The interesting part is that so much can be aimed at AD but nothing really sticks. I can name so many preposterous statements he has made and ridiculous notions that he asks us to swallow yet he is Mr Teflon. He will go on his own terms at his own time. Watch and see.

He's probably like J. Edgar.....has a nice closet of skeletons

You only have to think of a couple of those who went before him to realize he's going ok ie Wayne Jackson

Are you sure that the AFL is "privately shocked" that GWS stockpiled young talent?

I wouldn't be surprised if the AFL were outwardly projecting that image, but in fact are very pleased GWS will have excess talent ripening in coming years.

Other AFL teams would have objected if this was what they expected, but I don't think the AFL cares, as long as the Giants are successful in the long term.

The outlay was always going to be massive, but the longer the AFL waited, the harder it'd have been.

I don't think it's a bad thing for the league.

Quite the contrary.

Yep. Sure.

And BTW I could not give a fig whether you liked my OP

Let's not knock Vlad now. He's our de facto el supremo. He can do whatever he wants as long as he shows us the money, gives us priority picks and keeps Jeff Kennett and his ilk away from the club.

Let's not knock Vlad now. He's our de facto el supremo. He can do whatever he wants as long as he shows us the money, gives us priority picks and keeps Jeff Kennett and his ilk away from the club.

If you ask me, Andrew Dimetriou is of Jeff Kennett's "ilk."

http://www.news.com.au/sport/opinion/andrew-demetriou-time-you-thought-of-going/story-e6frg7uo-1226722352087

Someone agrees......

http://www.news.com.au/sport/opinion/andrew-demetriou-time-you-thought-of-going/story-e6frg7uo-1226722352087

Someone agrees......

Im told he has a fondness for tennis !! Might be time to dust off the old racquet there Vlad

Let's not knock Vlad now. He's our de facto el supremo. He can do whatever he wants as long as he shows us the money, gives us priority picks and keeps Jeff Kennett and his ilk away from the club.

You have my vote.

trouble is you get rid of vlad and you get gil who doesn't excite me at all

1. Tanking. Yes tanking happened for years but here's the thing. Just because the PP is gone doesn't mean clubs wont continue to focus on next season and continue to try different things. See Mitch Clark out until next year and Jack Watts in the ruck. The AFL has now got itself in a another conumdrum about what to do with us this year and probably several other clubs over the next few years.

2. Tribunal. I saw the two incidents Corey McKernan lost a rising star (trip by hand) and a Brownlow (incident drop of knees to a players neck in an awkward marking contest) and I thought the tribunal will always be contentious. This tribunal throws up some bad anomalies - sling tackle >number of weeks than elbow to head. But the decisions are often explained in a straight forward manner and we now know with most incidents whether they will be reviewed and subjected to the points system or cleared. That's good enough to me. If a player gets 2 instead of 1 or 3 where 2 would've sat better I don't care. A numbers based mandatory sentencing system will always throw up some slightly out of whack penalties but almost every decision the match review panel has made this year has been consistent and reasonable. Yes the bump is all but dead but it's time we get over it. Tapscott this year for us has shown you can bump if you are very careful otherwise you are asking for trouble. If he can adjust I don't see why every other player in the comp can't.

3. GWS. Going to the moon cost a bit as well. So did going to Sydney the first time. If you want to be on Demonland the Soccer forum so we can debate whether we will beat Melbourne Heart that's great. But I want AFL to continue to grow and to stake its self as the national sport.

4. Drugs in sport. Firstly anyone who links recreational and performance enhances drugs like you have is a nutter. The league has acknowledge a recreational drug use problem and put in place a policy to fix it. If you want a zero tolerance policy to illicit drugs that fine but call for it properly and show me it will actually deter players. And show me it will influence the community because I doubt it will. I'd rather we be more open and less confidentially and give players who get 2 strikes a 4 week ban but I understand the AFL's policy created with EXPERTS.

