Putting price tag on WAFL

Has the WAFL got a deal for you.

For just $75,000 you and 21 others can throw on the footy gear and pit your skills against a band of State league players.

But wait, there's more. The scores don't count but you do get to play with a Burley, not a Sherrin.

That is the scenario being tossed around by some WAFL clubs as Fremantle and West Coast continue their push for local reserves teams.

Some clubs are coming around to the notion their teams can play the Dockers and Eagles seconds during their bye rounds. Funny how the bye - along with its creator Peel - was long despised by the old guard. Now there's a chance for some added revenue the rest week becomes a wonderful financial opportunity.

There is a push for WAFL clubs to seek $150,000 a season each from the AFL reserves deal. As some clubs could be restricted to two matches due to complexities of fixturing that figure can be broken down to $75,000 a game for some local league outfits.

As the average turnover of a State competition club is around $1.5 million, the AFL reserves licence fee would soon become a significant item on boards' balance sheets.

The figure thrown up by a few presidents is certainly larger than the $60,000 the two AFL clubs offered last year.

Now the WA Football Commission is facilitating negotiations it seems a WAFL-AFL arrangement will happen. It is now a matter of how and when.

Little appeal for the Mankad

Even the name thrust on the deed sounds sinister.

Mankad could well be the villain of a James Bond script. The man in question wasn't. He was an Indian bowler who became entrenched in cricket history for performing a perfectly legal deed in a Test match 65 years ago.

Vinoo Mankad's act - running out Australian batsman Bill Brown after he backed up too far at the non-striker's end during a 1947 Test - created one of the biggest taboo subjects in the game. Only the spectre of match-fixing is treated by cricket followers with more disdain.

Another Indian, Ravi Ashwin, discovered just how much of a touchy subject the Mankad is when he tried to replicate the deed by running out Lahiru Thirimanne in the one-day clash at the Gabba last Tuesday.

But why is the Mankad so despised? After all, if it is within the laws of cricket to dismiss a batsman for being out of his crease what is the problem? And clause 42.15 states, the "bowler is permitted, before entering his delivery stride, to attempt to run out the non-striker".

There is no mention of warnings. No suggestion a player would be scorned if he/she did so.

However, the Mankad strikes at the sense of decency in cricket, the so-called "spirit of the game" officials like to talk about to make fans feel all warm and fuzzy and believe the contest is above board.

No one can doubt the message from Cricket Australia this week.

While the national selectors have recently been criticised for their efficiency in communication, they were loud and clear about their views when releasing the latest Australian team.

Unfortunately for Ricky Ponting it is a line he probably doesn't want to hear.

Retirement is never nice for a hostile participant. The bitterness can erase much of the glory of past service.

The move by the selectors to dump Ponting from the national one-day team - thus ending his international limited overs career midway through a series - was blunt and brutal. It told everyone that Australian cricket is moving on.

Maybe Ponting didn't get the gist of what was in the selectors' minds a few months ago.

At 38 and with shaky form over the past two years it seemed obvious Ponting's days were numbered. There was a call for him to put the bat away after a strong finish to the Test series with India. It was the chance to go out on top. On his terms.

AFL baulk at Steffensen talk

Professional athletes are a lot like the Hollywood movie set.

Whenever sportspeople gather, there is always an outpouring of respect - mostly real, sometimes fake - for each other. There is that unwritten code that forces everybody to be happy about everyone else's achievements.

Somehow at the weekend those guidelines were relaxed for John Steffensen.

And it highlighted how, indeed, athletes near at the top of their game have different approaches to their work.

Shortly after Steffensen's victory in the 400m at the Go for 2&5 Track Classic on Saturday, Geelong's new AFL captain Joel Selwood tweeted, "Anyone manage to see John Steffensen interview on ch10 tonight? #confidant (sic) #averagebloke?"

Not long later Steffensen replied via twitterverse, "call me and ask the champ yourself bud!!"

It followed Steffensen's exuberant post-race statement claiming, "It was a murder scene out there tonight - someone should have called triple zero."

Such flamboyance has cost Steffensen plenty of criticism.

Boss needs GF guidelines

So the boss has gone for The Boss.

From reports on the east coast AFL chief Andrew Demetriou has once again shuffled through his pile of old 45s to select the pre-match distraction for this year's premiership decider.

Meatloaf hadn't had a hit since vinyl records were in vogue yet staggered around the MCG stage before last season's grand final. Much the same for Bruce Springsteen but his tunes were far classier when the AFL's master was listening to them on Countdown, the curtain-raiser to the league's ABC highlights show, The Winners, back in the early 1980s - before every home had a CD player.

You get the impression from Springsteen and how he likes to be portrayed as a working class man that if he were Australian he'd be a big football fan.

But he isn't. And that raises a key point about how we celebrate the biggest day of the football calendar.
What should be the golden rules for the activities at the MCG on that last Saturday in September (or first in October as we have had in past two years)?

We must never let the streamers and dancing schoolkids detract from the spectacle involving the 44 combatants but it is generally accepted that there is more to grand final day than just the game.

However, in the wake of Meatloaf's MCG meltdown five months ago we need to make sure that some guidelines are followed.

Celebrate world cricket's dream field

Too much bounce, too much grass, too much movement.

Too much whingeing.

There is no doubt the WACA would have wanted at least two more sessions of play from the third Test between Australia and India. So, too, the local fans.

But, unlike some critics, mostly from the east, don't blame our favourite piece of turf. Point the finger at the players because Perth's premier pitch can make a strong claim to providing some of the most exciting cricket on the planet.

Sure some batsmen are made to look like schoolboy pretenders on the Waroona clay that sits in the middle of the WACA Ground.

Yet for every Virender Sehwag, there is a David Warner. If the wicket is a problem why can one player construct a 180-run innings and share in a 214-run opening stand?

Set permanent WACA Test date

Good timing is the essence to great cricket.

That ethos is relevant not only to the men swinging bats but also to those pushing pencils in the Cricket Australia planning office.

Setting fixtures is a tough job. You need a fondness for figures mostly found among accountants, a clairvoyant's crystal ball and the diplomacy of Bill Clinton to acquiesce the requests of stakeholders.

This week Perth hosts the third Test between Australia and India. While there is talk that five-day cricket is ill - although as pointed out at The West this week there seems to be more people asking "who said Test cricket is dead" rather than "Test cricket is dead" - there is great anticipation for the WACA Ground contest.

A Michael Clarke triple century, a couple of wins and the prospect of seeing Sachin Tendulkar create history can have the effect on the sporting psyche. Local cricket couldn't be happier with the lead-in.

But wouldn't it be easier to market - and better for fans - if the annual Perth Test was played at the same time of the year, every year?