Key admission on Brownlow vote change; Pie didn’t deserve free kick: AFL CEO on big issues

From Brownlow “ridicule” and the pre-grand final debate, to how the AFL plans to address concerns strong teams are getting stronger in free agency, CEO Andrew Dillon addresses the game’s big issues.

While a day grand final appears set to stay, Dillon admits he’s open to a wildcard finals round that could shake up September as we know it.

Read the transcript below of his chat with AFL360 co-hosts Gerard Whateley and Garry Lyon.

ON THE BROWNLOW MEDAL

Gerard Whateley: (Rowell) is not in any way a controversial winner – the aspect is the concentration of votes. 39 after last year’s 45. Are you on alert for that?

Andrew Dillon: It’s a topic and it’s come up last year and certainly this year. Ultimately the Brownlow is the umpire’s award and we will go to the umpiring group like we did last year. There’s a bit of talk about should they have access to stats.

The leadership group last year from the umpires were comfortable as it is. We’ll have a chat with them in the off-season again.

As you said, no one could argue with Matt (Rowell) as the Brownlow Medallist this year and Patrick (Cripps) the year before.

GW:Do you think to maintain the reverence of the award, it has to hold up in the modern context where you can troubleshoot the votes the moment that they land and see the fault lines within them?

AD: It’s a really good point Gerard. I said in the speech last night, it’s 101 years old the umpires have been a part of it.

Absolutely we have to continue to progress and if that’s access to stats, if that’s the thing that helps that, well then we’d certainly have a look at it.

GW: Do you worry it’s been held up to ridicule to some degree? I’ve been going to Brownlows since Robert Harvey won his first … the moment where Wanganeen-Milera didn’t get three – I’ve never experienced that before. That was a moment of ridicule I thought for the Brownlow.

AD: I’ve been the 20-odd Brownlows myself. Yes that was one, but maybe it was just one out of the box. I think it’s the highest individual accolade. There was 1.5 million people who watched it last night. We’re talking about it now and it is still a super prestigious award.

GW: It will only hold as the game’s most prestigious award if it’s an accurate reflection of what’s taking place on the field – I think that’s the balance point at the moment. If you don’t give the umpires all the information all of us had, I think it’s the equivalent of pin the tail on the donkey with a blindfold on. And the award, it won’t sustain if its held up to ridicule year after year on year.

AD: I think you’re picking one game out of 207, for example.

GW: I could pick more. I could lay out some of the Patrick Cripps votes.

AD: If you look at the top 10, it actually pretty much reflects albeit with little changes in terms of the coaches award, the players award and most of the media awards as well.

GW: What chance the umpires will see some version of stats this year?

AD: That’s a conversation we’ll have in the off-season. We’re not deaf to the opinions of those that matter.

ON THE JAMIE ELLIOTT NO-CALL

GW: Is it a free kick?

AD: I reckon you can look at it replay after replay and maybe have a different conversation. We think the umpire from the position he was in, he made a call that was certainly the right call.

GW: If that happens again on Saturday, would we expect the same call of play on?

AD: I think if you’ve got the umpire in that position with that happening, absolutely.

Garry Lyon: That wouldn’t be, with respect, how it’s been adjudicated this year. I think that free kick’s paid 98 times out of 100 throughout the course of this year.

AD: I don’t know where the ones happen exactly like that where he did get the ball. We’re watching it now and in super slow-mo. I’m going to say on the night, I straight away thought that would be one that would normally be paid – but we were comfortable with where it landed.

ON MARK AND GOAL OF THE YEAR

GW: Are you contemplating putting the mark and goal of the year all the way through the season rather than ending at the home and away season?

AD: I think when you look at it and the finals, we’ve got our best players playing on the biggest stages. I think if we don’t extend it out for the whole season, there might be considerations for that. I think having something that acknowledges what goes on in the finals for the mark and the goal is something that’s certainly within our contemplation.

ON COMPETITIVENESS OF AFL

GL: We had a lot of lopsided games … are you concerned about the gap that is emerging?

AD: Not concerned Garry, but it is certainly something we’re acutely aware of. We did have that top nine/bottom nine – very different from the two seasons before. What we did see this year though was Adelaide go from 15th to minor premiers. We had the Gold Coast make the finals for the first time ever. We have Freo for only the second time in about 10 years. We are seeing clubs move up and down the ladder. I think some of those clubs that were outside of the top nine, the Swans – lots of injuries, the Bombers – I haven’t seen an injury list like that for a while. What we are really not concerned about but keeping an eye on is those clubs that are down the bottom and are staying down the bottom. That’s something that’s taking up a bit of our attention at the moment. We want our fans, fans want to have hope. You want to be able to go into a season having hope. You prefer to be going in every weekend with a bit of hope.