5. Players ducking in tackle. I haven't seen the White incident but I doubt it happened ducking in a tackle. Ducking in a tackle usually results in a high tackle that 99/100 times results in no injury. Casey Tutungi got injured after picked the ball up he innocously ran into a players stomach. More like the Jake Spencer incident a few weeks ago where he got 3 weeks despite so little intent. The AFL are continually working to make the game safer so it's very harsh to criticise them for 2 freak injuries.

6. Diving. Firstly I don't think the Selwood's dive (besides maybe Adam). They duck and draw free kicks. The CEO of the league shouldn't review this but the Manager of footy ops (who is new) and umpires should wake up to it.

7. The compromised draw. This one I agree with you. But bare in mind to keep the comp strong we need to have some commercial advantages in the draw I believe. No body wants to watch GWS v Brisbane on a Friday night, the balance will hopefully be corrected not exaggerated. At least Demetriou has started the conversation on equalisation.

8. Goal line technology - It's early in it's existence. Tell me goal review is worse than Cricket DRS. It's not. 2 goal umpires might be better but what happens when they stuff up in grand finals? We need technology and we need patience. The rules of the goal review are simple, it's the umpires stuffing it at the moment and the lack of good TV angles which needs to be adressed

9. The umpiring. People have and will always continue to complain about the umpire. AFL is a crazily hard game to umpire, get over it.

10. For 12 years every rule change sped up the game for TV. The rules of the game committee were also trying to make the game more like it was intended to be played with one on one contests and quick ball movement. The game looks pretty good right now.

11. Jeff Geishen. See point 2 and 9.

My point I guess if you have raised some interesting topics but not all of them are broken I don't think. And a lot of them are for the new football operations manager in Mark Evans to fix. He comes from a strong footy background having worked at Hawthorn (and you guessed it) Melbourne. So I look forward to seeing what he can do.

If I was him I'd review the position of Jeff Geischen but he may well be the right man for the job, the umpires need help on ducking and diving but it's not a major problem. I'd continue working on goal line review and aim for mandatory goal line cameras in all games this finals series and look to make it all games next year. Then I'd look to review the match review panel to see if some simple changes can make the crime fit the time a bit better.

Now that we've got a TV deal for the next few years locked away I'd look to even the fixture out a bit for weaker Victorian clubs and keep working on equalisation.

My comments on the PED issue will wait and see the outcomes. Right now I'm glad Essendon players have Demetriou and the AFL on side. I hope the club isn't spared so easily.

I agree with nearly everthing above except that the game looks prety good right now. I dont think the game is poor but could certainly be improved. I think the rule changes have created a game that you either compete in or you dont, there appears to be very little middle ground. I also hate the sight of the player all in one quarter of the ground and the reulting melee. It reminds me of watching the auskick games at half time. I think the use of the interchange by the coaches has gone past what it should be and it has not been good for the spectical.

What bemuses me is why Demetriou believes he has to make comments in the media all the time, particularly on matters about which the AFL as a peak body should remain neutral. Nevertheless, I think he's been an excellent CEO (although I don't agree with everything that's been said and done), but I just wonder whether it's time for the AFL HQ to be refreshed.

Could someone explain the process around how you sack the CEO of the AFL? I will not argue for and against because I have not come down either side in my opinion. But would be interested to know the process for sacking the AFL's CEO.

Could someone explain the process around how you sack the CEO of the AFL? I will not argue for and against because I have not come down either side in my opinion. But would be interested to know the process for sacking the AFL's CEO.

Could someone explain the process around how you sack the CEO of the AFL? I will not argue for and against because I have not come down either side in my opinion. But would be interested to know the process for sacking the AFL's CEO.

The CEO is selected by the AFL Commission. They hire and fire.

What bemuses me is why Demetriou believes he has to make comments in the media all the time, particularly on matters about which the AFL as a peak body should remain neutral. Nevertheless, I think he's been an excellent CEO (although I don't agree with everything that's been said and done), but I just wonder whether it's time for the AFL HQ to be refreshed.

