I agree with Eddie for once 8:57 PM Fri 1 June, 2007 | Back
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COLLINGWOOD president Eddie McGuire has urged the AFL not to make any major changes to remedy the status of most Victorian clubs as the poor relations of their interstate competitors.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said earlier this week that the rise of non-Victorian clubs at the expense of those in Victoria in recent years appeared to be more than cyclical and the league would investigate the factors involved.
But McGuire said the AFL had erred by giving too much assistance - such as recruiting zone and salary cap concessions - to some non-Victorian clubs in the past and it would be making another mistake if it now provided similar assistance to Victorian clubs. He said that if clubs were left to their own devices, within the constraints of an uncompromised draft and salary cap, the competition would right itself.
"The horse has bolted, forget about locking the door, because I think in fact the horse is about to return," he told Collingwood's club function ahead of Friday night's match against Fremantle at the MCG. "The secret to the future of football, we believe at Collingwood, is for the AFL to just keep doing what they're doing and don't do too much else and don't tinker with some of the major machinations in our competition.
"Their job is to make sure that no-one cheats, that no club gets an unfair advantage and that everyone gets a chance to do the best they possibly can."
McGuire said he had told then-AFL chairman Ron Evans after Brisbane won the 2001 grand final that the league was creating a "monster" by giving assistance to non-Victorian clubs, such as zone and salary cap concessions to the Lions. He said he had since been proved right.
"When the Commission quite rightly decided that the game would wither and die unless the non-Victorian clubs were given a chance, they imposed artificial advantages and gave them that chance to compete fair and well," he said.
"The only trouble is, I think the AFL got caught up in the missionary zeal and drunk on the northern success ... suddenly the hangover has hit and everyone's looking for football's equivalent of the (cure). "Like all hangover cures, you can ease the symptoms, but really you have to ride it out and that's what I'm talking about tonight.
"While Collingwood called the trend six years ago, I believe we're almost through the worst of it."
McGuire said AFL-imposed salary cap concessions for Brisbane were the equivalent of Carlton, Essendon and Melbourne having cheated on the cap.
"The only difference was one was sanctioned and one wasn't," he said.
He warned the league to be "very careful now with people screaming from Victoria to come up with another artificial action that will influence the game."
McGuire criticised a call by some Victorian clubs for a cap on football department spending to achieve greater balance between rich and poor clubs, arguing it would lead to "mediocrity".
He said the Magpies had worked their way into a position of strength on and off the field, through strategic planning and passion, after being "broke, on the bottom of the ladder and almost gone in 1999".
He said other Victorian clubs could do likewise, although he acknowledged the need of financial assistance to allow some of them to survive, saying the Magpies supported a 16-team competition.
"We have to make sure that we don't go silly in trying to find a panacea for Victorian football, when in fact I don't think there's necessarily a major problem," he said. "Yes, support the teams financially that need it, but let's not go silly about it."
