Footballers need to take stock

AFL players are some of the luckiest employed people in the country. They are playing the game they love, getting paid for it and they have access to the best gyms, doctors and other health experts around. Yet they are in discussions for more money. More? They are already paid in excess of our prime minister and chief of police, for less important work.
They argue they are the centre of the game as entertainment and therefore should benefit more from the increased TV rights deal. You can't always play the 'centre of attention' card because that simply undermines the hard working people behind the scenes. The trainers, runners, admin staff, promoters and even the unpaid loyal volunteers. Footballers are not the only thing that keeps people coming in the gates to watch every week. Because without the background staff, those players would not be full time players, they would be inna sport like net all that requires another job to keep the bills paid.
Another classic argument is that their football career is over by 32 and if they are lucky to get that far, then they are thrust into the world without an ongoing job and no training. How about getting of your arse and training for a job after football, lime so many players have before them, Adelaide's produced a doctor who trained whilst playing elite football, that was Matthew Liptak. How can a footballer expect to get paid a comfortable amount more to help with the layoff period around 30, when so many workers like those at Bluntstone boots who lost their jobs to China, they were not paid to accommodate being let go.
So we should see these players receive more pay to take care of them in their retirement, at age 30. What a wonderful world that would be.
Mick Malthouse, Collingwood coach, summed it up when he said "don't confuse talent with intelligence". They train and play for a living in the biggest Australian sport, and that pay is huge in most cases. Even those on rookie status get $80'000 per annum, people live on less than half that. I am disgusted that they are even calling for a player pension fund, they already get superannuation as normal Australians get, but now they also want a fund they can access at retirement, which as I have mentioned is around 30. Sign me up! But wait, us ordinary, un-godlike folk can't get that. A pension fund? That's fantastic money if you can get it.
I read a football writer say that it's hard for a footballer to suddenly lose their job and need to look for new work. Is this any different to workers worldwide who lose their jobs when companies downsize or liquidate? Footballers need to remember, the game might not go on without all of them, but it could not happen without the fans as well.