2012: THE YEAR THAT WAS

[Demonland 72,225]

2012: THE YEAR THAT WAS by Whispering Jack

The great author and social critic Charles Dickens opened his epic novel A Tale of Two Cities in this way:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

The words ring loud and strong as I sit and ponder over a year whose end is almost upon us. More tough times for the club that founded the game and once ruled it, but has more recently perched uneasily on the tumbril heading for the guillotine while up there, in that far away city whose inhabitants barely care, the usurper reigns.

The early optimism ever-present at the dawn of a season seemed justified in the very early days of Mark Neeld's AFL coaching career. On the first Saturday in March, his Demons overcame the Magpies by 9 points at Etihad Stadium. Despite the format and the experimental nature of those games, there was encouragement to be gained from the way they went about things that night but alas, it was short-lived and provided little more than a passing tinge of a promise of better things to come.

The illusion was shattered within days when star forward Liam Jurrah, recuperating from a wrist injury, was arrested on charges relating to an alleged machete attack in an encampment in Alice Springs. The case became a complex saga with twists and turns that tormented the player, his community and his football club until he walked out late in the season leaving the beautiful story of his journey from Yuendumu to the big city in tatters. The end was an amicable divorce and in most years, his story would have been a mere distraction but in 2012, it was simply a distraction within a nest of distractions and deep wounds. There was much more to come.

Two days after the breaking of the news about Jurrah, on the second Saturday in March, Hawthorn slaughtered Melbourne in the next NAB Cup game. The magical rebirth was over and, less than a week later, they lost in Adelaide to a less than well-respected Port Adelaide combination. The injuries were coming and the form was suddenly worse than poor.

On 20 March, the iconic Jim Stynes, who had only recently stood down as club chairman, died at the young age of 45. A week later, he was buried at a state funeral held at St Paul's Cathedral, honoured by thousands including his players proudly wearing their red and blue blazers.

On 31 March, the season proper began. At the MCG, a listless Melbourne succumbed in the heat by 41 points to the unfancied Brisbane Lions and suddenly, the club was under attack with the vultures in the media circling. The coach was less than convincing in post-match interviews, the attendance of the players at Stynes' funeral so close to the start of the season was now scoffed at and the stirrers became more and more vicious in their contempt of the club as the defeats came and the performances tended towards the insipid. Now, Melbourne was easy prey; fodder for all manner of opportunists with various agendas, some hidden and others kept deep below the surface.

The new coach was falsely accused of discriminating against his indigenous players. The slur was traced to the AFL's community engagement manager Jason Mifsud who apologised to Neeld and offered his resignation but AFL chief Andrew Demetriou refused to accept it. Mifsud remains in his employment to this very day despite clear breaches of trust and dishonesty. The mystery remains as to the true origin of the allegations and as to whether parties other than Mifsud were behind them, for the controversy opened up more doors for the club's detractors who used it to question the manner of Neeld's appointment.

Has a young coach ever in the history of the game been exposed more to the media blowtorch, much of it without justification, than this man?

Worse was to come with the revelations of racist and sexist posts on the Facebook page of the CEO of the club's major sponsor Energy Watch. The club acted swiftly and decisively to sever ties with Energy Watch but the usual suspects were swifter in sinking more boots into the hapless Demons who admittedly did manage to cover most of the lost ground by securing Webjet and Opel as sponsors.

The season dragged on, the injuries, the poor form and the defeats got worse amid a few dim rays of light amid the gloom. Nathan Jones was indefatigable, recruit Mitch Clark a revelation at full forward and some of the youngsters were showing good signs. After nine straight losses, the Demons had a night out at the MCG and finally broke the ice to beat the Bombers but the injury toll continued to mount. Clark's foot surgery was a major blow and the list of players injured never went below a dozen in number during the second half of 2012. The inevitable result was that wins were even harder to come by and the season's total of four victories consisted of three over new franchise teams, GWS and the Gold Coast, as well as that Round 10 upset over Essendon.

