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Chapter 1: What fixture changes are being discussed for the upcoming season?
Breakfast with Gary and Tim. A sports news update for the Butcher Club. The Butcher Club for quality produce delivered with exceptional customer service. Simply not your average butcher shop.
Ah, great to have you with us Tuesday, June the 23rd. It means the Field Marshal, Sam Edmund, comes in and just updates us. And don't forget, 8.40, the old elephant man himself, Dylan Moore, is going to join us.
I won't hear a bad word about Dylan Moore. I've got enormous sympathy and empathy for him. We've all been, well, I've been there. We've all been there. Sometimes you say it without even realising it. I'm guilty as anyone.
He'll be here to defend himself. He played a magnificent game for the Hawks.
Chapter 2: Who is Tom Sparrow and what is his role in the Melbourne legal drama?
So what are we thinking? Obviously there's an elephant in the room and they're sweeping things under the carpet or under the rug.
Can't practice your putting on his carpet because there's an elephant under it.
Yeah.
Right now.
Well, you've got to know the carpet.
Yeah, no, that's good. Where are we starting, Samuel?
Good to see you, by the way. Good to be here. Let's start up at People First Stadium, which is where the Club CEO Summit is taking place up on the Gold Coast. It got underway very early yesterday, continues today. Now, I know you discussed this briefly earlier, but we need to spend some time on it. Oh, not too much. No, no, we need to.
Tom Harley's presentation, the document titled Future Proofing the Competition. It's a 19 page document. This is what he's been working on since he got there. This is a huge body of work based on four different season structures for when the Devils enter the competition in 2028. So one of these things are going to happen, Gary. I mean, it's going to affect a lot. Is the devil in the detail?
The devil is in the detail and there's no elephants under the rug here. Is the devil under the carpet? It's all out in the open. Nothing's under the carpet. It's a document that I think long-time fixture critics would be heartened to read because it seeks to address so many issues that we've got with it. So it's all open for debate there.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the document titled 'Future Proofing the Competition'?
We've got a 19 team. So these ideas range from the more traditional, Gary, to the far more radical. An in-season tournament's been floated. A group stage format has been floated, a la the FIFA World Cup at the moment. And a reduction in game time has also been raised under one of the options, the AFL saying, as long as it doesn't affect the broadcast dollar, the theory being...
Fewer goals per game under shorter games would be offset by more games being played. That's the 24-game season. So the league saying a two-and-a-half-hour broadcast window per game down from three hours would allow clear air across an entire weekend schedule. So there is a heck of a lot of detail in what they've laid out and what I've seen and what they've presented.
But broadly, there's four options. You want to run through them, Gary? I know you're excited by this.
I just want to tell you that France and Iraq has been suspended due to adverse weather. So a bit of rain and I suggest some lightning around. So 1-0 up the French at the moment.
And Don in Donvale thinks that Tom Harley has gone back to the drawing table.
Has he? Yeah, that's not a bad call, Don. There's a lot in this drawing as well. So option one's 22 games. Everyone plays each other once and there's four double ups, two buys each, gather round and remove. The AFL buys back home games under that scenario. I'm not sure we like that one. Option two, 24 games. Everyone plays each other once.
Six double matchups, two buys each, two neutral rounds, gather round and another. And then this is where we get interesting, I reckon, Gary. So option three, 20 games. This is the fairest way. 20 games. Everyone plays each other once. Stop. Yep.
Stop right there.
Yeah, but you can't. Why? So you just have an 18-game season?
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Chapter 4: How will the potential new season structures affect teams and fans?
Well, they did this in the NBA to try and keep people interested. That was the whole idea. Is that a bad thing? No, we don't need to do it. We don't have an 80-game season. Is it a bad thing to have more interest? Yeah. Well, under those circumstances, it is. We don't need to. This is the point, though. We do not need to go down that particular track.
So just tell me, Jared tried to explain. I'm not good at this. So the season, the home and away season stops. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And then we play this other little tournament in the middle of it.
