The AFL is set to generate an eye-watering sum from its expanded finals series this year, amid “anger” at Chris Scott after his wildcard sledge.
Plus, a Carlton star has been slammed for his Tribunal defence as his suspension was upheld on Tuesday night.
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WILDCARD PRICETAG REVEALED AFTER SCOTT WHACK
Midweek Tackle’s Jon Ralph has revealed the league could earn as much as $5 million from its two wildcard finals fixtures.
It comes after Geelong coach Chris Scott hit out at the AFL’s new top-10 finals system, which will see 7th face 10th and 8th face 9th the week after the home and away season ends.
“This is why I shouldn’t do this so close to the game, I speak my mind … I tend to think they just made it (wildcard round) up. Just threw in a couple more finals for no good reason except cash,” Scott told AFL 360 on Easter Monday.
And on Tuesday night, Ralph reported the lucrative figure the AFL could earn from its finals expansion, as well as why the “consensus” reaction to Scott’s comments was “one of anger”.
“I went to the people who run this game. There were some wild and whacky estimates,” Ralph began on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.
“Some as much as $10 million for an MCG game if you get two magnificent contests, whether it’s Carlton, Collingwood or another Victorian side. Someone said it’s much less than that. The very best estimate from the very best person is they’ll make about $4-5 million from ticketing, food and beverage, corporate seats and boxes.
“But very quickly, the consensus was one of anger at Chris, that he has weaponised the fans’ fears about Wildcard Weekend as a cash grab … just when he’d lost an Easter Monday game.
“So, he’d done it again, a long-running battle with the AFL, we saw it across the finals series last year.
“The AFL’s view is ‘we never designed this as a cash grab, we did it for more compelling content’.”
Midweek Tackle panellist and former Geelong Advertiser reporter Josh Barnes explained Scott’s shrewd approach to speaking in the public forum.
“He doesn’t like losing, and that’s why he doesn’t speak to the players after the games — he doesn’t front them either, because he’s not sure what he’ll say,” Barnes began.
“He told us multiple times on 360 last night that he wasn’t sure what was going to come out of his mouth next, and he probably shouldn’t be doing this … but after losing a game, he’s probably a better deflector than Joe Root going through the slips.
“He knows how to play the angles, and he knows how to get you not talking about it. But on this one, he has the fans behind him.
“The fans are waiting for a chance to get on top of wildcard, and the overwhelming sentiment was ‘this is the AFL asking for more money from us, the fans’, who are going to fork out more money to watch our team play an extra final.”
Voss brushes off questions on future | 02:40
‘HE KNOWS IT’: LYON SLAMS ‘RUBBISH’ BLUES ARGUMENT
Demons icon and AFL 360 co-host Garry Lyon has criticised a Carlton star’s Tribunal argument after a contentious Good Friday act.
Will Hayward was suspended one match for striking North Melbourne’s George Wardlaw — a ban that was upheld after Tuesday night’s hearing — with the act graded as intentional conduct and medium impact.
Carlton’s legal eagles argued that the impact grading should be ‘low’, and that the conduct should be categorised as ‘careless’.
The Blues attempted to hone in on a newly-introduced Tribunal change which dictates that intentional strikes to a victim’s body or head will usually be classified as medium impact at a minimum.
The Blues argued that change was designed to crack down on off-the-ball gut punches, rather than Hayward’s act — which the forward claimed was typical by his standards.
“Hayward gave evidence; he said his intention was to close space and apply pressure to the opposition to disrupt the kick,” Fox Footy’s Tribunal expert David Zita told AFL 360.
“(He said) ‘It was no different to any tackle or movement I’ve done before or felt before.’
“He also says he didn’t know at the time he made contact whether Wardlaw had disposed of the ball or not, so he was still trying to apply pressure.”
The AFL opposed Carlton’s argument that the guidelines change doesn’t apply to Hayward’s incident.
Prior to the verdict handed down, Lyon fiercely sided with the AFL, claiming Hayward’s act was within the measures of this year’s crackdown.
“Of course it is — we get tangled up in Tribunal speak,” Lyon said.
“They say the impact should be graded as low — the impact should be zero … that’s not a footy action, that’s hitting a bloke in the guts.
“And we know that George Wardlaw will get up and laugh because he’s tough, but that’s not footy.
“And for him to say that that’s how he tackles, that’s rubbish, Will. And he knows it. “That’s what Swanny was talking about (when the AFL made the change). Stamp it out, give them a week, and we won’t see another one.”
Ultimately, the Tribunal sided with the AFL, and Hayward will miss the Gather Round opener against Adelaide on Thursday night.
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