Then came the thunderbolt known as the "tanking affair" which famously opened with suggestions by former player Brock McLean on the Fox Footy Channel that "you would have to be blind Freddy" not to realise that winning was less of a priority for the Demons than draft picks in his last season so he left to go to Carlton of all clubs. The Blues had three number one draft picks courtesy of the system including Matthew Kreuzer who was secured after a spectacular eleven game end of season losing streak that culminated in the farcical Kreuzer Cup and which is referred to these days in some circles as the "grand slam of tanking" but all this was missed by the panel of three supposedly wise inquisitors who were so lost for words that they failed to ask the glaringly obvious, leaving many suspecting that McLean was a mere patsy set up to embarrass his old club (or more precisely, certain officials of his old club).

The politics behind the McLean revelations was also lost on the AFL's (now departed) Adrian Anderson who hastily launched a 5½ month long inquisition which drew to a close late in the year and out of which no charges have been laid to date. The enquiry was discriminatory in that it ignored other clubs whose own activities have been queried on the subject over a period of a decade and was confined to Melbourne and Melbourne alone. Incredibly, one of the club's detractors was former Chairman Paul Gardner who went public with this massive toe poke to the head, "I knew what they were doing and why they were doing it, but I didn't have to watch it any more."

Information leaked to the media resulted in a storm of controversy in early November with an inflammatory and damning editorial knitted together by Melbourne Age chief football writer Caroline "Madame Defarge" Wilson and this led to a statement by President Don McLardy that the club would use every resource available to defend the integrity of the Melbourne Football Club. Ray Finkelstein, a prominent QC and former judge was appointed to handle the clubs defence.

There have been suggestions that the possibility of a sanction against Melbourne or some of its officials but in the absence of similarly prolonged and through investigations of other clubs also suspected of tanking but not investigated, the AFL's integrity would be left in tatters carrying the smell of corruption. The saga is set to play itself out next month amid suggestions that face-saving deals will be done but I will leave further comment to Herald Sun journalist Warwick Green who recently wrote:

For the best part of a decade the AFL had steadfastly maintained that tanking did not exist, despite a wide-held belief that clubs near the foot of the ladder each August engaged in a race to the wooden spoon.

Nevertheless at the start of the year the league decided to scrap the contentious priority pick system that many considered the main incentive to under-achieve.

Having weathered years of carping, it seemed extraordinary that in the very season it changed the system the AFL would choose to poke at an old wound by asking its integrity department to examine how Melbourne performed three years ago.

Five months later and there is still no resolution.

The suspicion is the AFL may have painted itself into a corner. Can it definitively prove Melbourne instructed players or coaches not to win? And if so, is it time to broaden the investigation.

You suspect the only way the AFL can extract itself is to say it thoroughly scrutinised the Demons and found no damning evidence. Then hope that football can put the word "tanking" behind it and never speak its name again. Footy - simply irresistible in 2012

The outcome of the enquiry will not be the end of the matter for the Melbourne Football Club. The board which has shown considerable strength and unity over a trying period still needs to deal with the core of the political maelstrom and the antipathy towards it from malcontents and disaffected supporters and from within certain segments of the media. These things are damaging and cannot be easily dealt with but they reflect deep-seated grievances and quarrels that have tracked the club through almost fifty years of disquiet that have destroyed many careers and good people and have held back its resurrection.

At the other end of the spectrum, Sydney upset Hawthorn in a memorable grand final and, for the second time in a decade, the premiership cup went north while the oldest football club in the world remained in a state of disarray. We need to aspire to their level of solidarity, calm and experience within our ranks if we are to attain success.

It was only when the playing season was over that we could experience some better times.

Nathan Jones was a worthy winner of the Keith "Bluey" Truscott Memorial Trophy in recognition of him lifting his game to a point where a little more improvement next year will see him at the level of the elite, Jeremy Howe took Mark of the Year after amassing numerous nominations at the same time demonstrating that he's more than just a spring heeled Jack while the two Jacks, Grimes and Trengove had the most difficult of initiations into the world of AFL captaincy that will hold them in good stead in the years to come. Mitch Clark stuck it right up his critics with aplomb and he will be back while young Tom McDonald showed sufficient quality as a defender to warrant some striking list decisions made by the club in terms of its future defensive structure.

The list changes effected in the last quarter of the calendar year was breathtaking in breadth and scope. We saw fifteen players gone including former captain and club stalwart Brad Green, Jared Rivers, Brent Moloney, Matthew Bate and some others who were good servants of the club but it was time for change. They were replaced by an eclectic mix of young and old in a sign that the football department was willing to take the steps necessary to bring about the best of times for an ailing club.