You insert another tournament.
Some teams will play three games, and if they don't qualify, what do they do?
Well, the format, it does say in the document, format to be determined. So it's light on the detail of what it actually looks like. But broadly, it's played for a separate trophy, separate prize money, separate incentivization in the season. So they're saying, the AFL, that this will convert new fans. This will bring new eyeballs to the game. Based on what? Based on evidence around the world.
They presented a global study with this as well, with the NBA, like you just mentioned, Whisper, and various other leagues that do it.
Well, I've listened to people talk about this in the NBA, and they say that it is an unmitigated disaster. They don't believe that it's been a positive thing at all for the game. Really? Yes.
Okay. Maybe I'm listening to the wrong people. The AFL's saying opposite here. And look, what this would mean, though, is that you've got 190 total games. That's down from 209. So what the broadcast dollar ramifications there would be interesting.
But in this presentation, the league also asks, would we be willing to drop below the broadcast contracted level of content to allow for the implementation of a tournament? They do believe, and they've stated in this document, they'll definitely attract new fans by doing it.
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Chapter 5: What are the proposed options for the new season format?
It is hard to get a head around it.
Yeah, it's hard for radio. I appreciate that. Yeah, but this is what we do, and we do this with rule changes as well. We change the rules, and then we have these other problems associated with the change of the rules. We add another team to the competition, and now we're talking about blowing up the competition to adequately service another.
We have to change the season structure, don't we?
Exactly, season structure, yeah. But we have to do that. We have to do it. Yeah, but why are we doing it? Because we've got another team. Correct. Is that not a good thing? Well, maybe we didn't need another team. You don't want the Devils in? No, maybe we... Are you saying Tassie don't belong in the competition? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying maybe there was another way of looking at this.
What other way? Well, maybe there was a team down there that could have been a... Relocation. A relocation co-tenant type thing. Who should have gone down there? I don't know who should have gone down there, Sam. I know you're looking for a headline here. I'm not going to give it to you. I'm just looking for your answer. You're posing a lot of questions with no answers.
I'm just saying that we start something, and then we create a problem as a result of that, and then we try and fix it, and then we create another problem.
I'll ask a simple question, all right? Because this is complex. I get it. And our audience, probably like me, is struggling to get our head around it, but they are going to have to change somewhere. If you were starting from scratch, if this season, if this whole competition had never been played and you said, righto,
Yep. Let's draw up a national competition.
We've got 19 teams here. Okay. How are we going to fixture this?
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Chapter 6: How do the proposed changes impact fixture equity and supporter engagement?
That's all right. My thought of the process was that if you had a 19-game series where everyone played each other once... and then you'd have a week off where you'd have a possible Or it's a game which is probably doubtful in the gear or an all-star game. And then that final eight, after you've played each other once, would determine, you know, the top eight and then your bottom, whatever it is.
12, 11. And then you go into a little tournament where the top eight players would go into a lotto. They'd play each other again to work out who would play top four. And you do the same for the bottom... The bottom... the numbers as well.
It's not easy, Si, is it? It's not easy.
No, it's not easy. It's not easy. And it all centres on the double ups. So we know we're going to have double ups. It's how do the league most fairly and obviously revenue driven wise come up with the best scenario. That's why group stages and tournaments are coming. Do you favour any of those I actually like the tournament.
When you read it through, and it sounds radical and crazy, but when you read it through, it does make a little bit of sense. And it's the purest way of doing it. Why does it make sense, though? We only have 18 games plus the two neutrals.
I love that aspect of it.
So we're coming back in game, not up in game. So there's less double ups and less manipulation. And look, I'm not against the in-season tournament. I actually think it will work. I was with the wild card too. Everyone pooh-poohed that. People hate change, but if it adds incentive, it gives teams something to play for. We might have a team win that that has got no hope of winning the premiership.
It can only be a good thing, can't it?
Yeah. All right. It's out there now. You've got to play the double ups anyway. It's got to be discussed.
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