{"id":469951,"date":"2026-02-10T05:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469951\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T05:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T05:34:09","slug":"more-professional-premiership-player-rebukes-proposed-pre-game-attire-change-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/469951\/","title":{"rendered":"“More professional”: Premiership player rebukes proposed pre-game attire change – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A former AFL<\/a> tough man has expressed his disapproval towards the industry’s push for AFL<\/a> players to arrive in casual clothing.<\/p>\n

Carlton premiership player and 1987 Norm Smith Medalist David Rhys-Jones believes that the unity that team outfits provide makes them the preferable option.<\/p>\n

“During the week you can wear what you like, but it’s a team sport, not an individual sport. That’s the most important thing to remember,” he told Zero Hanger.<\/p>\n

Several sources from a cross-section of the industry believe players arriving in their chosen attire would be a mutually optimal outcome.<\/p>\n

NBA and NFL athletes arrive at their matches in their choice of clothing, and there is a belief that allowing players to express their personality would resonate with the current generation of football followers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TV networks would also benefit, by getting more interesting shots.<\/p>\n

The industry got a taste of players arriving in casual clothing during the short-lived AFLX<\/a> experiment, but it has otherwise been unseen in the sport.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got sponsors and people you’re beholden to, and I think it looks a bit smarter to wear your team kit,” Rhys-Jones continued.<\/p>\n

“It looks more professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“If you look like a team, you’re probably going to perform like a team. It’s like running out on the field and all going in different directions doing your own warm up, it just doesn’t happen, you do it altogether, so you may as well look the same.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former AFL tough man has expressed his disapproval towards the industry’s push for AFL players to arrive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-469951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}