On 12/21/2016 at 1:53 PM, Chris said:

I have no issue with 1.7 being the wage for the CEO of a multi billion dollar organisation, in fact I am a little surprised it is that low.

I do have a massive issue with that media loving, polo playing, sycophantic, drug taker excusing, boys club favourite of a low life waste of oxygen that earns that wage being paid more than the bag of peanuts he is worth. Don't even ask me about their so called exhaustive international search for a new CEO they ran where That idiot came out as the best option! Nepotism at it's finest!

It makes me sad to think where this league could be heading under the guidance of someone good, especially someone who would stand up to the boys club and some idea of what long term planning actually is!

Chris, I am really curious to know where you think the AFL could / should be heading "under the guidance of someone good". It seems as though you have must have thought about that given your comment. 

2 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

No i am not envious mate. Wages like the ones you mention will bring down the Western Economies. The GFC in 2008 gave us a warning light. But nothing has changed

the whole system is way out of balance and anything that is not balanced will break in a big way. 

Members of my family work in the top end of the financial system and they are waiting for the big one. 

Assholes taking home bonuses on the basis of $200 Mill losses should be in jail, that is how out of wack the system is...

I know all that but the AFL is making  a profit,  but I believe that the AFL suits should all get the sack and the AFL  commission disbanded, it's too corrupt the AFL should be run by the clubs,  every club should elect one member to sit on the new commission. 

Remember Dimwit tried to get North the sweet Tasmania deal near the end of his reign but got blocked by Hawthorn.

In a State where plan A is and always should be a stand alone Tasmanian team and Plan B, the spoils of the Apple Isle should be shared equally like Friday night matches amongst all the Victorian clubs, but instead we are left with plan Z where Hawks and North (because of Dimwit sympathies) are the only ones to share in the booty.

With Dimwit as Gils mentor its little wonder the AFL has bought Etihad and I'm sure we'll see more terrific little deals heading the Saints way while Gil is in charge. It's absolute corruption. But with the sycophantic media throng that surrounds the AFL we the public are fed #### and are expected to go "num, num, num. please give me more."

It's becoming like the Olympics or F1 or World Cup soccer where there are families that are born to this life of elitism and privilege. "Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce The Fitzpatricks, The McLachlans"

"Oh yes, let's bring down the price of chips, that ought to shut them up for a while."

40 minutes ago, don't make me angry said:

I know all that but the AFL is making  a profit,  but I believe that the AFL suits should all get the sack and the AFL  commission disbanded, it's too corrupt the AFL should be run by the clubs,  every club should elect one member to sit on the new commission. 

The AFL also calls itself a non profit organization. The Commission do fine out of that arrangement

On 20/12/2016 at 6:05 PM, Little Goffy said:

Given that there's no real case against replacing McLachlan with a kid who normally sells footy records or the trumpet-playing busker in a panda suit I saw once at Etihad, why are we paying $1.7m for this clutz?

Gil should write a management book. Along the lines of well-known ones like "The One Minute Manager" or "Who Moved the Cheese" ...

"Sit On Your Hands ... how to resolve any issue by doing nothing for so long it takes care of itself" by Gillon McLachlan.

Instant classic.

5 hours ago, xarronn said:

Chris, I am really curious to know where you think the AFL could / should be heading "under the guidance of someone good". It seems as though you have must have thought about that given your comment. 

to a place where clubs stand on their own two feet, not one where they are deemed to be a welfare case and will forever be so due to the inequalities of the system, a place where absolute socialism is expressed in the internal management of the league when dealing with club but cutthroat capitalism is displayed when competing with the other codes (which is actually where the AFL as an organisation are in competition. I would love to see a CEO stand up to the TV networks and enforce the wishes of the commission, not the wishes of the TV station board. I would love to see a commission that wasnt made up of ex footballers, they are there to run a business and being a footballer isn't great training for business. I would also love to see real leadership on many issues, not the insincere PC crap the current lot come out with, which is probably because they are too bloody stupid understand the issue in the first place. 

Most of all I would love to see some fresh faces and not a continuation of the stupid boys club that protects each other above anything, including the long term health of the game. 

That's a start on my thoughts and I haven't even covered any topic in detail or some topics at all. Have a read on the ASADA thread and you will see my views on that one. 

Hmm, here's a few things to work on for the $1.7m. Just floating ideas to get Gil started.

1. An extra $30m for the second-tier competitions would transform the depth of the game. Right now the AFL is just barely staving off a crisis from sheer lack of available talent, a problem which could actually wreck the top-level competition. Meanwhile, in NSW and QLD the essential grass roots are being left dry, and Tasmania didn't produce a draftee.

One basic measure of the talent problem is the share of teams with seriously poor percentage. Under 75%, and 75-80%. Lately it has been normal to have three or four teams each year record those levels, even discounting GWS and Gold Coast. Last decade it would only be a couple a season, and mostly Carlton and Melbourne anyway. Before that it was even rarer, and a substantial majority of those results in the 90s were Fitzroy and the Bears.

In truth, this is Demetriou's mess. He was the one who led the rush-job without groundwork to get into Western Sydney and Gold Coast. But McLachlan had a major hand in that too, and the problem of thinning of talent is his to deal with now.

2. There needs to be a transparent and consistent system for... well... kind of everything. Umpiring interpretations, match review panel, 'behavioural' penalties and investigations, fixturing for on-field fairness and commercial fairness, allocation of the TV rights distributions, structure of salary caps, non-salary 'benefits', football dept budgets. The culture of secrecy, influence and 'government by decree' is not doing the game any favours in any of these areas.

3. There needs to be a coherent, stable and values-based (rather than reaction-based) reshaping of the AFL's community leadership role, based on the idea that the AFL must be a safe place where everyone feels welcome. For example, I absolutely endorse all kinds of meaningful reaching out, mentorship and support for excluded groups, and public campaigns affirming that. But personally I think the 'special rounds' should be toned back a bit in favour of a strong consistent statement that 'every round is for everyone' and the only reason anyone should feel unwelcome at a game, from top level to Auskick, is if they are making other people feel unsafe or unwelcome.

4. The AFL marketing dept needs to be completely cleaned out. Is anyone else getting the AFL Fan Focus surveys? Last week I managed to sit through a 20 minute (seriously, 20 minutes, who is designing these?) survey about a proposed ad, which was truly awful. Quentin Tarantino goes past some guy on a laptop in a nondescript office who is looking at AFL stuff, and he asks a bunch of questions about how much all the extras in the crowd cost and did they use wires for the jumps and stunt doubles, so the office guy gives smug replies about how it is all real. It was Meat Loaf bad, and just makes it n+1 examples that they have lost all creativity and connection with their 'market', let alone their community.

On 12/24/2016 at 1:17 PM, Sir Why You Little said:

No i am not envious mate. Wages like the ones you mention will bring down the Western Economies. The GFC in 2008 gave us a warning light. But nothing has changed

the whole system is way out of balance and anything that is not balanced will break in a big way. 

Members of my family work in the top end of the financial system and they are waiting for the big one. 

Assholes taking home bonuses on the basis of $200 Mill losses should be in jail, that is how out of wack the system is...

I'm more concerned about the Directors who approved the payment. 

31 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I'm more concerned about the Directors who approved the payment. 

They are all involved. Cancer attacks many levels