The newcomers will be among the trailblazers as the team named for this great city begins its revival. Names like Viney, Dawes, Toumpas and next year Hogan will help change things forever, bringing to mind the theme of resurrection in these words, among the last to come from the unfortunate man who bears the name "Sydney" in Dickens' great tale:

I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.

[Deeman 1,497]

On the field we were an epic fail but the good news is that we were not http://youtu.be/HvuEFafFhBA'>alone.

[jnrmac 20,101]

Well written!

Happy New Year to all dee fans 2012 HAS to be better than 2012!!!!!!

[Whispering_Jack 30,208]

I think a review of 2012 would not be complete without an understanding of the events that took place in Alice Springs in March. I nominate this post from an Alice Springs local The Fork from http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29534-the-exile]THE EXILE as the Demonland post of the year:-

The centre of Australia is a troubled space, now more so than ever in my time here.

I dont want the broader issues and incidents I discuss in the following post to reflect on Liam and the incident that he has alleged to have been a part of. Nor do I wish to suppose to have any specific knowledge on the Yuendumu situation. But perhaps some of the following can provide some context for understanding the reported events on Wednesday night and the commentary that has flowed since.

The incident earlier this week, allegedly involving possibly this countrys most famous indigenous person, seems to have (momentarily) thrust some attention upon the difficult lives of Aboriginal people in Central Australia. The popular media has suggested that this incident was cultural. It also seems to have been suggested that our inability to properly comprehend this incident stems from our disinterest and our collective failure to understand Aboriginal people and their culture. A part of this I agree with, I see something a little different however in how the incident itself has been reported and interpreted.

This incident, as we know, was part of an ongoing feud. It has been suggested that those involved were part of a legitimate attempt at ritual retribution. I think it is important when interpreting the events of the week to have some historical understanding of payback and how it has evolved into what it is today. Historically payback in the Western Desert occasionally involved groups of males (ritual avengers) who sought out specific individuals deemed to have caused wrong to a family member of theirs. They were not random acts of violence. When the guilty party was located a confrontation, either by ambush or in special circumstances, a mutually organised event took place.

In some instances during post-contact times payback evolved into a highly organised, strictly governed sequence of events (more like a performance or ceremony) that was minutely controlled by a group of senior men. The physical act, of the spearing in most instances, was always performed by the appropriate avenging family member who was either experienced in such acts or was closely instructed by the afore mentioned senior men. This was often to ensure the wound was not fatal and to satisfy those seeking retribution by way of the temporary affliction of pain and crippling upon the wrong-doer.

I have witnessed a recent (8 years ago) version of such events. It was attended by the entire community, it occurred in the middle of the day and in a neutral part of the community. It all transpired under the close surveillance of an experienced team of members from the Northern Territory Police force. Medical staff from the local clinic were also on hand to tend to the resultant wounds after the procedure was complete. At no stage did this event stray from its intent. It saw a partial end to the ill feeling between the two families involved and the same process settled a number of other ongoing disputes. This is not to say however that the original act of violence or sorcery was forgotten or forgiven. Often the ramifications of such incidents last and manifest themselves in other ways. Such carefully organised events are unfortunately rare.

Current acts of payback in the town camps of Alice Springs happens on an almost weekly basis. The disturbing, almost guaranteed ingredient these days however is of course alcohol. There has been a strong tendency, over a number of decades, to attempt to excuse pure drunken violence as cultural payback. It is problematic then when Wednesday nights incident, which it must be said, was typical of the norm in Central Australia, is reported, interpreted and then understood as some sort of traditional or culturally sanctioned right of passage. There is a vast irreconcilable difference between the strictly governed form of retribution described previously and the alcohol fueled free-for-all that is currently commonplace. Whilst I believe there needs to be an acknowledgement of Aboriginal law within Whitefella law, which I extend to include controlled retribution, I do not accept the oft presented and disturbingly popular consideration that the violence as it occurs almost nightly in Alice Springs is cultural. There must come a time when racial politics must step aside and yield to reason.

Make no mistake, I believe Liam was/is highly obliged to play his role as a well regarded member of a family involved in a complex dispute. The words in the previous sentence may sound pithy, but the heavy expectation upon family in Central Australian indigenous culture is impossible to fathom from the outside, where I consider myself to sit. Liam is expected and obliged to express his feelings about the death of his kin. Violence, it is said, is an expression of feeling (this comes from an excellent book on a neighboring cultural group the Pintupi).

