AFL boss Gill McLachlan takes mark of the year with new $4.5b broadcast deal
Cartoonist Mark Knight reckons we won’t see a better speccy than AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan’s grab of the $4.5 billion broadcast deal
READING LEVEL: GREEN
Australia is a sports mad nation and the biggest game in town is Australian rules football. This week the AFL put a dollar value on just how big the game is when it signed a mammoth broadcast rights deal with Channel 7 and Foxtel. An eye-watering $4.5 billion over 7 years to be exact, the biggest in Australian sporting history!
The deal was negotiated by outgoing* AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and his team only weeks before he departs the top job at the AFL, a role he has held for eight years.
I draw a lot of cartoons about sport, particularly the AFL, but here was a chance to create one on the business side of the sport.
When thinking about creating this cartoon, my first thought was: What do I want to say?
The fact that this is a huge financial deal was one thing I wanted to get across. The second was that the deal has raised the value of the sport to new heights. And the third point was that the deal had been done by the AFL boss. I would have to have Gill McLachlan in it.
Then I had to consider how to illustrate these ideas. Rather than just drawing executives* high-fiving each other around a negotiating table – which would be pretty boring – I wanted to create something in keeping with the exciting game of Aussie rules.
AFL footy is a dynamic* sport with high, precision* kicks, leaping marks, the clash of bodies, and huge stadiums: great visual elements that could be used as powerful metaphors*.
I realised there was only one way to go. Literally drawing on one of the most spectacular parts of the game, I would draw the AFL chief taking a huge mark, a big speccy*, a leap, the biggest grab ever. A $4.5 billon grab!
Gill McLachlan is great to draw. He is tall, handsome and has one of the most recognisable mullets going around.
I started looking at photos of some of the great marks over the years: Alex Jesaulenko in 1970, Leo Barry in the 2005 grand final and current high-flying Magpie Jeremy Howe. I took various aspects of each grab and sketched the AFL chief executive in flight.
A crucial part of the drawing was going to be what he was actually marking. Would it be a huge ball, symbolic* of the huge broadcast deal? Or a large bag of cash?
I went for a combination of both, settling on a gigantic Sherrin* coloured sack full of cash.
His body language as he hugs the bag tightly on contact adds momentum* to the drawing. Gold coins spill from the top of the sack, hinting to the reader what’s inside. In the background is a full stadium pointing to the fact that Aussie rules is the most popular sport in the country when it comes to game attendances and television ratings.
I think we can safely say this was the mark of the year!
GLOSSARY
- outgoing: leaving a job or position
- executives: people with senior management jobs in a business
- dynamic: energetic, active, forceful
- precision: being accurate, exact
- metaphors: imaginative ways of describing something by referring to something else which is similar in some way
- speccy: slang for a spectacular mark in AFL football
- symbolic: serving as a symbol of something
- Sherrin: the brand of the ball used in AFL football
- momentum: the force or speed of an object in motion
EXTRA READING
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Tassie girl becomes face of AFL team bid
QUICK QUIZ
- How much is the new broadcast deal worth to the AFL?
- What job does Gillon McLachlan have and how long has he had it?
- What three points did Mark Knight want to get across in his cartoon?
- What did Mark Knight look at before drawing the mark in this cartoon?
- Why did Mark Knight include the big red sack in his cartoon?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What happens next?
Imagine this cartoon is part of a story that is made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell a complete story, and Mark’s cartoon is the start of the story. Think about what the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking
2. Extension
Being able to draw is only one of the skills needed to be a great cartoonist. Write a list of all of the other skills that you think cartoonists like Mark need to do their job.
Next to each skill, write a sentence that explains why that skill is important or helps them to do a great job.
Time: allow at least 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social Capability, Media Arts, Visual Communication Design
VCOP ACTIVITY
Describe it
Look at the cartoon and make a list of five nouns that you see. Then describe those five nouns with five adjectives.
Add a preposition to those five nouns and adjectives.
Now choose your favourite bundle and put all the words together to make one descriptive sentence.