Loyalty in Football

[CURLY]

Coming into another football season the comings and goings to football clubs has begun with my club being pilleged by two others. Just cant understand how people do it especially the players who only take and give nothing in return.

Loyalty seems a thing of the past and has it filtered down from the AFL were we see players forced or decide to leave each year?

[evertonfc]

The AFL is one of the most loyal professional sporting competitions on the planet IMO - players hardly change clubs at all during trade week, most of which are shunted on by their clubs.

And remember, in this day and age of full-time athletes, they only have a short window in which to ply thier trade and make a decent living.

I don't think badly of blokes who leave for money/opportunities (I've done the same thing in the corporate world), but I do think extra highly of those who stick around.

At lower levels, well, it depends on the coin on offer. If it's big money, then you can't begrudge them, really. However, if it's the diffence between a few extra bucks, then yeah, it's not great.

[|Andy|]

Fortius Quo Fidelius
"Strength through Loyalty"

[st_Trav_ofWA]

look to the other major sporting codes in the world and you will find AFL players are very loyal to their clubs look to the NBL matt Shannahan has played for a whoping 7 clubs !!!! , look to the NBA were players move on a yearly basis and legends of the game are traded off to the highest bidder .

AFL have got it right with only a few players ever really leaving their team

[saintsRrising]

I think most players are pretty loyal with relatively few changing clubs of their on accord.


Of the ones who do change, most seem to do it because either their own club has made them dispensible.

One could make an arguement that players are more loyal than clubs.

With the Saints this year we gained Schneider, Dempster, King and C Gardiner....of these at least 3 (maybe 4) were told to go. With Dempster I think it may have bbeena mutual thing.

With Birss last year I think from mememory that it may have been more him deciding to go from lack of opportunity in the firsts..

Spider and Black certainly both jumped as did Hall....and more recently Sugar and Knoble (who was going to be paid very little...)


But all in all....I think the players are still pretty loyal at most clubs.

[Saints43]

and more recently Sugar and Knoble.

A loyalty of sorts. Thanks fellas.

[SENsei]

Coming into another football season the comings and goings to football clubs has begun with my club being pilleged by two others. Just cant understand how people do it especially the players who only take and give nothing in return.

Loyalty seems a thing of the past and has it filtered down from the AFL were we see players forced or decide to leave each year?

It's sad in local footy where blokes go off chasing money. Or like at my club, power struggles in the boardroom cause problems and groups. We lost up to 10 players and half a board last year to a power struggle.

They left and went to one our biggest competitors, just to stick it up us. Nice, huh.

Local footy. Where the men enjoy pretending they are in the big league.

[saintsRrising]

Coming into another football season the comings and goings to football clubs has begun with my club being pilleged by two others. Just cant understand how people do it especially the players who only take and give nothing in return.

Loyalty seems a thing of the past and has it filtered down from the AFL were we see players forced or decide to leave each year?

It's sad in local footy where blokes go off chasing money. Or like at my club, power struggles in the boardroom cause problems and groups. We lost up to 10 players and half a board last year to a power struggle.

They left and went to one our biggest competitors, just to stick it up us. Nice, huh.

Local footy. Where the men enjoy pretending they are in the big league.

Well at least someone was alert...I went off on the wrong tangent


However in local footy...has not the "high priced" (either in terms of cash or employment) recruit/coach been around for a quite a while whenever a local businesman or two decideto try and influence how good their team is.


Perhaps with the economy beingf so strong in recent years it has upped the ante....or egos....or both????

[older saint]

look to the other major sporting codes in the world and you will find AFL players are very loyal to their clubs look to the NBL matt Shannahan has played for a whoping 7 clubs !!!! , look to the NBA were players move on a yearly basis and legends of the game are traded off to the highest bidder .

AFL have got it right with only a few players ever really leaving their team

In fairness to Shanahan he was disgarded by many of those clubs. It wasn't like he was shopping around as he was not in a position to do so

[rodgerfox]

Loyalty on Saintsational is very fickle.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

look to the other major sporting codes in the world and you will find AFL players are very loyal to their clubs look to the NBL matt Shannahan has played for a whoping 7 clubs !!!! , look to the NBA were players move on a yearly basis and legends of the game are traded off to the highest bidder .

AFL have got it right with only a few players ever really leaving their team

In fairness to Shanahan he was disgarded by many of those clubs. It wasn't like he was shopping around as he was not in a position to do so

oh yeah definatly he aslo had the luck of being at clubs when they folded too so he really had not choice to go else where

[Saints Premiers 2008]

look to the other major sporting codes in the world and you will find AFL players are very loyal to their clubs look to the NBL matt Shannahan has played for a whoping 7 clubs !!!! , look to the NBA were players move on a yearly basis and legends of the game are traded off to the highest bidder .

AFL have got it right with only a few players ever really leaving their team

In fairness to Shanahan he was disgarded by many of those clubs. It wasn't like he was shopping around as he was not in a position to do so

oh yeah definatly he aslo had the luck of being at clubs when they folded too so he really had not choice to go else where

it will take a long long time for an nba style bidding free-agency to be brought in thoroughly

and when it does hopefully ill be dead by then as i will loose interest in the players as they chop and change

i enjoy developing admiration and respect for the players that we blood, build up and see star in our colours all of their career...not blood and build up ala wayne rooney with everton...who sold him to the highest bidder

[evertonfc]

i enjoy developing admiration and respect for the players that we blood, build up and see star in our colours all of their career...not blood and build up ala wayne rooney with everton...who sold him to the highest bidder

You clearly have no idea of what happened in that circumstance.

There was no way in the world Everton wanted to let go of Rooney. He was offered a club record salary to stay, and every single trasnfer offer was knocked back - until he submitted a transfer request two days before the transfer deadline.

Nobody wanted him to go, but in hindsight, it was probably a good thing. We jumped from 17th to 4th in the season he left, qualifying for the Champions League. We also used the money to invest in players like Arteta, Johnson, Yakubu, Lescott and Howard, helping us to 6th last year.

We're currently 4th, made the semis of the Carling Cup, and have won 4/4 in the UEFA Cup thus far.

Losing Rooney hurt a great deal, but we used his departure to turn the club around, and we've never looked back.

[older saint]

It is like the Sienfeld episode you support the jumper not the players. That has started in the AFL about 10 years ago