Australian Football League coaches are negotiating an annual A$500,000 ($389,000) deal with Fox
Footy "that will see opposing coaches hold joint post-game press
conferences," according to Caroline Wilson of THE AGE. In what is believed to be a world sporting first, "the
radical move has prompted misgivings from at least two senior coaches
and from the AFL concerned about the access ramifications for its
free-to-air broadcaster, the Seven Network." AFL exec Simon Lethlean on
Thursday summoned Fox Footy CEO Ben Buckley and AFL Coaches'
Association CEO Mark Brayshaw to league headquarters "after
learning of the plan." Lethlean "was reportedly seeking details of the
joint post-game press conferences which, under the current proposal,
would be staged only after games exclusive to the pay-TV network." Brayshaw confirmed that "negotiations were in their final stages." He said
that "the money raised would help establish a coaches' retirement fund along
with a number of coaching development schemes." He said that "the deal would
help the restructured AFL Coaches' Association work to become less
reliant on AFL funding." In a yet-to-be-determined format, one plan "is that the joint press
conferences would be attended by all media and televised live and
exclusively on Fox Footy." Another format "would see the two senior
coaches appear together in between the two traditional club post-game
interview sessions" (THE AGE, 3/5).
