Barry Hall has announced his retirement and we’ll all miss him. Great footballer, colourful character. Not sure whether footy’s loss will be boxing’s gain.
Anyway, it was interesting to note that after playing at three clubs, Hall wants to be known as Bulldog. It was a bit of a slap in the face to St Kilda and the Sydney Swans, in my opinion. Particularly to the Swans, you would think, where he became a great of the game and experienced the joy and absolute privilege of hoisting the premiership cup aloft at the MCG on Grand Final day.
So good luck to Hall in his next incarnation as a Dog, and good luck you at the AFL when you create the imagery in a few years when, as appears certain, Hall is inducted in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
But Hall’s announcement got me thinking. What if he came out and said he would follow the Swans in retirement? Or the Saints? And what if he wanted to take that a step further and retire as a Swan?
There is a precedent for such a thing, and it comes out of the United States and specifically the NFL, a league you at the AFL like to ape in so many ways.
No team treats its players with such collective disdain as the NFL. Players are treated like cattle, cut and traded without a moment’s thought. The only thing you should know about a ‘guaranteed contract’ in the NFL is that there is nothing guaranteed about it.
There is a nasty edge to the way NFL teams trades its players and it is hoped that the AFL does not follow a similar path when the introduction of free agency at the end of next season leads to greater freedom of movement between clubs.
But amid the cut and thrust of its trading rules, the NFL has introduced the wonderful concept of the one-day contract. It is entirely ceremonial, but it does allow players who have played the bulk of their career for one team to retire with that team, even if they moved on.
The best example was when Jerry Rice, the wide receiver many consider to be the greatest NFL player, retired as a San Francisco 49ers player. He had been a star with that team before brief interludes with Oakland and Seattle. But it didn’t seem right to announce his retirement in the blue and green of the Seahawks.
We could call it the Doug Hawkins Rule. The great Footscray wingman spent a final, forgettable year with Fitzroy and it didn’t seem right that one of the all-time greats of the Bulldogs didn’t retire as a Bulldog. Similarly, Dermott Brereton announced his retirement in the Collingwood Social Club at Victoria Park and that was a bit sad, when you consider his standing at Hawthorn.
Most players who played the bulk of their footy with one club before joining another, tend to gravitate back towards their first club in retirement. We’re not about to pension off Hawthorn’s Cameron Bruce, but when he retires in the next few years he will be remembered as a Melbourne great.
There will be more occurrences such as these when there is a major increase in AFL player movement at the end of next year with the introduction of free agency. Veteran players will finish their careers at different clubs in search of that elusive premiership. Others will cross to clubs near the bottom in search of more game time and in the belief they have one more season in them.
The father-son rule adds a nice, soft touch to the AFL’s player rules, which have always been relatively uncompromised. The Doug Hawkins Rule would add to the romance just that little bit more.
