Fox Footy's Round Table - Tuesday 8.30 p.m

[Conor_Dillon]

Gordon is a very, very intelligent man

[The Big Cat]

Thought Pridham was great. wouldn't allow McGuire to run the "Collingwood saved the Swans" line

[jono2707]

As much as I dislike McGuire, his football politics, his opinions and his attitude, I thought he was the best performed spokesperson for his club.His acumen and performance skills held him in good stead and while I could not agree with a single thing he said, he said it convincingly and unfortunately had the loudest voice.

I couldn't disagree more. It's funny how different people can see different things (apart from the loudest voice bit anyway).

[liz]

I found it a little polite for my liking. Maybe polite isn't the right word, because I wasn't looking for them to get abusive. But in the time available, and with so many topics to cover, a lot of the discussion was fairly superficial. Whately did a reasonable job in keeping things under control, though Eddie was allowed to blather on for longer than I would have liked, and then somewhat permitted to speak over the others when they were trying to respond.

In particular, I thought Ed was let off the hook a little when the topic of fixturing / travelling came up. Koch and Gordon I thought almost had him in a pincer, but then Pridham deflected the discussion to the academies. That was a topic that was always going to come up, and maybe there was an element of choreography in him raising it when he did, but it prevented Ed having to listen to / respond to arguments pointing out the biggest weakness in his argument that there is already sufficient equalisation.

While Collingwood, Carlton et al are allowed to hog the majority of the highest profile scheduling spots at the expense of, especially, the smaller Melbourne clubs, they can't hope to compete on a level playing field. It's not just about gate takings, there's an obvious flow on effect to sponsorship value and supporter base. Ed was blathering on about how Collingwood pays a $1m gate levy a year. Whoopie do dah! I bet the value of the perennial rights to the Anzac Day fixture is worth several times that, let alone their higher than fair share of Friday night games. Maybe the AFL can engage whoever came up with the draft place points system to be used in academy bidding to assign relative values to the various times spots and stand-alone blockbusters, and introduce a levy based on the relative value of each club's draw each year.

My respect for Gordon went up tremendously. I've probably not heard him speak at length before, just read quoted sound grabs. I've never been overly impressed with those. But hearing him speak eloquently and with passion about what he sees as important for the game, and why, was highly enjoyable. And I loved the way Kochie raised the issue of the GF always being played at the MCG, not just a throwaway comment but in all seriousness. While I don't think this is the biggest issue with fixturing by a long way, it does illustrate just how asymmetrical the big Victorian clubs' views are when it comes to exactly what a level playing field entails.

[barry]

I think the grand final at the MCG is the biggest inequality in the AFL.

I think they should consider a 2 game grand final series. 1st at home ground of non vic participant, second and decider at the MCG.

[Mug Punter]

This is one of the main things I took away from it too. When Kochie and Pridham were stressing the need to increase the overall revenue pie, Eddie would keep returning to his own slice of the revenue. He only cares about the best interests/future of the game when it doesn't affect Collingwood. He was going on about Melbourne Victory's membership numbers for a bit, but he didn't see the overall picture. There are only two Victorian based Soccer teams, and I bet you'd find that Melbourne Victory members are also AFL club members. Soccer has long overtaken AFL in popularity in QLD and NSW; the kids would much rather play Soccer or Rugby before AFL. Without the Academies, AFL won't be getting the first choice talent from the North-East.

Sounds like I might need to re-evaluate my view on Kochie. If his view is that COLA was no longer appropriate but that the Academy systems needed full support under the agreed model then I applaud a balanced view.

I cannot bring myself to watch anything on the Telly when that cretin is on so I passed but it sounds like he sounded like a bit of a knob and the rest of the panellists seemed OK.

His level of self interest knows no bounds at all. Incredibly short sighted.

[tasswan]

I enjoyed the program.
As much as I dislike Eddie, he does the job expected from his club and supporters.
I thought Pridham, Kochie and Gordon were better spoken than Eddie and their points were much more about the game than their club.
The most disappointing aspect for me was that even though Eddie is one eyed, he cant see that NSW and QLD is where the game needs to grow for the AFL to overtake Rugby, Soccer etc.
I get the impression Eddie would prefer the VFL rather than the AFL.

[Plugger46]

I have to disagree with you, Whateley has typically been quite unwavering and stands up to Robbo and guests on AFL360 quite frequently. He did turn on the Swans after the Buddy deal though IIRC

I watch 360 most nights. The only person I've ever seen him take on was Hird and in my view, that was a fairly easy task.

He potted Ross Lyon for leaving St.Kilda in print. He backpedalled very quickly when they had him on radio. I've watched Eddie talk over him numerous times without any response. He's intelligent and well spoken which is refreshing so I don't dislike him, I just question his hardness.

I decided to watch it. The actual show I thought was pretty ordinary. Listening to all of them say "I agree" when they clearly don't became tiresome. They really only touched the surface on all of the issues. I thought Eddie was worst on ground but he had the most to say. Given his history and media background, I guess you would expect that.

[Muffler]

I wanted a show where the hypocrisy and self interest of Triple CHins would be shown up for just that. It didn't even come close.

Gordon has always been passionate about the future of football and is a very intelligent man. Which is why I was very surprised with him tying himself to Eddies apron strings re the academies.