You have to absolutely love spring, amirite? For the parts of Australia enlightened enough to embrace it, daylight saving is here. Sure, the curtains are fading at an aggressive rate and my child’s sleep is completely cooked, but there’s something deeply enriching about walking home from the bus stop with the sun up. Add to that the sickly-sweet smell of jasmine frying in the unseasonably hot October evenings and things are pretty great.
I also love the madness that inevitably surfaces in the window immediately after the NRL and AFLM seasons. There can be no clearer indication of the Aussie Rules community’s addiction to the sport than the advent and success of AFL Trade Radio. Hour after hour of a couple of blokes throwing improbable deals at each other.
Personally, I love the courting process of this elaborate dance. Even more than that, I enjoy the abandonment of standards that comes with the pursuit of a required talent.
Take soon-to-be ex-Demon Clayton Oliver, who ran into a news reporter at the airport on his way to Sydney, called him a “c***” and insisted he was heading north for a holiday. In the next week, the redhead was pictured on a boat named Blue Goose, grinning ear to ear as he sucked down beers with GWS coach Adam Kingsley. You can’t make this up. Oliver has nominated the Giants as his desired club for 2026. Would the Giants tolerate one of their players spraying a journalist on camera? Probably not, but when you can pick up a hard bodied inside midfielder for the football equivalent of a packet of chips, you hold your nose and do the deal.
While AFL player movement is restricted to trade period, the new rebel rugby competition R360 is trying to take players from both rugby league and union in addition to their existing commitments. R360 is talking about a launch in October next year.
Major union federations like Australia, NZ and England have said players who do so won’t play for their national side, ever again. The NRL has made similar noises for those who propose to depart.
One player manager described the new league to me as ‘sporting crypto’. There have been assurances from frontman and ex-England player Mike Tindall that the cash is US dollars, rather than meme coins, but behind the scenes, managers say there’s no clarity on who or how the competition would be funded.
In my view, Kerry Packer has a bit to answer for. Every hybrid sports-finance bro with access to a few billion of sportswash cash from an undisclosed benefactor is suiting up an ex-player puppet to start the World Series Cricket of (insert sport).
Then there’s the Pat Cummins back story. No, not his origin story, his injured back. Credible journalists reported this week that the Aussie skipper would likely play no meaningful part in the Ashes.
Cricket Australia, Cricket NSW and Cummins' manager all expressed to me their view that this was premature… and yet… why do I believe the journalists? It must be the silly season.
