As you know, I’ve always had something to shout about when it comes to the AFL.

Many many Tribunes ago I crunched the numbers for a season and put in plain terms how the League was running things for the benefit of a few teams (well, one team: Collingwood), and absolutely fucking most of the rest, but in particular the weaker ones.

So, the 2010 draw is out, and before I launch into it, I have to give some credit for the things they appear to have got right. The timing of Round 22 games is not yet set, allowing a fair break before the finals. Good. The Grand Final rematch isn’t buried in the Season Opening hooplah, instead we wait until Round 13; hopefully the Saints and Cats will both be as blistering as they were this year and the game will deliver.

Righto, that’s the good things, now let’s quickly examine what they’ve done. As we all know, the TV networks have ponied up nearly $200 million a year, so they have a bit of a say in which teams play and when. However it seems that, when it comes to scheduling games for ratings and therefore revenue, the networks are the only stakeholder that’s considered.

Therefore, yet again, Collingwood play the best games at the best venues, and have eighteen games on free to air. Contrast this with North Melbourne, who have eight. We all know Friday night’s the biggest rater of the round, so the Roos have one all year. Collingwood have 5, along with another 7 Saturday nights.

I shouldn’t really need to go into it again, but the simple fact is that if you ain’t on free to air in high-rating slots, your brand is worth less to your sponsors. Collingwood do not need anymore money or TV exposure. North, along with the other financial minnows, desperately do.

Time was, we could, only half-joking, blame the Collingwood bias on the fact that Eddie Everywhere ran the Footy Show and, for a time, Channel 9, so the AFL kowtowed. Now that Brayshaw’s wielding the whip and chair on what is, regrettably, an enormously popular TV show, surely he should be able to get his Roos a slightly tastier piece of the shit sandwich?

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