AFL FOOTBALL operations boss Steve Hocking and his 'think tank' committee will convene on Thursday to thrash out how best to fix the game.
The outcomes of that discussion will be delivered to the other let's-fix-football committee under Hocking's watch, the 'Competition Committee'. Between the two groups, the many serious problems with the game itself seem to be in good hands, at least as starting points.
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But there's problems away from the actual game, too, which need addressing, as the AFL seeks to keep Australian football a prominent part of peoples' lives.
Other entertainment interests are clearly impacting on the game, and people appear to be walking away from their once-granted love affair with all matters AFL.
Hopefully, some of the following is also given proper consideration by the powers-that-be as part of the blueprint for the future.
As Paul Tagliabue, the NFL commissioner from 1989 to the mid-2000s, always told NFL owners: "If it isn't broke, let's fix it anyway."
Deliberately leaving the game itself alone, and in no specific order, this is what we would do to fix AFL:
1. No more 'encouragement' awards when it comes to Friday night footy
On 2018 standards, no more Carlton. No more St Kilda. Definitely no Bulldogs. This slot was once the pinnacle of football contest. It is a joke in 2018, and this is not a hindsight reflection, as we said it the moment the fixture was released last year. In trying to be everything to everyone, mediocre, undeserving clubs have infiltrated Friday night football. It is a reason for the current doom.
People have made the right choice that Friday night football is no longer must-watch, and the impact of that filters down through the weekend. Yes, it is difficult to schedule guaranteed captivating contests. But, those who signed off on the 2018 Friday night fixture must have been sitting round a campfire singing Kum Ba Yah when it came to this dross offering.
Friday night footy must be about theatre and drama and conflict. While we're fortunate enough to have Buddy still playing, the Swans should play on a heap of Fridays. Lever's first game against the Crows had to be a Friday. Which gets us to our next point:
More Buddy, less Carlton on Friday nights, please. Picture: AFL Photos
2. Float the fixture
In 2018, no one is sitting down in January and diarising their weekend movements between late March and August based on when their team is playing. Not one fewer supporter will go to a game if the fixture is floating. In fact, you will probably find that with creative, floating-fixture arrangements, more people will attend. Just do it. Don't be conservative. Be bold.
We are aware there are quality component requirements to the deal with Foxtel, but there's always a way to deal with such arrangements. Tailor the weekend around the teams which deserve to be given the good slots at that point in time. West Coast is required watching this year; Melbourne also, unexpectedly. They have one Friday night appearance each from here, when in an ideal, floating fixture world, they would have at least three each.
No more whinging about six-day breaks, either. If there's a six-day break one week, there will be an eight-day break ahead. Deal with it.
3. Encourage, even order, the socially confident players to speak their minds
It's never going to be the NFL or NBA, but let's at least try to get it 50 per cent there. Right now, with clubs seeking to have every player conform to their conservative, boring ways, we are about eight per cent of the US sports when it comes to players saying what they actually believe and think. It is so boring.
OK, we in the media are to blame for some of that, no doubt. A player's starting point is distrust, and yes, we do beat things up, won't let things go, put microphones under your noses when you don't want them. But guess what? If a lot of you actually said what you actually thought, and not what you have been told to say by your ever-controlling advisers, whoever they may be, you would be far better off.
AFL is obviously a team sport, but it is the individuals who create the interest. Clubs seek to control, seek to have every player on their list conform to their idealistic ways. Can't be more adamant about this space. If you haven't noticed, people are switching off, not watching or caring as much as they once did about you.
As you know, once someone walks away – and there are droves leaving the game right now, check the TV ratings decline – it is rare to convince them to come back. But you have the power to do so. Be yourself. Say what you actually think, not what you're told to say and think.
Thank god for Danger, Gawn, Rance, Jenkins, Shaw, Tex.
