AFL season 2014

Suns to make the eight

Good bloke until he drinks same story for many Australian men sadly .

You lot have all been very funny today! Not just this thread!
Good work boys! Fair play.

^ Tux, that's as funny as Scotty buying a Roxy Hat!

I hope this season is not hijacked by team or teams unscrupulous practices and that it can get back to shine as the great game it is..
Quietly hoping the changes that have made to my beloved team.. Melbourne can see them get off their collective knees to stand tall and give the Club some respect not only amongst the Dees army but AFL as well, gets some passion, get some ****ing mongrel get some arrrrggghhh into you, go the ****ing Dee's

Bump!




Nearly time to start some AFL talk again!
(had to dig this thread up from "Page 6")...

Ock, yeah Dee's look a hell of a lot more promising now! Unfortunately, your last appointed coach wasn't quite the right man for a big re-build.

Demon's v Cats coming up, in Alice Springs too!
If I had 1 Million Dollars, and time to burn... I would fly up with my KTM Dirtbike, and watch the games, and ride the Fink Desert Track...

Better get that footy comp back up and running!

Geez the Hawks are feeding a large Metwurst into the anal cavity of the Roos down in Tassie Devel land ....... betcha TD has split his strides

Bombers - I don't think the AFL or ASADA has come out with any official statement, saying the won't be sanctioned, etc!?

The time is now, to officially clear the players, get 2014 off and firing, with Essendon in no doubts!
I think the Bombers have copped their wrap, with some quite significant Club Sanctions...
I think they have paid their price... The players did seem to be kept in the dark... even though I can't believe more of the players didn't speak up earlier, or raise their eye-brows, raise the questions...

Interesting perspective



Retiring AFL boss Andrew Demetriou came to mistake competence for omnipotence, writes Richard Hinds

Richard Hinds
The Daily Telegraph
March 04, 2014 12:00AM

Andrew Demetrious time in charge of the AFL saw him step on many toes but he has been praised by both friends and foes following his announcement that he was stepping down at the end of the 2014 season.

ANDREW Demetriou?s resignation announcement was a fireside chat. A cosy conversation with some emotional moments, a few in-jokes, idle boasts and the odd flash of defiance.

There was a long list of laudable achievements. The billion dollar media rights deals, the millions extracted from various governments for infrastructure, massive crowds and club memberships, the audacious raid into foreign territory and on it went.

The AFL has not yet put a team on Pluto. Although Demetriou still has six months in the swivel chair.

But the manner of his departure also provided an insight into how an administration rightly considered the best and most progressive of any Australian sport had let down its guard.

Demetriou?s resignation comes ? coincidentally, he insists ? with the AFL under intense pressure after it bungled a joint investigation with ASADA into Essendon?s rogue supplements program.

How had the AFL?s halo slipped?


Somewhere in the final years of the Demetriou decade the AFL started to believe its glowing publicity and mistake competence for omnipotence.

This was apparent when, without walking the red carpet, Demetriou began to sound like he was accepting an Oscar rather than departing an executive role for which he was paid $2 million per annum.

Such self-satisfaction at a time when his game has lost its lustre was informative.

Even the anodyne questions of the media created the feeling Demetriou could be judged by only two standards ? absolutely superb or simply fantastic. Demetriou has often been accused of arrogance, particularly in Sydney where his lament about the ?ugly?? Swans of 2005, and some of the assumptions around the establishment of the Giants have ruffled feathers.

Demetriou described his manner as ?decisive??. And no doubt his unwavering self-assurance helped parlay the AFL?s fanatical heartland support into a robust position.

Where other sports bleated about lack of government support, Demetriou had lobbyists camped outside federal, state and local politicians? doors.

Where others let underperforming clubs bleed money and waste funds on dilapidated stadiums, Demetriou maximised revenue and oversaw an efficient and profitable competition.


Australian Football great Kevin Sheedy commends retiring AFL boss Andrew Demetriou

But in the final years of Demetriou?s reign the AFL ?brand?? had become all-important, and ?brand protection?? the source of several blunders that rebounded on the league. Perhaps, behind the AFL Commission?s closed door, also on Demetriou.

There was Demetriou?s refusal to acknowledge clubs were ?tanking?? to gain superior draft picks ? even after Melbourne was fined for doing so ? and the confusing handling of Adelaide?s salary cap cheating. Which, given the light sanctions for some, gave the impression of deal-making and cronyism.

Finally and most disastrously there is the botched Essendon investigation. The time when a domestic game used to cleaning up its own mess struggled with the constraints of a global drug code to which it was a signatory.

The outcome? The embarrassing image of Demetriou ridiculing the notion James Hird would be paid during his 12 month suspension, only to find the cash was already in his account.

Given Demetriou?s accomplishments it might seem churlish to dwell on the recent mishaps, or to suggest they will blight his legacy. Demetriou was eager to avoid that fate when challenged about his handling of the Essendon affair.

?I?ll tell you what I didn?t do,?? he said. ?I never injected anyone.??

To those using the shortcomings of the AFL investigation as a smoke screen to protect Hird and others, it was a point well made. Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick invited appraisal of Demetriou?s role when he claimed the chief executive had given the game ?an ethical underpinning, a conscience??. Was this the case in his handling of Essendon?s regime?

Similarly, Fitzpatrick praised Demetriou?s efforts on indigenous and women?s rights as altruistic.

Other will consider this a savvy method of raiding the public purse to promote the AFL, as much as the causes themselves. Perhaps it was both.

Fitzpatrick described Demetriou as one of the ?temporary custodians of the game?? whose duty was to leave it in a better shape than when he arrived. By most measures, he did so wonderfully well. But the moment Demetriou started to believe there was no mountain his AFL could not move, the time for change had come.