Regrettably, I spent time working for the Christian Brothers.*
Once I recall telling a (lay) Deputy of an incident involving our kids at another school.
“My greatest fear”, he confessed, “ is the media getting hold of something negative.”
Hmmmm…………
Not the kids’ welfare.
Not the failure of the School’s systems.
Bad publicity!
Somehow Demetriou’s “sorry saga” speech annoyed me. He’s sorry it has become an issue.
The gutless AFL are trying the “everyone can move on” caper.
LOOK AWAY! FINALS!!!
The breathless coverage was nauseating. It ain’t a bombshell. Everyone’s known it has been a “Mexican” stand-off for ages. Stage managed.
I’ve no real opinion as I have no understanding of the truth.
But the response smells…………
The AFL gets to grandstand.
EFC miss a finals game they’d shamefully lose.
The 2013 season is minimally impacted by just one dead rubber. September footy will reclaim the masses. The scandal will be buried by the election, the Cup, the Ashes.
A manufactured outcome where both sides will be satisfied. AFL’s authority is reinforced. Hird is deified as victim and gets a new contract. The Bombers’ VFL side gets to play finals this week.
It is all a bit hazy.
The wider footy community might suck it up – after all, they are sick of this being the main story.
But I reckon they still need evidence that something wrong was done and thus punished.
Here’s one symbolic gesture – if, as accused, Essendon have brought shame on football, they must lose the ANZAC Day match.
Any thoughts?
*(note: I never observed anything reportable – I would not have hesitated despite their bullying, “in-house”, self-reporting culture)
Somehow, the final ASADA report will come out before the 2014 (fix)ture is announced.
Nudge nudge wink wink!
Agree entirely Crio,reckon the league would hate the thought of the fan and image backlash if they let them play on Anzac Day
Nah mate. They’ll put sheeds in a slouch hat and mention tradition.
Lest we Remember
I totally agree the belief in Anzac Day grows by the Year let’s be honest it is the real Australi Day Essendon have lost the write to be part of it
100% YES, they should lose it. If there was a petition you could sign, I’d do it in a flash. The AFL would save face for all their dithering if they meted out this further punishment.
A lot more to happen yet, people. A lot more.
Let’s not gouge ourselves on the bread rolls and spoil ourselves for the main course.
I think the fixture for next year in general will be a very interesting process to watch.
Regardless of what form Essendon takes, if they have players suspended if anything if proven about what they took, Essendon will be a story next year.
So does the AFL punish them by taking away Friday night games, Anzac Day and the Dreamtime game (punishing in part Collingwood and Richmond in the process) or do they schedule more Essendon blockbusters on the basis that people will watch every Essendon move.
Who will they play in Round 1? I guarantee they won’t kick off the year in Adeliade again, it will be MCG in prime time, maybe against this years Premiers .
Let’s see how brave the AFL are, and if Ch 7 has a soul. I’m betting the Dons will rate, so they’ll be rewarded
Sean
Of course Essendon will lose the Anzac Day game. It is going to be the Eagles V Dockers in a Civil War re-enactment. Scum V Bum.
Litza is on the ball – this is only the appetiser before the Cronulla bomb drops; Dank gives evidence and ASADA charges players in both codes because strict liability sheets home to the athlete (despite a lack of intent). As I said on Shane’s thread:
“This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end; but it is the end of the beginning.” The AFL has done all it could given the highly suggestive, but in the end largely circumstantial evidence TO DATE. ASADA have not finished by a long shot, and as the even grubbier Cronulla case becomes public, the media and the NRL will ensure that ASADA charges are laid against Essendon players – with all the flow on consequences for the club and the AFL. ASADA will force Dank to testify as part of the more serious Cronulla case and he will drag the whole edifice down with him. He is not going down without taking others down with him.
Anyone who has been involved in a serious legal matter will know that the process of investigation; laying charges and trial takes 3-5 years – not the instant justice we are used to in sport. (Take a look at how many years it took ASIC to eventually nail John Elliott over Water Wheel).
“The dogs are barking, but the legal caravan edges inexorably onward.”
Malcolm,
I actually think that, culturally, ANZAC Day has eaten itself…but that’s a discussion for another time.
The AFL issued the punishment. End of story. We can argue about the punishment but once it is handed down that’s it. Essendon keeps ANZAC Day.
BUT, herein lies the great problem of the AFL’s desire for tokenistic, “political”, named rounds – Indigenous round, women’s round, gay rights round etc etc. By immersing themselves in places they don’t belong, they come unstuck. By holding up the Essendon/Collingwood Anzac clash as a symbol of all that is good and right about football, they now must wipe egg from their faces. Essendon is the opposite of all that is good and right, but the AFL must see them run onto the ground in next season’s clash as a tarnished symbol of their world. That’s their punishment. It will happen again just as its happened before (see the 13 year old yelling racially charged comments during this year’s Indigenous round). One day they might realise they’re just a footballing body and that’s all. They’re not the messiah.
Peter B you are correct but for the presumption Steve Dank doesn’t borrow Tony Mokbel’s rug and Chris Skase’s medical condition and skedaddle.
You won’t hear much more from me on this topic, as I’m hunkered down with Andrew Llo… sorry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber working on ‘Hird the Musical’.
Currently re-working ‘Oh What a Circus’:
But the star has gone, the glamour’s worn thin
That’s a pretty bad state for a club to be in
Instead of governance we had a lab
Instead of running laps we simply got a jab
Instead of finals we were given ‘the bird’
We didn’t tweet much, just #standbyhird
I like it ALW, but the 2007/9/11 versions of “Cats” were your best stuff.
“Memories
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every streetlamp
Seems to beat a fatalistic warning
Someone mutters
And the streetlamp gutters
And soon it will be morning
Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I musn’t give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale cold smell of morning
The streetlamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning”
Funny how some people see things differently.
I’m not totally sure that Essendon have “brought the game into disrepute”. …maybe, maybe not. What’s the real evidence, anyone seen it, heard it?
If there’s a big case in court we generally know what went on in because the media is there and they report on it and they have to report those facts accurately because they are officially recorded.
The AFL on the other hand does private deals behind closed doors and then everyone walks out, says they’re sorry, its time to move on etc.. If that happened in a court room, our judicial system would be a joke.
From my point of view, the scandal is that this is all “in house” and the stakeholders (us) are none the wiser. I think the way the AFL handles things is a disgrace, they are not open to any scrutiny.
As for the ANZAC game, 90,000 people at the G, I reckon i’ve got a pretty good idea what will be happening.
Jock – There’s justice and then there’s justice AFL-style. Like Melbourne getting hit with fines and suspensions for what exactly!!? Apparently they weren’t tanking so pick your crime.