4. Legislate that any injury which forces a player to miss a match must be fully disclosed
Hello Crows. Hello Geoff Walsh. Let's be adult about this. If a player has an injury, every other club will know he has an injury, so there's no reason to hide it. If that player is going to miss four weeks, tell us he's going to miss four weeks. Clubs always say they want to be transparent. They almost never are.
'WE DON'T PLAY GAMES' Crows insist they're honest on injuries
From what we have seen in 2018, the Crows would attempt to argue that Wednesday doesn't always follow Tuesday, and do it with a straight face. Walsh might have once been heard saying the earth was flat. If you don't care about lying to the media – and we get it, you don't, and we can live with that – please realise that in lying to media you are lying to your own members who pay hundreds of dollars – and sometimes that is money they actually can't afford – every single year to your cause and that that is actually disrespectful.
5. Ban the ugly, sponsor-laden polo shirt tucked into a suit pant with black dress shoes
There's no worse look. The only uniforms players should be forced to abide by are those for training and playing. Everything else should be under their control.
If you want to wear thongs and a singlet as you drive to a game, do so. If you want to wear a three-piece suit and beret, go for it. Certain there would be some players keen to arrive Russell Westbrook or LeBron James-style. And coaches should only wear suits during matches. Smarten up.
Nat Fyfe arrives for his Tribunal hearing on Tuesday night. Picture: Twitter / @freodockers
6. Make all coaches speak publicly before Wednesday
No more Alastair Clarkson-style meaningless conferences at Tullamarine airport at 8am Saturday, just before his team boards a flight. The AFL already decrees that coaches must publicly speak each week; it needs to go further and order that those conferences be held early in the week. That way, the coaches can contribute meaningfully to the game's wider discussions, and not hide all week and then present themselves at an airport check-in counter.
7. Have a club-designated, media-savvy person on the interchange bench
Fortunately, this plan is in play, with at least one club well advanced in ensuring a senior media staffer is granted access to the bench on game day, with the sole purpose to provide to-the-minute, insightful match-day information. North Melbourne will soon unveil its plans in this space. And every media outlet covering that particular game will benefit.
As it stands, without a club media person positioned in the heat of the bench action, media – including some of the country's elite medical professionals – are forced to guess on assessing injuries. Again, it's 2018. Let's try to be open and professional about match day goings-on.
More clarity on game-day injuries would benefit all fans. Picture: AFL Photos
8. Allow the host TV broadcaster's cameras and microphones into quarter and three-quarter time huddles, and meaningful wiring of players
It's 2018. The VFA, as it was known back then, did it weekly from as far back as the early 1980s. Please. It's not that hard. We're all adults. We know there might be some tough words.
The NBA – the never-catchable benchmark – takes this stuff to new levels every year, and yet we in the AFL system are forced to endure the host broadcasters telling us we should be appreciative of a meaningless, cringey, awkward, club-checked "sounds of the game" package which is always aired long after the live action and usually consists of nothing but "come on boys, let's go", or "man up, man up" audio.
Let's be brave enough to see what Jed Lamb might say to Mark Baguley, and vice versa, in that moment. OK, that's an extreme and we actually wouldn't want that to be broadcast, but by being miked up maybe there would be nothing really nasty. Just witty stuff.
9. Curtain raisers
Thought we were going to ban the extended pre-match warm-up. We clearly haven't. From next year, work out a commercial deal with the AFLW, VFL, SANFL, NEAFL, WAFL and the elite junior comps to play curtain raisers to some AFL games.
10. Ban the closed training session
Have never understood this. Most clubs train on public land. All clubs hold closed training sessions. And we in the media have somehow let these you-can't-attend-edicts to just happen, so we're just as much to blame because we have allowed clubs to dictate to us that we can't go and stand on space that is publicly accessible.
Until there is private ownership in the AFL, and by extension private facilities, let's all realise the land upon which you train is not yours by way of ownership, and therefore, when you are training, we are watching.
Twitter: @barrettdamian
