I HAVE spent the best part of the last week smack bang in the middle of AFL territory, a place that is so far removed from rugby league as you can get.
In Western Australia at present, only one thing obsesses this footy-mad place. Pre-season previews are two inches thick and local television news bulletins feature interviews with coaches that last the duration of the sports break.
It is a weird feeling being in a place where this season's footy is all that matters. Whether the West Coast Eagles can win the flag is the only thing being discussed, aside from speculation about the under-performing Fremantle Dockers.
Not a soul is looking to the off-season, the draft or, heaven forbid, 2013. It is pretty much how all footy codes should go about their business. Live in the moment and enjoy it.
Rugby League needs desperately to send some of its new commissioners west for an educational experience. There they will glean pretty quickly that league is in a crisis of sorts that can only be solved with some dramatic changes.
The AFL draft ensures that there is a single window each year when player movements and manager power plays create headlines. With the possible exception of Gary Ablett junior two seasons ago, the media and fans simply do not entertain the notion that anything but the current season matters.
The signing this week of Beau Scott by the Newcastle Knights for 2013 , just a fortnight into 2012 , underlines just how out of control player movements have become.
Later in the week, major league headlines were grabbed by two Manly stars whose managers are now shopping them around for next year. Forget that round three of the footy has not even been played, or that fans have paid good money to watch their beloved teams run around with a belief that their favourite players actually liked playing together.
NRL boss David Gallop will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into a draft system. He has stuck steadfastly to the line for many years that pulling young men away from their families via a draft is tantamount to torture.
His belief is that local clubs or schools who develop players deserve to reap the benefits by seeing players progress locally. He also insists that league would lose its advantage over AFL by shipping its young stars all over the country.
All of this is a nonsense. I am yet to meet a single young man who would pass up the chance to fulfil his sporting ambitions because he wanted to stay home with mum and dad. The allegedly dysfunctional young athletes running around in the AFL will tell you in a heartbeat that, after 24 hours of pain, they absolutely love being with their new family of mates, mentors and coaches.
One young bloke transferred from Melbourne to the Sydney Swans several years ago told me he spent his days "living the dream". This was a kid raised as a rabid Essendon fan. He played all of his junior footy in the local district, but the moment his name came up in the draft, he was off. His teammates at the Swans will now tell you he is a true Blood.
Gallop believes there are legal ramifications that would prevent the introduction of the draft. A successful court challenge several years ago by Manly's Terry Hill has sufficiently spooked league officials to the point that nobody has been assigned to working a way around the law by simply changing NRL rules.
Commentators, too, see overtones of fascist regimes in a draft system. They argue that clubs deserve to blood local stars who have spent years coming up through junior ranks. The hard facts are, though, that salary cap rules prevent clubs holding on to more than a handful of those players. If you win a competition with a stable of local stars, they will not be locals next year or the year after. Just ask Manly or Melbourne about holding on to juniors. The fact is that league must act to stop players signing up to other clubs earlier and earlier in the season. Player managers have been given carte blanch to hawk players in a system that verges on anarchy.
When a side like Manly is trying to defend a premiership while managers are holding them to ransom, something is desperately wrong.
Clubs are coaxed into acts of desperation and coaches like Manly's Geoff Toovey are left looking a decade older within a week of the season starting.
The commission has a chance to make a change that would have a genuine long term impact on the game. It is the first big test of its mettle, and one that will pit the commission's members against their chief executive. It is a fight worth having
