I wouldn’t even be including the Swans in the breakaway, it’d be the bigger melbourne clubs and the WA/SA clubs. It’ll would never happen but the threat is too act as a warning shot to the AFL
Yakult has been a very loyal ball sponsor of Essendon.
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I still have the sneaking suspicion that the afl will take over recruiting and drafting for clubs, swapping players at will to create a “fair and equitable footballering type environment happening ongoing situation”.
Correct, it’ll never happen, they own everything. We’ll no longer be Essendon nor will be allowed to don the sash.
We’d have to be Tullamarine and wear pink and orange or something.
F’ing AFL. Yakult has been our ball sponsor for how long? 15 years or so?
AFL can F*** right off.
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Obligatory:
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Lovett Murray looks in ripping nick in that photo
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zero chance a breakaway comp would ever get the mcg, or any other existing ground in victoria, sa or wa. maybe a nine figure sum could get the scg for a few games. otherwise they’d have to build their own stadiums on private land.
afl tip a lot of money into facilities (elite and grassroots) and have priority or exclusive use clauses.
-edit- your other major issues would be officiating (you’d need lower level umps to learn and enforce a new set of rules and it would be shthouse for a couple of years) and media coverage (fta networks don’t have the patience to build an audience anymore, they want guaranteed numbers out of the gate)
RACIST!
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Here’s the article about hungry jacks, from the Australian sorry
Clubs fear major financial losses in sponsorship deals because of “alarming” new rules they claim favour the AFL’s “protected partners” including Toyota, McDonald’s, Telstra and Coca-Cola.
Rising anger in club ranks has seen all 18 teams fire a letter to head office seeking an urgent redress of measures causing an “erosion of club commercial rights”.
One example was a recently aborted AFL push for McDonald’s signage to appear at all West Coast Eagles home matches at Perth Stadium – in direct conflict with the club’s long-time backer, Hungry Jack’s.
“What was once a clear operating environment is no longer, with a distinct blurring of the lines and confusion in regard to club versus code assets, significantly impacting what clubs can commercialise,” the letter says.
Clubs, still reeling from last year’s COVID financial crisis, believe would-be sponsors are being frozen out by “exclusivity or a form of protection” given to AFL partners.
On top of the AFL’s “big four” – Toyota, McDonald’s, Telstra and Coca-Cola – clubs say preferential treatment has also been given to its other major partners: CUB, Virgin Australia, Accor Hotels, AAMI and Aquim.
Watch the 2021 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. Every match of every round Live on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
Port Adelaide’s Hamish Hartlett and captain Tom Jonas with KFC buckets to promote their new sponsor, which was announced in December. Picture: Sarah Reed
Club sponsors in competition to the AFL’s preferred partners must meet significant financial “thresholds” in order to be approved by head office, the letter reveals.
Advertising categories include fast food, automobiles, beer, soft drink, insurance, airlines, IT, mobile phones and energy providers.
“Telstra represents over 15 categories that are excluded and blocked to clubs, some of which represent the fastest growing and emerging categories globally,” the leaked letter says.
Clubs are also dismayed that lucrative AFL arrangements are encroaching on “club controlled” assets such as branding on match-day, runner and trainer outfits, and “product placement” on the interchange bench and in changerooms.
Sponsor logos on match-day Sherrins are another point of contention for some clubs as are “commercialised” post-game kick-to-kick sessions branded by McDonald’s.
Another battleground has emerged as a result of the AFL’s “unlimited access to paid/unpaid player appearances” to promote league brands such as AAMI and Telstra – a practice seen to be in conflict with the clubs’ financial interests and additional service agreements.
“We are really ■■■■■■ off and fed up with the lack of consultation. Every club is disenfranchised with the state of play,” one club chief said on Wednesday.
“It should never have got to this.”
The clubs have accused the AFL of creating “recent” partnerships with little or no consultation or revenue collaboration, highlighting “a disconnect between club and AFL definitions of assets”.
“Gradual erosion of club commercial rights and changing of the rules by the AFL are seriously and materially impacting the club’s ability to promote and commercialise their club, their brand and their assets,” the letter says.
Richmond captain Trent Cotchin with flight attendant Courtney Denis at a Virgin Australia/AFL partnership announcement.
“This creep has significantly increased over the last few years and further limits clubs’ ability to generate revenue in an already cluttered market.
“A core industry objective is strong and financially viable clubs, which ultimately benefit our core stakeholders: our fans.
“Over time, the amount of AFL partners that are afforded various levels and forms of protection has increased significantly.
“Clubs currently feel there is little to no consultation regarding decisions that directly impact club interests, including the sale of club-related assets into AFL deals.
“There are also recent instances where the AFL has engaged clubs, but that feedback has not been reflected in the final AFL partnerships.”
Clubs acknowledge that the AFL has committed to review the rule changes – and permitted extra advertising on match-day jumpers – but fear the damage is already done.
THEAUSTRALIAN.COM.AU27:26
Pure Footy- Episode 7
David King and Daniel Hoyne lift the lid on the season and do a deep dive into the rounds biggest issues
An AFL spokesman said: “The AFL will continue to work with club commercial managers to provide and identify new revenue opportunities as we emerge from a COVID-affected year.
“A year in which resulted in a significant drop of revenue and forced both the AFL and all 18 clubs to drastically reduce their workforce and costs.
“A recent example of new club revenue being in 2020 the AFL introduced a new asset on the back of the playing guernsey, which has garnered millions of dollars’ worth of revenue collectively across the clubs and was extended in 2021.