Liam is obviously attempting not to shirk his responsibilities in two worlds with two differing peer groups. Because when its all over and he returns to the Western Desert with a premiership medallion around his neck, he must face his family and stand as the true Warlpiri man I expect he is. I try to remind myself that every football career is a relatively short one and that football is just a part of his life. This is a bitter pill to swallow if you are footy mad and not understanding of Liams extreme circumstance. None of this explains why he was at Little Sisters and he put himself in the circumstance he did. None of this excuses his actions. It is devastating and together we feel it. The one thing I take solace in though is Liam himself. Some thought Rudeboys fantastic biography on Liam was premature and a few never bought into Brett Badgers assertion that for Liam the journey to game number 1 was greater than the journey to game 200. Ive met Liam a few times, but dont know him from a bar of soap. What I do know though is where he has come from, my wife grew up on a neighboring community Even if you saw it with you own eyes, you like me, would still fail to fathom it.

The Liam Jurrah effect in Central Australia is palpable. Kids want to be him and wear our colours because he does. These kids have had a magnificent role model, which for me is what makes this week so difficult to swallow. Cars parade around the desert emblazoned in windscreen-wide Demons stickers. A relative of his I know well, whose name is spelt slightly differently due to a bureaucratic misspelling, desperately wants to change his name by deedpoll, so proud he is of his nephew Liam and his relationship to him.

I suppose my motivation for writing this post is multi-pronged. I hope the complexity of Liams situation is a little more exposed and that understanding may come from it. I also want to respond to the concern some posters share about the circumstance of people in Central Australia. Because this is the guts of the pain and confusion we have felt this week.

Liam has made a series of bad decisions to be in the position he is. But I encourage you all to stand by him and our proud club on our collective learning curve. When he returns to play the game he loves consider for a moment not just the journey Liam continues to travel upon, but the journey we, as his supporters, do as well.

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Indigenous disadvantage in this country is a real thing. I cannot begin to discuss this issue here as it just doesnt feel right. But remember this; Liam comes from a chronically underfunded community where there is almost zero opportunities for long-term meaningful employment. His family have probably never had the opportunity to own their own home. The Fedral Governments Intervention saw all Aboriginal men throughout the Territory cast with the suspicion of being drunken pornographic obsessed pedophiles. Just look at the big signs as you enter any and ever Aboriginal community here. His families income is managed by the government who tell them where they can and cannot spend their money. Some non-indigenous people who live on Aboriginal communities and receive government assistance are exempt. Why? Because their not indigenous. How? The Howard government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act in this country. Rudd and Gillard have upheld this since. Imagine how you would feel.

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Earlier this year a 9 year old girl hanged herself in her home community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia.

9 years old.

Also in Central Australia, a coroner earlier this week described the body of a domestic violence victim as having injuries consistent with what one would expect if the body had fallen from an aircraft in flight.

On Tuesday in Alice Springs a woman from a community 380kms west of Alice Springs had her throat slit. Her husband is being sought for questioning as the prime suspect in the case.

But perhaps what has motivated me to share my thoughts with you today is what I woke to this morning. Just last night a dear old friend of mine was violently stabbed to death in a camp not far from Little Sisters. He too was from a remote community and was the victim of a family dispute fueled by drugs and alcohol. His own brother is wanted for questioning. His mother inconsolable, a family devastated.

My concern, which I cannot answer, is why is this happening and why dont you as Australians know and hear about it like I do?

---

For me Jack, Demonland (& Demonologys) proudest moment was when we bought his debut guernsey and gifted it to the community of Yuendumu. I am assured it does stand as the beacon we wanted it to be and always will. I know Liams Grandmothers acceptance of our gift was a proud moment for those present. It showed that people understood, even way back then, what a special person was in our midst.

There have been questions asked during this last week of what one can do to understand, to help or assist. I might suggest some websites below of organisations that rely on the support of good people.

Mount Theo

Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation

The Central Australian Aboriginal Alcohol Programs Unit

The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council

Drug and Alcohol Services

[Carlos Danger 380]

Why is Brown smiling in the midst of a Viney mauling?