Following Freo's request to rest players for their match, the Kangas are looking at doing the same thing. This is very interesting because it may well be in their best interest to lose this match, the only way for them to face an away trip to Adelaide is if they beat the Tigers, Adelaide beat the cats, and the dogs lose to Brisbane (unlikely but it is at the GABBA). Therefor could this be seen as a form of match fixing/tanking? If they win all they do is open the door for the possibility of a trip to Adelaide, whereas if they lose they almost guarantee at least a Melbourne final. Sydney could potentially drop out of the 4 but they would have to lose to GC at home and the Tiges would have to thump the Roos.

This also poses difficult questions for the AFL as they have already granted Freo's request to do it.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/north-melbourne-poised-to-rest-8-10-players-against-richmond-ahead-of-afl-finals/story-fni5f986-1227510514665

The AFL have sanctioned Nought and Fremantle to Tank this week

The Commission should be sacked en masse...

A tactic we've been trialing all year. Unfortunately instead of resting players for matches, we've been resting our players during matches.

tanking

The AFL have sanctioned Nought and Fremantle to Tank this week

The Commission should be sacked en masse...

Greg Denham said the same on SEN when discussing with KB

Edited September 3, 201510 yr by old dee

the afl need to put a max number (small) on players to be rested

along with medical/fitness/whatever reasons supplied

i actually think the freo one is worse because

a. they get home ground finals advantage (possibly twice) which is huge when you add in travel time

b. they get advantage of week off if win first final (highly likely because of a and c)

c. get to rest half the team in week before first final

now i'm not against top 2, top 4 getting advantages in finals but it's getting a bit much in this case allowing freo to rest half the team

i hope it backfires spectacularly

more integrity meddling by the masters of integrity, the afl

Greg said the same on SEN when discussing with KB

Well good. This is a huge Pandoras Box they have now opened

Fools..If i were working for the Crows right now i would be furious

What a load of bull! Tanking is deliberately throwing a match. That's NOT what's happening here. Rather, these clubs have won enough games during the season to put themselves in the enviable position of being able to rest some of their key players, giving them what they believe to be their best chance of ultimate Finals success.

Good luck to them!

(Maybe, some year soon, the MFC will be in this position, too! We can only hope!)

What a load of bull! Tanking is deliberately throwing a match.

This is the crux of the issue that no one in the media has addressed for years.

Is tanking deliberately just deliberately trying to lose, or does it include winning not being a top priority?

I don't think that Fremantle and North are actively trying to lose, but winning certainly isn't their top priority.

So North has AFL permission to rest players this week which increases their chance of a final in Melbourne rather than Adelaide. I'd love the AFL to explain how tanking for that short term gain is more honourable than tanking to get a better draft pick. Is the mistake in the latter case to play your normal team out of position rather than rest them?

So Freo and Nth are allowed to pick and choose and play in a manner which best suits their long game/big picture needs !!

Marvellous....we did that and got screwed....

The AFL is as corrupt as it comes

Teams shouldn't be allowed to rest players en masse full stop. It's not in the spirit of the game - sides should always be trying to win, else the point of the game (to entertain) is missed.

This is the crux of the issue that no one in the media has addressed for years.

Is tanking deliberately just deliberately trying to lose, or does it include winning not being a top priority?

I don't think that Fremantle and North are actively trying to lose, but winning certainly isn't their top priority.

If by "winning" you mean winning THIS WEEK, that's true. But, they certainly DO have their eyes firmly set on winning the games that matter -- in the Finals. Just another way of best managing your resources to achieve the ultimate goal.

So North has AFL permission to rest players this week which increases their chance of a final in Melbourne rather than Adelaide. I'd love the AFL to explain how tanking for that short term gain is more honourable than tanking to get a better draft pick. Is the mistake in the latter case to play your normal team out of position rather than rest them?

Not only with the Dees being poor but the the AFL making up new rules on the fly makes this game difficult to watch sometimes.

What a disgrace they fined us and let North improve their position by tanking. They have actually rubber stamped them leaving half their side out.

If by "winning" you mean winning THIS WEEK, that's true. But, they certainly DO have their eyes firmly set on winning the games that matter -- in the Finals. Just another way of best managing your resources to achieve the ultimate goal.

Why do you think it is OK to 'be happy to lose' in pursuit of the ultimate goal a few weeks away but not for the penultimate goal of improving the list to get closer to the ultimate goal next year. Basically you are saying short term tanking is OK, long term tanking is not. The AFL should approve of neither of them. I'd be pretty [censored] off if I was an Adelaide supporter.

What a load of bull! Tanking is deliberately throwing a match. That's NOT what's happening here. Rather, these clubs have won enough games during the season to put themselves in the enviable position of being able to rest some of their key players, giving them what they believe to be their best chance of ultimate Finals success.

Good luck to them!

(Maybe, some year soon, the MFC will be in this position, too! We can only hope!)

"If the Kangaroos lose to Richmond on Friday night, they will play the Tigers again in an elimination final next week. However if the Roos win, they may be forced to travel to Adelaide and take on the Crows in the first week of the finals."

http://www.sen.com.au/news/09-15/round-23-becoming-a-joke-kb

What a load of bull! Tanking is deliberately throwing a match. That's NOT what's happening here. Rather, these clubs have won enough games during the season to put themselves in the enviable position of being able to rest some of their key players, giving them what they believe to be their best chance of ultimate Finals success.

Yes by losing deliberately

If by "winning" you mean winning THIS WEEK, that's true. But, they certainly DO have their eyes firmly set on winning the games that matter -- in the Finals. Just another way of best managing your resources to achieve the ultimate goal.

Isn't that what we were doing then by losing to improve our list? Same principal.

This is the crux of the issue that no one in the media has addressed for years.

Is tanking deliberately just deliberately trying to lose, or does it include winning not being a top priority?

I don't think that Fremantle and North are actively trying to lose, but winning certainly isn't their top priority.

Freo aren't, North most definitely are.

This is the crux of the issue that no one in the media has addressed for years.

Is tanking deliberately just deliberately trying to lose, or does it include winning not being a top priority?

I don't think that Fremantle and North are actively trying to lose, but winning certainly isn't their top priority.

Was the same for us. No-one told players to lose. The players taking the field were trying to win as evidenced in the Richmond game when we were ahead at the final siren.

The AFL as usual makes rules on the run. They are fools.

The difference between tanking and this kind of list management is that for what Freo and North are doing, they expect to reap their benefits this season. Tanking is a systematic distortion of this season for the benefit of next season (or even later).

I hope so, so badly that this backfires horribly for them with a hundred point thumping in finals week 1.

No team worthy of a premiership reduces themselves to this. And the AFL, in all their stupidity, can't do a thing to stop it after rubber stamping Fremantle's choice.

The difference between tanking and this kind of list management is that for what Freo and North are doing, they expect to reap their benefits this season. Tanking is a systematic distortion of this season for the benefit of next season (or even later).

I disagree....you are doing X....to gain Y

So North want to go into a finals series having lost in consecutive weeks to the Dogs (6th) and the Tiges (5th)?

Odds are they'll play one of them in the first week of the final and they want to lose?

I don't think so. They want to run into some form.

The difference between tanking and this kind of list management is that for what Freo and North are doing, they expect to reap their benefits this season. Tanking is a systematic distortion of this season for the benefit of next season (or even later).

Since when is that the definition of tanking? Since when was there a time frame on it?

The base definition is deliberately losing to gain something. That's all there is to it.