“The AFL and the 18 clubs have the best corporate partners in world sport and we are all aligned in delivering ongoing value for partners, members and supporters during what has been a tough economic period for all.
“Our role is (to) assist clubs in building back their revenue base while also supporting our overall investment in clubs, AFLW and community football, all while ensuring our game remains as accessible and affordable as possible for supporters.”
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Just typical AFL really. See also: Fitzroy/Schweppes.
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Mick Warner has a book coming out. I’m thinking this will be a very good read - The Boys Club
Former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou’s business links to West Coast president during the club’s drugs saga revealed
3 min read
May 24, 2021 - 6:47AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
AFL: Nathan Buckley has put his support behind the board of Collingwood saying they have not sat idly by this season.
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A business partnership between former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and the West Coast president during the club’s drugs crisis has come to light 15 years later.
Ex-AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and former West Coast president Dalton Gooding were business associates at the height of the illicit drugs crisis that engulfed the club in the mid-2000s.
Company records reveal Demetriou and Gooding were directors of a false teeth export company at the time the AFL was investigating the Eagles over the drugs scandal that cast a shadow over the club’s 2006 premiership.
The conflict of interest is detailed in a new book, The Boys’ Club, written by News Corp journalist Michael Warner.
Gooding confirms his business links with Demetriou but insists the club was not treated favourably during the saga.
“I can say categorically and absolutely that we were given no special treatment by the AFL,” Gooding says.
“We were very much left on our own by the AFL executive to deal with the drug issue in 2006 and 2007.
“We knew that there were problems at other clubs, but we, as a board, decided not to point the finger and just get on and try and fix the problem.”
West Coast was never punished over the drugs-fuelled crisis which infected the Perth-based power club, but a secret AFL report obtained by the Herald Sun in 2017 laid bare a decade of rampant illicit drug use by Eagles stars and the league’s attempts to cover it up.
Drug use at West Coast cast a shadow over the Eagles’ 2006 premiership.
The company records reveal Demetriou had been a director and shareholder of the Ruthinium Group Pty Ltd since June 1991 and Gooding since April 1995.
The Boys’ Club, tracking the rise of the modern AFL administration, their web of connections and the scandals that have rocked the game, also reveals:
AFL staff sought to undermine Australia’s $44 million taxpayer-funded bid to host the FIFA soccer World Cup.
VETERAN AFL commissioner Bill Kelty tried repeatedly (but unsuccessfully) to convince the league that “there was a very good case for the separation of powers” in dealing with major integrity investigations such as the Melbourne tanking affair and Essendon supplements saga.
TAXATION experts are questioning the AFL’s status as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organisation.
The revelations are in the book Boys’ Club by Michael Warner.
TOP Melbourne silk David Galbally QC raised the ire of AFL commissioners after complaining about “the one-sided way” a hearing was being conducted into salary cap cheating offences committed by the Adelaide Crows in relation to Kurt Tippett’s contract in 2012.
LONG-time Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon remains “bewildered and angered” at the AFL investigation into claims brothers Daniel and Michael Talia shared game-sensitive information before the 2015 Dogs-Adelaide Crows elimination final.
BROADCAST legend and former Australian Football Hall of Fame selector Tim Lane was ostracised from league events after publishing a series of stories casting doubt over the legitimacy of Kieren Jack’s passage to the Sydney Swans in the 2005 rookie draft.
LEAGUE chiefs “pressured” the AFL Players’ Association to sack its public affairs manager, Ben Hart, after a bitter round of player pay talks in 2011.
FORMER Victorian premier John Cain declared before his death in 2019 that the state had never known an entity “with as much power as the AFL”.
BLOOD tests conducted on Essendon players were “interpreted by AFL and ASADA investigators far differently from those at Geelong” during the 2013 supplements scandal.
Ex-Sydney chairman Richard Colless also unleashes on the AFL’s decision to punish the Swans over the 2013 recruitment of Hawthorn superstar Lance Franklin.
“It was done vindictively, it was done brutally,” Colless said. “And the trade ban, as far as I am concerned, is the greatest act of bastardry that I have ever observed or experienced in my time in football. It was symptomatic of the complete lack of respect that the AFL had for the clubs and the complete disregard for their own rules when things didn’t play out the way they wanted them to.
Kurt Tippett was a controversial trade to Sydney. Picture: Sam Rosewarne
“To this day, no one has said that Sydney actually did something wrong in securing Lance Franklin via free agency. In reality the AFL probably broke four or five of their own rules – and if a club had done it, they probably would have been fined millions of dollars and lost multiple draft picks.”
Reflecting on a tirade of abuse he received in a phone call from then AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, Colless said: “The repeated threats that if this got into the public domain there would be consequences, I found more than anything absolutely astonishing.
“With the passage of time the one word that I would use to describe the incident is ‘pathetic’.”
The Boys’ Club by Michael Warner, out Wednesday (Hachette, $33)
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Demetriou is such a crook
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Mick Warner is a farking star
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It’s so good that he’s not afraid to lift the lid on this ■■■■. It will be interesting to see how much press the book gets given the control the AFL has over the media in Melbourne. No way fat Hutchy or Foxfooty will run with this type of story.
I don’t believe the Rod Owen/St Kilda pedo story has gone further than the ABC which just stinks.
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Andrew “Jabba the hutt looking fat bastard” Demetriou
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He’s already had his AFL creds taken off him, there’s not much else the AFL can do other than pressuring the murdoch rags. And I’m not sure the AFL would want to make an enemy of newscorpse
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First chapter
Try again, first chapter
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