September 10, 2014: Take the contract away

Covering the AFL can sometimes require cunning and nous. Hiding in garbage cans, scurrying about the bars outside AFL House and picking up suspicious packages from secret locations, all in the hope of landing that scoop that will get you the back page and the front page and most of everything in between.

There are other times, however, when it is mere regurgitation. No doubt the Herald Sun, for example, will already have articles penned to run the day after the Brownlow - opinion pieces about how the current system doesn't reward the best players - in which only the names have to be inserted prior to print. The same goes for pre-season articles about the value of free agency, the length of the season, the equality of the fixturing and the draft etc.

At finals time, thanks largely to an ACCC without any bite and those opportunistic fiends at Ticketmaster, these boilerplate stories revolve around the gouging of fans with a myriad of fees and charges. This year it's a $6.50 booking fee that has fans up in arms - and rightly so. We would love to wax lyrical about how if a charge is unavoidable for the consumer, it's actually part of the price, but instead we're putting a call out to Mark Evans.

Mark, if you're listening, get back to the lab. Surely, after you've put microchips in everything you can find a way to take the contract away from Ticketmaster?

In the news...
Perhaps due to lack of interest, the AFL has been given a promise that no-one else will use ANZ Stadium before the Swans Preliminary Final, meaning the surface might be somewhat acceptable. If only there was a nicer ground, closer to the city and more appropriately sized.

Award Season - Despite being suspended twice in 2014, Nat Fyfe hasn't lost any friends among his colleagues, taking out the Players Association MVP last night.

Injuries - Hayden Ballantyne heads the list, while Luke McPharlin, Steve Johnson and Hamish Mcintosh are other big stories heading into the semi-finals.