COMMENT
The AFL is again gearing up for its annual Australian Football Hall of Fame event, a night full of pomp and grandeur when the doors will again open for the latest round of inductees.
Reverence will hang thick in the air, champions are everywhere, and respect for the game is palpable, but — and with no disrespect intended — a rather awkward problem is emerging.
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The Hall of Fame is for the best of the best (but even that doesn’t sound grand enough). It’s for the rarest of diamonds, the pure cream of the game’s very elite.
But right now those who hold the keys to this exclusive club have, to be frank, lost quality control … and what should be a trickle has turned into an endless stream of names as they dredge the floors of history for forgotten relics buried in time.
While this born-and-bred Melbourne writer rarely concedes that rugby league does anything better than Australian Football, when it comes to the Hall of Fame, it’s not the case.
The National Rugby League Hall of Fame contains just 14 Immortals. Australian Football already has 33 Legends and Gary Ablett Jnr is banging on the door, and Lance Franklin will soon follow.
Yes, there are more players on a field in Australian Football, but of course that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) mean more champions.
As for the inductees, there are 338 inductees (including the legends) compared to the National Rugby League’s 127 players (including six women), nine contributors, two coaches, two referees.
The cold hard truth is you could trim the number of Australian Football Legends by more than half and no one (outside of those emotionally connected to the culled names) would blink an eye.
The problem is abundantly obvious (and the Hall of Fame selection committee is — sort of — aware of it): a long list simply takes the gloss off the honour.
It is why a rule exists that no more than 10 per cent of total inductees can be elevated to Legend status. But 10 per cent, in actual fact, seems an awful lot.
The eligibility rule also states that a player must be retired for five years before being considered.
And there was also a rule that no more than six people could be inducted in a year … however, that is now seemingly out the window because, one presumes, those miners from the selection committee somehow just keep digging up so much gold.
Yes, there will always be great players in our great game from around the land, but great shouldn’t be good enough for the Hall of Fame.
As for the Legends, it would be impossible for the selection committee to conduct an audit and demote some questionable entries, but it could create a new tier, the Bronzed Legends or (to borrow from the NRL) the Immortals.
And if that was done, you’d quickly “bronze up” true icons such as Ted Whitten, Ron Barassi, Leigh Matthews, and a handful more, and make those names the benchmark for a truly exclusive honour.
