As fans count down the hours to the resumption of the 2020 season, debate still rages about its merits.
Dennis Cometti has called for there to be no 2020 premier, because the competition has been compromised by the coronavirus pandemic, while many others think that if a premiership is awarded, it will forever have an asterisk over it to diminish its standing in the record books.
This premiership will look very different than many others because of the 2020 story.
But every premiership has a story behind it.
Look back through the record books, and you’ll see that Fitzroy won the premiership in 1916, and that Essendon won in 1897 and 1924. Soon you will see the 2020 winner.
It's the job of a record book to list premierships. But it doesn’t tell the stories, and if the 1916 premiership doesn't need an asterisk, the 2020 season doesn't either.
Fitzroy won in 1916 from fourth position, which seems normal enough.
But guess what? That season there were just four sides: Fitzroy finished last with only two wins in the minor rounds, before qualifying for finals by default and sweeping their three games.
The story behind the 1916 season was World War One, which decimated the VFL to the point where third-finishing Richmond are the official wooden spooners.
There’s no asterisk over 1916: that’s just the story of what happened that year.
Essendon have won an equal-record 16 premierships, however, they have only won 14 Grand Finals, because in 1897 and 1924 they won the flag via a round robin finals series.
Port Adelaide won in 2004, but would things have been different if Brisbane hadn’t had to travel in the third week of the finals, when their “home game” was played at the MCG, forcing their ageing and wounded stars into extra travel?
West Coast won in 2006, but several of the players had off-field lifestyle issues.
Hawthorn won in 2008, but were pretty obviously not the best side throughout 2008.
How many of these Premierships have asterisks over them?
I think some people value Officialdom far too highly, coveting systemised recognition far more than experience.
It’s not the joy of victory that some fans care about, just the honour board.
So what if Jeremy Howe didn’t win mark of the year in 2017? It was still an awesome mark.
Did you enjoy it at the time, or did you really just like it because you thought it might win him an “Official AFL Toyota Telstra Sportsbet Mark of the Year, brought to you by Coles”?
Similarly, many people want premierships simply to see their team’s name enshrined in the ever-growing list of champions, or so their club’s tally can improve.
A premiership is the ultimate achievement for a team, obviously, but it’s being thought of in the wrong terms by many these days, especially since the introduction of Free Agency.
Players sometimes leave a club to “chase a premiership”, as though it’s some sort of currency, as though all premierships are identical, and once you’ve won one you’re on an equal footing with all other premiership winners in history – apart from those who’ve won more than you.
The truth is Stuart Dew was already a premiership player, before he played one season at Hawthorn for his flag in 2008.
Shane Crawford had carried the club on his back, often through agonising injuries, for 16 seasons for the same prize. There’s no doubt who it would have meant more to.
They are such different experiences, and yet Dew clearly is now deservedly a very celebrated figure of the Hawthorn Football Club.
Premierships are not all equal, each has its own story.
Yes, the 2020 Premiers will have become champions under a different set of circumstances than others, but so what? It’s the unique circumstances of each success that makes them what they are.
The honour board, the record books: these things aren’t why we love footy. They don’t matter.
There are no asterisks, there are only stories.
And each story behind each premiership is special.
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