They created the monster with Judd, Ablett and then Scully last year and now they want to do something about it - League concerned over player poaching.

Hypocrites!

Yeah...well...don't say you are surprised?

The AFL heirarchy are and always have been a pack of money grabbing self glorifying hypocrites, so what is new?

Their precious new parody franchise clubs could get hurt...just wouldn't do.

Wasn't it AD that said the Scully poaching was a stroke of genius??

And they're the ones who brought in FA.

Hypocrites & corrupt.

What's good for one is good for all, our turn is coming.

Edited June 27, 201213 yr by Hells Gates

Wasn't it AD that said the Scully poaching was a stroke of genius??

And they're the ones who brought in FA.

Hypocrites & corrupt.

What's good for one is good for all, our turn is coming.

FA is something that any single player could have done by suing the AFL FOR RESTRAINT OF TRADE. THE AFL (oops sorry for the caps) simply bowed to the inevitable and reached a compromise solution with the players union. Not sure you can blame them for FA.

As for poaching their position is a disgrace.

I just don't believe Anderson.....they all knew what would happen.

Just to inject some balance into this rant, without the AFL-sponsored salary capping of the "Man Uniteds" of this competition, Melbourne would have dropped out of the competition in the 1990's. It is a managed system, and in reality a penalty shoot out against rugby 1, rugby 2, soccer and cricket. We stopped being the Melbourne Football Club about twenty something years ago. We are now "The AFL Demons", and not too far into the future our 12 premierships will be re-calibrated to zero or one to reflect the new reality of AFL Rules.

Just to inject some balance into this rant, without the AFL-sponsored salary capping of the "Man Uniteds" of this competition, Melbourne would have dropped out of the competition in the 1990's. It is a managed system, and in reality a penalty shoot out against rugby 1, rugby 2, soccer and cricket. We stopped being the Melbourne Football Club about twenty something years ago. We are now "The AFL Demons", and not too far into the future our 12 premierships will be re-calibrated to zero or one to reflect the new reality of AFL Rules.

I cannot agree with that...

sorry....anyone is surprised because ??????????

Honestly theyre just a pack of ( insert fitting description)

They make it all up on the run........stuff everyone around......tinker , tinker until its completely stuffed, and take a very handsome quid for their efforts ( sic)

If the clubs had any balls theyd get rid of these idiots.

Yeah...well...don't say you are surprised?

The AFL heirarchy are and always have been a pack of money grabbing self glorifying hypocrites, so what is new?

Their precious new parody franchise clubs could get hurt...just wouldn't do.

And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.

it all comes down to the definition ( or oterwise rubbery intepretation) of the word...BINDING .

And they're the ones who brought in FA.

Although I think Anderson's comments are ridiculous and wanting to have their cake and eat it too, to be fair FA was basically forced on the AFL by the AFLPA. The AFL pushed back against this for years.

The AFL only ceded to FA in any shape or form at the peril of the AFLPA causing no end of trouble.

Which only goes to prove...get your act together and you can nobble these fwits at teh AFL into some sense. The clubs ought to be standing up together...but of course never will.

And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.

Another Ology refugee?

Welcome. You have a slight 'copying' issue...

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.

There'll still be 100,000 there and I'll be one of them. The AFL has bitten of a huge bite in GC and GWS and it might take 50 years to digest but it's required if the AFL is going to dominate Australia-wide. Otherwise it'll stay marginal in NSW and Qld.

Come on, Jack. There's poaching, and then there's legal poaching.

And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.And that’s the issue, or will be.

As with Scully, the AFL is going to have to find more and more of its rules on player contracts and movements to applaud being bent or broken to keep GWS alive. The farcical rent-a-crowd (not even a crowd really) on Saturday suggests it’s never going to happen through membership. All they can do is keep on underwriting one way or another GWS’s player group in the hope that several premierships in a row gets someone west of Glebe vaguely interested.

The AFL administration, for all its faults, has usually been more than a few steps ahead of the NRL. But they’ve got way beyond themselves with the Blacktown ‘invasion.’ What the NRL would never have risked was a second Melbourne based team, especially given the supporter base (way beyond anything GWS can expect this century) and how much money it’s taken to keep the Storm alive, even if it was Uncle Rupert’s.

I look forward (well, I don’t really) to a GWS – North Melbourne grand final, with a crowd of maybe fifty thousand. Demetriwho? might stop and consider the price of his hubris then. Although probably he’ll just start talking about moving the grand final to the SCG.

I think I'll go write Strawberry Fields Forever after reading this... PS i agree with the sentiments

Another Ology refugee?

Welcome. You have a slight 'copying' issue...

Whoops ... no wonder it looked longer than I'd thought.

Not actually from 'Ology ... do they have trouble with the 'paste' button there as well?

Edited June 28, 201213 yr by Dr John Dee

Whoops ... no wonder it looked longer than I'd thought.

Not actually from 'Ology ... do they have trouble with the 'paste' button there as well?

I don't know. In fact, I'm actually not familar with any issues with the paste button here...

I just mentioned ology as you dove right in with some anti-AFL eloquence. Usually folks get there until after a few dozen posts...

When have the AFL not been hypocritical about anything?

The AFL is worried about poaching because they know established clubs will attempt to raid GWS and the Suns.

There'll still be 100,000 there and I'll be one of them. The AFL has bitten of a huge bite in GC and GWS and it might take 50 years to digest but it's required if the AFL is going to dominate Australia-wide. Otherwise it'll stay marginal in NSW and Qld.

The Gold Coast has been proving itself a football graveyard for all codes, but if one survives it'll no doubt be an NRL team. That said, I've got a lot more respect for the way the Suns are going about things than GWS. But the AFL dream of 'dominance' is exactly why a word like hubris is necessary.

Who needs dominance? What's the point of it? 50 years of indigestion is probably a gross underestimate for 'dominating' League in NSW anyway. And the Queensland border (and I live there) is where your dreams turn to illusions. Take a trip to Brisbane on a State of Origin night and see what goes on. There's a whole identity (pride, passion) thing wrapped up in the team they've got and in League itself. On second thoughts, delete hubris, insert plain arrogance.

Since I won't be around in 50 years I don't much care whether GWS will have survived and whether it's still on the AFL drip-feed or not. I care where Melbourne will be on the ladder this year, next year and I care about what AFL stupidities affect that.

All they need to do is make a rule forbidding Phat Phathers to make "binding agreementrs" before the season is over - that will avoid any Scully disgraces in future. Now all we need is something to deal with the Abletts. Perhaps they could recruit a piper dressed in motley?

I don't know. In fact, I'm actually not familar with any issues with the paste button here...

I just mentioned ology as you dove right in with some anti-AFL eloquence. Usually folks get there until after a few dozen posts...

Point taken. I don't read 'Ology posts much. My reference to the paste button was about my incompetence with it. Still don't know what I did but I'll be more careful next time since I'm not one to repeat myself, to repeat myself, to ...

I just continue to struggle to understand why there can't be a specific period of time open for player signing and contact. It should be banned outright during the season. It seems like the AFLPA is holding the AFL to ransom. [censored] like this smells union. Does in the NRL as well.

Hopefully this can see a change and give the league some power in this case. Mid-season contacting and verbal contracts is hurting the game.

Edited June 28, 201213 yr by Cudi_420

Interesting that the AFL has got sensitive on this issue a week after Tom Scully got booed at the G, and GWS had a sook about it..