The AFL has tanked its way to the bottom of the integrity ladder

After months of investigative work by the AFL commission a verdict has been reached.

The verdict-NOT GUILTY

Don’t rejoice yet Demons fans because your club hasn’t gotten off scot free.

The Melbourne Football Club has been fined $500,000, while Chris Connolly has been relieved of his duties until February 1 next year and Dean Bailey will not be allowed in the Adelaide coaches’ box until round 17.

Now you might be asking yourself how an ‘innocent’ Club has been penalised.

Well the AFL has said that although the Melbourne Football Club didn’t tank, the club “had acted in a manner which was prejudicial to the interests of the AFL.”

What does that actually mean?

Well the AFL has basically just sat in the corner of a dark room, put their fingers in their ears and yelled as loudly as they could with their eyes closed. However no amount of ignorance could stop the AFL from bowing to public pressure.

So naturally the AFL penalised the Club but said they did nothing. Confusing, right?

Also if found guilty people, most likely Demons fans and officials, would have called for investigations into other clubs who took advantage of the system.

Even more confusing is the fact that that the Melbourne Football Club is praising the AFL for this penalty should be a sign to the AFL that all is not right.

So really, by penalising the club but announcing to the world they are innocent, the AFL believes they have dodged a bullet and still kept their integrity intact.

However the AFL has just dug themselves a bigger hole by not accepting that a rule to help clubs has been abused by the clubs. To really restore faith, the AFL should just come clean. By constantly denying any wrongdoing by themselves, people will just lose faith in this organisation.

About Ben Stepnell

A person who loves writing about sports but doesn't want to work for a newspaper. I just simply want to have my opinions, ideas and thoughts out there for people to enjoy and for me to have something that I know is mine

Comments

  1. Very confusing. No they didn’t tank, but we wil hit them financially, as well as taking punitive action against alleged perpetrators. Confused; i am. Is it the AFL could not pursue legal action against the alleged tanking/tankers, as it wouldn’t hold up in a court of law ?

    The AFL has had a proud record in recent years of being proactive in areas like racism, etc, but what have they done here?

    Glen!

  2. It will be interesting to see the results if the drugs investigation considering that ASADA are conducting the investigation and the AFL aren’t

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