No Fat Cats Here
April 24th 2008 05:23
It has recently come to light that Geelong are suffering from salary cap pressure. This news is, when you think about it, not that surprising. The Cats are a squad of wall-to-wall stars: Ablett, Bartel and Ling fire the engine room; Scarlett and Harley control the backline; Mooney, Chapman and Johnson dominate up forward.
Add to that list names like Enright, Milburn, Stokes, Corey, Kelly, Selwood, Egan and Wojcinski - all names who would get a starting role in any other side. But something tells me they will be OK.
One of the beautiful things about AFL footy is that there are some true values behind the game aside from success and cash. You are more likely to see a one-team career from an AFL player than one in any other team sport.
The obvious examples are drawn from soccer. Sol Campbell, the one-time Tottenham captain, defecting to archrivals Arsenal would be like Nathan Buckley joining the Blues for a bit extra in the pocket. There is one current player at Glasgow Rangers who joined up from cross-town enemy Celtic... having joined them from Rangers in the first place!
Players are always playing to improve, but improvement can mean many different things. In a game where players play for money, they will improve their own skills to be selected in the best teams. See, for instance, the IPL Twenty20 competition. The richest teams will have the best individual players.
But if players are playing for their team, they will improve not only the skills they need to do their job but also less tangible, yet still matchwinning aspects of their game, like awareness, endeavour and trust.
Geelong are swimming in all those attributes, which makes them such a difficult team to negotiate. As soon as the ball gets into their hands, each player knows where the others are, backs each other and they don't care who kicks the goal as long as it goes through. One stat I found incredible was that last year, despite posting three 100 point wins amid countless other thrashings, no Cat kicked more than five goals in a game all year!
But above all, playing successfully and feeling part of a unit go hand in hand, and make for a footballing experience that money can't buy. If I were playing for Geelong now, I would take a pay cut to stay there over defecting any day of the week. I don't think they will be in any trouble.
Add to that list names like Enright, Milburn, Stokes, Corey, Kelly, Selwood, Egan and Wojcinski - all names who would get a starting role in any other side. But something tells me they will be OK.
The Cats are a team united
One of the beautiful things about AFL footy is that there are some true values behind the game aside from success and cash. You are more likely to see a one-team career from an AFL player than one in any other team sport.
The obvious examples are drawn from soccer. Sol Campbell, the one-time Tottenham captain, defecting to archrivals Arsenal would be like Nathan Buckley joining the Blues for a bit extra in the pocket. There is one current player at Glasgow Rangers who joined up from cross-town enemy Celtic... having joined them from Rangers in the first place!
Players are always playing to improve, but improvement can mean many different things. In a game where players play for money, they will improve their own skills to be selected in the best teams. See, for instance, the IPL Twenty20 competition. The richest teams will have the best individual players.
But if players are playing for their team, they will improve not only the skills they need to do their job but also less tangible, yet still matchwinning aspects of their game, like awareness, endeavour and trust.
Geelong are swimming in all those attributes, which makes them such a difficult team to negotiate. As soon as the ball gets into their hands, each player knows where the others are, backs each other and they don't care who kicks the goal as long as it goes through. One stat I found incredible was that last year, despite posting three 100 point wins amid countless other thrashings, no Cat kicked more than five goals in a game all year!
But above all, playing successfully and feeling part of a unit go hand in hand, and make for a footballing experience that money can't buy. If I were playing for Geelong now, I would take a pay cut to stay there over defecting any day of the week. I don't think they will be in any trouble.
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