must get with the program, or fixture, as we know it.

Firstly, scrap the NAB Cup. It's useless, pointless and unloved - just have a look at how pleased Lenny Hayes and Grant Thomas were after the Saints' 2004 victory.

Their obvious disinterest signified just how much this 'trophy' meant to a club where silverware isn't exactly in abundance. The last we heard, St Kilda President Rod Butterss offloaded the wok-shaped trophy to a chef at the local Chinese restaurant.

Remove the extra cup and the week's rest before the season, and you save five weeks - meaning there's only three weeks extra to find. Easy.

This means the season will kick off in February, and while protests will come streaming in about the heat, it can be easily avoided. Interstate matches in hotter climates should be played at night, while Victorian games played during the day can be pushed back until 4pm.

So, what's left of the concerns? Some people think that memberships will cost more. Well, yes, but since you probably blow more cash on more pointless exercises during the summer months, it's a short-sighted argument.

If this is the best of what the anti-30 crew have to offer, then please, retire to your campsite outside AFL House and pester Andrew Demetriou until he gives you something better.

Sure, some adjustments have to be made. Salary caps need to rise, paying lists need to be extended and a handful of new contracts need to be drawn up or re-drafted, which probably isn't a bad thing. The interchange bench might finally be extended to six, which seems a fair number.

Clubs will need to be smarter in how they manage their players. Right now, the unfair expectation is that every team’s 22 best players will line up every week, but a 30 round season would force clubs to realise that rest and rotation is the key to success, if it isn’t already.

If anything, more onus would be placed on coaches and football departments to be accountable, not just players.

There's also room for new ideas to be developed, such as a mid-season transfer window and a revamped rookie list, but those can wait.

In 2003, Demetriou was as saying that the AFL is "socialist and proudly so". Sadly, it looks as if Demetriou's definition of social equity came from a book which fell out of a visiting North Korean spy plane.

Tell me, when was the last time that Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Carlton all played each other once in the same year? These clubs know they'll play each other twice almost every season, thus eliminating the supposedly random aspects of the draw.

To eliminate these problems - and to keep in line with its own policies of equality and fairness - the AFL must provide a level playing field.

Let the debate begin.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!