Why Magpies captain Darcy Moore is open to radical fixture change

Newly crowned AFL Players Association president Darcy Moore has thrown his support behind a secondary tournament to run during the premiership season, praising the AFL for its innovation.

As reported by this masthead on Monday, the AFL has formed a special subcommittee to help plot the evolution of the fixture when the Tasmania Devils enter the competition in 2028.

One of the ideas being seriously canvassed is to create an in-season tournament, separate to the home-and-away season, which could be played for millions of dollars of prizemoney and even an extra spot in the finals.

The radical proposal could also allow teams to add players to their list from competitions outside the AFL, such as the state leagues, or even recently retired superstars such as Dustin Martin.

Moore, one of the biggest names in the game and captain of ladder-leaders Collingwood, said fans of all teams deserved to be kept engaged in the season for as long as possible.

“It’s something that is still in its ideation, but something we are open to as an association,” he told this masthead.

“We think innovation from the AFL or just in general is something we will always support. If there’s a better way we can adapt and serve the fans, we are all for that, provided the conditions are right for players.

“I think the key with it is it’s not isolated, it’s connected to competitive balance, travel for interstate clubs, home-and-away games, Gather Round, State of Origin, timing of the finals.”

Moore said the players were yet to be briefed about a potential revamp, but agreed conceptually to altering the fixture to cater for more fans.

“One hundred per cent – the more we can have a season that serves every team’s fan base in terms of interest and engagement, we should look at. If there is a way to do that, then that absolutely makes sense,” he said.

“If it’s a team that is mathematically a low percentage chance of making finals, if that is some sort of mid-season comp where there is something to play for, whether that’s prizemoney or a spot in the finals, intuitively it seems to make sense.”

Former Sydney premiership coach Paul Roos, however, was less enamoured with the idea.

Roos, now based in the US, says he doesn’t understand Australian sports administrators fixation with American sports.

“They have destroyed their league by doing dumb stuff like play-in tournaments and mid-season games and changing rules offensively so you can’t touch anyone, scores are 150–140, and you’ll see the ratings have reflected it,” he told the ABC’s AFL Daily podcast.

“Living over here now, we do not want to go down the path of a lot of what America represents now [in terms of] sport.

“It’s all about the individual, players changing clubs, it’s all about money and all about less time at the club and more time on holidays, and this is where we’re heading.

“I don’t understand it. It’s not in my realm of thinking.”

Roos was passionate in his defence of the game in its current format and posed the question: if it isn’t broken, why fix it?

“Even the $5 million, let’s be honest, the lower clubs are pumped up by the AFL anyway,” he said.

“You’re not going out of business now if you’re an AFL club, so what’s $5 million?

“Just be honest around what it’s for. What is the AFL trying to achieve?

“We have a great competition, we have fans going to the game left, right and centre, we have ratings through the roof, so the game has never been in better shape.”

From Port Adelaide in 11th place, all the way down to cellar dwellers West Coast, there are now eight teams with nothing to play for in the remainder of the season.

This weekend alone, there are three dead rubbers between Richmond and Essendon, Melbourne and North Melbourne and Port Adelaide and West Coast. Sydney, in 10th and with only a remote chance of making finals, play 15th-placed St Kilda.

While avoiding dead rubbers will ultimately be better for the game, Moore conceded several issues could arise from such a drastic change to the fixture.

“It has impacts on so many different parts of the fixture, so those have to be worked through and planned for,” Moore said.

“But we are definitely open to finding the best way for the season to be structured.”

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