I agree about his comments. Commenting on Dustin Martin for example is out of line.

I'd be all for Demetriou going but I'd rather keep him than Gillon Mcwhatever.

The CEO is selected by the AFL Commission. They hire and fire.

So as long as the AFL Commission has confidence in him then he stays?

Im told he has a fondness for tennis !! Might be time to dust off the old racquet there Vlad

Racquet.....racket maybe?? Or is that Victorian Soccer??

So as long as the AFL Commission has confidence in him then he stays?

yep. And financially the game is great. The first week of finals was amazing and I expect this week to be good. The game itself has been decent this year as well.

He could easily roll over the peptide thing as well but if the commission didnt see it coming why would the CEO is probably his defense

Vlad has been under a lot of pressure over the past 5 years.

Clubs are trying to gain the best possible advantage for their clubs, whilst still wanting to grow the game nationally.

GWS has not been going long enough to determine whether it will be a success. It really will need at least 10 years to see if they can be consistently competitive.

MELB has been an anchor and an embarrassment to not only us supporters but the all the clubs and the AFL.

DRUGS (performance enhancing ) Again clubs trying to gain the edge, by cheating.

All the other items are set up by sub committees to try and rectify problems that exist by changes in the game, changes that coaches have instigated to gain an edge.

I find the biggest problem Vlad has is the leaking of information to the media.

If he stops the leaks, then a lot of his problems will disappear.

Looking at the amount of time Vlad is appearing on TV programs and making comments on all sorts of things that he should not be commenting on as AFL CEO, it looks as if he is preparing a career change to media guru pretty soon.

GWS was always going to be a risk, but why not back our sport against other sports? Who cares where it is, the AFL is the biggest sport in the land.

If the GWS fails, then it won't be because the franchise was started there, but because the AFL failed to market their product properly.

The tanking and drug issues funnel into each other, in that basically both can be avoided if organizations are run in an ethical manner.

Look at Port, Swans and Cats and look how those organizations are run compared to how Essendon, Melbourne are run, the difference is they don't take short cuts. Buckley appears to have realized that Collingwood was a long way behind in terms of quality personal - that is why he is making drastic shifts to inject quality people.

Most say Vlad is a dictator and that he has got it all wrong, but they fail to put themselves in his boots and see what he is up against.

The strong clubs push their own agenda to the detriment of the comp and Vlad does not let that happen.

Vlad can never really win though, because for the AFL to be run to the best of it's ability, clubs need to be more ethical and run more professionally.

But for Vlad to keep above the game, he cannot afford to always do that himself, that is why he cannot win.

But overall he is the best man for the job at present.

Stop commenting on footy since you clearly have no idea about it.

Nice last line by the way, you are hilarious champ. Congratulations on being a nerd.

Viney will always be an untouchable. You will always be clueless.

Interesting to see this report that has Demetriou now in the running for the top job in men's tennis admin (something he has denied in the past).

I always thought Big Vlad was just a show pony.

To me I respect him for supporting the MFC but don't think he been good in the long term for the League.

But in all cases time will tell if I am right or not about the future of Australian Rules Football.

The last straw IMO was his abdication of the AFL Commission's power over the question of assistance to Melbourne, in particular the matter of draft assistance. He gave in completely to the clubs leaving the competition exposed to the muscle power of the stronger clubs. As a result, there's every chance that one or two of the weaker Victorian clubs might collapse in the next 2 to 3 years.

I hope he gets the tennis gig. I don't particularly like the sport and I reckon he's a good chance to turn it into a minor world sport in the short space of time.

Good riddance.

It'll take more than getting rid of one empire-builder with no respect for transparency and a willingness to make 'at the discretion of me' a standard policy statement.

The AFL-HQ culture has become rotten, self-revolving, and unresponsive.

Believe it or not, we need some kind of democratic oversight, and a clearly articulated constitution.