GW: Do you think the equalisation measures are working? The likely gains of the Brisbane Lions and Geelong are going to be through free agency. Do you worry that equalisation is not having the effect that you would expect?

AD: I think what we are seeing is there are clubs that are incredibly well-run and they’ve got programs that players want to go to. And then, we’ve got the three measures for equalisation – the access to talent, whether it’s free agency, trade or draft. We’ve got the salary cap and then we’ve also got the soft cap. The clubs that can work that the best and make the best decisions, they are the ones that are defying gravity like the way the Lions have the last few years. Like the Cats; Chris Scott’s record is incredible in his time there. Certainly something that we’re watching. Again, we’ll just continue to keep an eye on it.

GL: I might have missed this, the West Coast Eagles have put a request in for assistance. Have you ruled on that yet?

AD: That’s being assessed at the moment. Met with (Eagles footy boss) Don Pyke this afternoon. We’ll have an announcement on that early next week.

ON TOM STEWART CONCUSSION/PRE-FINALS BYE

GW: The Tom Stewart concussion has brought into fierce focus the pre-finals bye, the potential for the pre-grand final bye which people have advocated for some time … what is your view right now?

AD: I think the first part is Tom Stewart got a concussion last week – hope he’s recovering well. I think that conflating someone having to miss a minimum of 12 days because of the concussion protocols with a bye after the preliminary finals isn’t something that I buy into. If we decided that that was the best way to build up to the grand final then I’m all for that.

The unfortunate thing is Tom’s going to be unfortunate this year. Lachie Neale may or may not get up. We have unfortunately players miss grand finals because of injuries so we can’t legislate or schedule our way around that.

Since we bought in the pre-finals bye and had that week off, it’s allowed us to have great flexibility with Round 24, it’s allowed us flexibility with the Thursday night finals. We’ve actually seen our top eight become a true top eight. So clubs that don’t make the top four, if they play well, they’ve got the ability to make prelims and grand finals. Under the previous iteration before that pre-finals bye, I think we only ever had one or two teams from outside the top four make a prelim.

GW: Those patterns have altered quite remarkably and quite obviously. Are you comfortable with how they have altered?

AD: Yeah look I am. I think what it has done is really build up our nine finals in our finals series just to be every single game an absolute event and with a lot riding on it. Yes, I want a top eight to be a top eight. There’s advantages for being first, there’s an advantage for being second, third and fourth you get the double chance, fifth and sixth you get the home final so there is differences in the ladder, but you still want to finish on top if you can.

GL: Where does that leave the wildcard weekend?

AD: That’s a good question. We are looking at – and if we’re talking about hope for fans, games of consequence,  cause that’s what our fans want – potentially expanding a top eight to be a version of a top 10 or top nine is something we’re going to look at in the off-season. And again., one of the things that would be a big consideration is that how much would that alter what we have had which have been some incredible finals series in the last 10 years.

GW: You don’t sound like a pre-grand final bye guy. Is that a fair read?

AD: I think that’s a fair read. It’s something you’ve got to take all the data in and get the feedback. As I sit here now, I think to move from where we have been is a big decision.

ON DAY/NIGHT GRAND FINAL

GL: Preliminary final 4.30/5.15pm start – sun setting, magnificent bit of daylight into half time, bit of night time. It’s beautiful.

AD: It was a great weekend of footy.

GL: Look at this – beautiful pictures. This is a showcase of our game.

AD: It was a great game – it was an incredible weekend, nearly 100,000 on Friday night and then followed it up. It was an amazing weekend of footy. To think we’ll have over 100,000 this weekend of the grand final – super.

GW: Could you see a grand final looking like that (twilight)?

AD: You sort of never say never, but we’ve got a day grand final this year. It’ll be a crowd of over 100,000. It’ll be the highest rating show on TV in Australia for the year. Snoop looked pretty good today in the daylight kicking his goals and meeting Josh and Nick (Daicos) there.

ON SNOOP DOGG AS THE GRAND FINAL ENTERTAINMENT

GL: Is there any degree of trepidation (with Snoop Dogg’s performance)?

AD: No, he’s performed at the Super Bowl, he’s performed at the Olympics. He’s a global icon and he’s really buying into it. He’ll put on a show – it won’t necessarily be to everyone’s taste … but I think he will put on a great show. I think he’ll bring in a new audience to our game.

GL: Did you have to OK the playlist?

AD: Not me, but we’re aware of what the playlist is. I think there’ll be some songs most people recognise.