AFL football is the latest sport to join the trend of fly-on-the-wall documentaries after a partnership was announced with Amazon to show a docu-series in 2021.
Cameras will follow four players, including Eddie Betts, one coach and an administrator for the duration of the unprecedented 2020 season, which has been impacted by the spread of Covid-19.
Betts called out a racist social media post aimed at him at the weekend as the coronavirus-hit season got back underway with a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement after a near-three month pause in play due to the pandemic.
West Coast Eagles star Nic Naitanui, GWS Giants captain Stephen Coniglio and Adelaide captain Rory Sloane join Betts as subjects of the series. Peggy O’Neal, president of the Richmond Football Club – and the first woman to hold such a position in the AFL – and Gold Coast Suns head coach Stuart Dew are also included.
The series, which will document events up to the grand final scheduled in late October, will stream in Australia next year and over 200 other countries and territories worldwide.
It promises “an exclusive behind the scenes look” and “a unique insight into the daily challenges and struggles on and off the field of professional football as they navigate their way through the season and these unprecedented times”.
Darren Birch, AFL general manager, growth, digital and audience said: “We are facing unprecedented times in the history of our league, and to be able to document how it unfolds through the lens of some of our competition’s most influential and important figures will be something we look forward to bringing to life.”
It follows a similar Amazon documentary that followed Australia’s men’s cricket team in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal, The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team, that also promised unprecedented behind-the-scenes access.
The film was well received for chronicling a dramatic period in cricket history, regardless of any pre-held suspicions about a carefully edited PR job on behalf of Cricket Australia.
The AFL said it hoped its series would attract new fans to the league and help grow the game in Australia.
