We're constantly told "one percenters" are important in footy.
Someone should remind those in power at AFL House, because the league keeps fumbling and fluffing the small moments.
And it is happening so regularly, the small moments are becoming a big problem.
The time clock issues earlier in the year were an irritant. An issue so much unlike the AFL. A "one percenter" or two gone wrong.
Then the microphone inexplicably cut out just as Zak Butters was supposedly abusing Nick Foot. The audio guys have one job ... bizarrely another "one percenter" botched.
That created a double-whammy of howlers.
Jason Johnson, a tribunal jury member, tuned into a hearing while driving to make it on time to an open for inspection.
Then in the follow up case, the lawyer, Paul Ehrlich KC, goes on the attack at Johnson for driving only to be interrupted by his own fluffy dog barking manically in the background.
Hopefully the league has fixed its mechanical time-keeping issues, because it has always been known for its precision and professionalism in that area.
But there is an easy fix to the "one percenters" gone wrong in the tribunal.
Clearly, following a case on your phone while driving as a juror, has already been banned.
If it hasn't already, the AFL should ban lawyers from joining tribunal hearings from home. To be interrupted by a yapping puppy is laughable.
Surely, a club legal eagle can zoom in from their work office ... if not the club's boardroom.
In reality though, it raises a wider question. Why are these hearings so remote/tech-based anyway?
Covid finished a long a time ago. Can't we get back to in-person hearings in the bowels of Marvel Stadium?
Yes, the interstate clubs can join in remotely, but the jurors and all Victorian participants should surely gather in the same room - with the gathered media.
Like the old days, where it worked just fine.
Greg Swann, the AFL's head of footy, is a pragmatic straight-to-the-point person. He'd no doubt be less than delighted in the glitches and comedic chaos of the modern-day video hook-up.
A yapping dog might have been the last straw.
You couldn't blame Swanny for saying "Shove your Webex, we're getting back to basics".
The AFL has always been renowned for the professionalism of its product, and its surrounding business.
It is still No.1 in the land, but has ever so slightly left the door ajar for others to catch it. It just doesn't seem as impregnable as it used to be.
It's a perceptions business and the "one percenters" are massive in footy.
