Lions coach Michael Voss says AFL will quickly move on from Israel Folau's return to rugby league. Source: Getty Images
BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss says the AFL should not shut the book on raiding rival sports for athletes, despite the failed Israel Folau experiment.
Folau is set to return to rugby league with the Parramatta Eels after two unsuccessful years playing AFL, where he kicked two goals valued at $1.5 million each.
Voss said the AFL's costly punt on Folau was not necessarily a failure and any move to grow the game in an expansion market was welcome.
"It has been an experiment that hasn't worked, but it could work in the future," Voss said while announcing the Lions' new major sponsor was insurance company Vero.
"Anything that reinforces our emerging markets is a good investment.
"This area is growing significantly and it must continue to grow.
"Any investment in this region is critical to AFL's expansion plans.
"Him moving back to league is highlighting that it really takes a passion for the game to make a success of it.
"Just because one doesn't work, doesn't mean another won't."
Voss stuck up for his code yesterday and said Folau dumping AFL was just a "mossie bite" the game would easily overcome.
"If it was Chris Judd or Jonathan Brown it would hurt," he said.
"Our code will carry on. It is bigger than one person.
"There's no black eye. A blemish, a mossie bite maybe."
Legendary AFL coach Mick Malthouse said Folau's stint in AFL had enhanced, rather than diminished his reputation as a footballer.
As the focus of Folau's early exit from Greater Western Sydney turned to the clamour between his prospective new employers, the premiership coach argued that the code-hopping Queenslander was now a fitter, and perhaps more skilful athlete.
"I don't think anyone's a loser out of this," Malthouse said yesterday at the Queensland leg of his book launch at the Aspley Hornets football club.
"Kevin (Sheedy) is an old teammate and an adversary of mine and he said (Folau) wasn't fit enough.
"By the end of the season he certainly was. He'll take a very strong fitness element back to the code he takes on.
"The win situation is that he had a go at (AFL). I take my hat off to him for having a crack."
Malthouse: A Football Life sheds light on Carlton's new coach and reveals some critical moments from those closing days at Collingwood, including Malthouse heading off a 2011 player revolt.
In the biographical book, Christi Malthouse wrote about her father hosing down a player petition that wanted him reinstated as head coach at the Pies for 2012.
Christi enjoyed the experience of interviewing her father for the book, insisting she learned much about the wily AFL survivor.
"No subject was off limits. It was very honest," she said.
"I found out a lot more about his upbringing, and I learnt a lot more about the way he thinks about football and what makes him tick."
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