Eddie McGuire and Jimmy Bartel have locked horns live on air over the AFL’s divisive cost of living allowance.
Bartel who is now a board member for the GWS Giants believes the New South Wales based sides are still feeling the pinch.
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On Channel 9’s Footy Classified, Bartel was asked about both the Giants and Sydney Swans feeling neglected from an AFL standpoint.
“Just using the fixture as an example, the fixturing can help a lot of those issues and condition the market,” Bartel says.
“They clearly love watching games on Saturday at four o’clock, so as many opportunities that the Giants and Swans can play on Saturday at four o’clock.
“You condition the market and that be home or away. They can do whatever they want in the morning and then they’ve either got a game that they’re going to or watching on TV.
“That’s just the start of it. You’d love the investment back into development and grassroots footy, maybe bring the zones back.”
But it was an interjection by Damian Barrett that raised the topic that lured McGuire into the conversation and saw the two men get frosty.
Barrett said: “And COLA (cost of living allowance)?”.
The two went back and forth as McGuire interrupted Bartel throughout as Barrett and Matthew Lloyd sat back watching it unfold.
Jimmy Bartel: “Well that’s a real thing. But you can’t say that word without people, like to my left here who got rid of it.”
Eddie McGuire: “Yeah yeah, it’s really hurt everyone. How many Grand Finals have you played in and how many have the Swans played in since it went?”
J.B: “Yeah but we can have a mature conversation about it…”
E.M: “The Brisbane Lions they’re going terrible aren’t they.”
J.B: “…and actually acknowledge that there is a real cost of living difference.”
E.M: “Yeah there are, but you know what and I was happy for it and supportive…”
J.B: “No you weren’t. You were the biggest one to tear it down.”
E.M: “No, I turned. I’ll tell you why, it ended up being how many cleaners or housemaids Buddy Franklin had. I’m happy for the young players who haven’t got the money to pay, but not getting the extra for somebody on over a million dollars. Don’t rort it and you’ll survive.”
J.B: “So this will be the same issue we have with Tasmania. So that will go really well and we’ll have vocal presidents trying to tear down whatever they’ve got.”
E.M: “Don’t say that because I’ll tell you what it led to, it led to the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne having a chance at winning a flag because equalisation came in and the clubs who you say are vocal were the ones who signed off and came up with the idea to keep everyone going. I’m not going to cop this rubbish anymore, I’m not the president anymore I’ll tell you straight what happened. You overbaked the cake and in the end you burnt it.”
The Swans cost of living allowance gave them an additional 9.8 per cent in their salary cap — around $1m.
The debate was thrust back into the spotlight after the AFL announced the 19th team which would be joining the league in 2028.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said he was confident Tasmania’s opening years in the league would be smoother than the Suns and Giants, given the lessons learned from both of those builds.
“I think we’ve learned a lot about list builds and how we do that work to ensure, I think, probably more immediate success rather than longer term success,” he said on Wednesday.
“I think that we have tools and free agency and a lot, we learned a lot about actually how you do that while limiting the impact on the rest of the competition.
“Then in the end, like in our heavily regulated, equalised game, there’ll be the right people in the right spots making the right decisions.
“I think we will, reasonably quickly and with the support of the clubs, get a set of rules to put the squad together. It’ll be good decision making after that.”
