The Soaring

The Western Force join the list of Perth-based elite sporting franchises when they kick off in the Super 14’s competition this year. They will play at Subiaco oval, the home ground the Eagles and already some clashes have arisen:

Tension between the West Coast Eagles and Western Force is simmering after the Eagles were kicked off Subiaco Oval for their first intra-club game next month.

…

Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett said the club had been involved in ongoing discussions with the WA Football Commission about the situation.

“Obviously we knew this would happen, but our feeling is we shouldn’t have to move away from Subiaco, which is our home ground,” he said.

“In fairness, the commission has been very good about it, but what we’re saying is we’re generating a lot of income to football in this state and we can’t use our own ground at a time when we’d like to.

“I’m not sure if it should be like this at the expense of AFL football.”

When you as a club don’t own your own home ground, this is always likely to happen. The problem in this case is that the Eagles ‘owner’ the WAFC doesn’t necessarily have an intimate interest in the Eagles absolute success. For them the key criteria is not preparation for the season and on field success, but managing the asset of football and the off-field dollar aspects of the game.

It’s perhaps an increasingly common theme that the interests of football and motive of money are not one and the same thing.