Originally Posted by
mjp
I pretty much always side with the players but I think they are wrong here.
40000 hospitality workers in WA alone were stood down 5 weeks ago. Some are eligible for Job Keeper. But a lot (due to the nature of the industry) are not. Six of my eleven staff are on JobKeeper - 5 are NOT ELIGIBLE are therefore battling along on a CentreLink allowance. FIFO workers - of which there are a lot in my state - have almost to a person had their rosters changed to double the time away from their families, and interstate/NZ-based workers have been forced to permanently (well, permanent for now) relocate to WA.
There is a compromise position available here. I accept a lot of what the players are saying in terms of being away from family - hell, one reason I am no longer in the IT industry was the continuous interstate and international travel that took me away from home - but there are compromise positions that can be reached. Expecting the clubs/AFL to fund their families to be relocated is just not realistic - besides, some families will have kids at school, working wives etc who simply cannot relocate...
Just like my old boss in IT land hated sending me overseas to client sites at short notice, I don't think the AFL went into 2020 saying 'You know what we could do this year? Make the lives of our key employees miserable by taking them away from their families'. But just like I once upon a time had to, they really do need to acknowledge the overall impact this has had on the community and take a 'I am prepared to do whatever it takes to get things going again' approach.
To those people saying it's only a game and it isn't that important and let's just shut it down until 2021, well...footy is a big part of what makes life 'normal'. Watching with your mates on Friday night, talking about it in the workplace, listening to radio/podcasts, tv, etc...it grounds people and people need 'grounding'. If the footy is being played, it means some of those hospitality workers are closer to going back to work...hell, it will mean a lot of people in a lot of industries are closer to going back to work.
I personally think that Dangerfield is a terrible spokesperson for the players - he simply is not a popular figure amongst supporters (though he seems completely unaware of this fact) and this has not helped his messaging. I am sure the AFL gave a 'little more' than they otherwise would have in the pay deal - the fact the players will effectively receive 65% of their contracts even if they don't play another game this year is simply not appropriate given the current economic circumstances - because they "knew" something like this (the hubs) was going to happen and they were going to need the support of the players...NOW is the time for the players to step up and acknowledge that.