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International Incident Narrowly Averted over Connolly Comments by Caroline Wholesome The Melbourne Football Club is at the centre of an international scandal after the Australian Ambassador to Ireland, Bruce Davis was summonsed to a late night meeting in Dublin yesterday with Enda Kenny, the country's Prime Minister. Davis was given a dressing down over comments allegedly made three years ago (or was it four?) by former football operations manager Chris Connolly. It was alleged in a newspaper report published in the ailing Melbourne broadsheet, The Ace, that Connolly told an ashen faced CEO, Cameron Schwab, after the club's third win in 2009 that "Jimmy's just fallen out of his hospital bed.'' He was referring to club President Stynes who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. Kenny told Ambassador Davis that the comments constituted an insult to all Irishmen given Stynes' legendary status as a national hero. When Davis insisted that the comments were intended as a joke and had been completely misconstrued by a third rate hack journalist with a twisted agenda against Stynes' old club, PM Kenny flew into a rage and threatened to cut off diplomatic relations with Australia. "I'm sick and tired of you Australians with your Irish jokes and you can stick that newspaper and its hack journos where the sun doesn't shine". Davis responded that many Australians were doing exactly that these days. Connolly was also under attack for allegedly telling a room full of MCG catering staff that their jobs were at stake if the club was to win more than four games in 2010 or perhaps that was 2012? He also threatened to take them to the vault at the Junction Oval where they could take their chances being urinatef on by the possums in the roof. In late breaking news, according to sources who prefer to remain anonymous, AFL officials were last night questioning a member of Melbourne's half time Little League team of 2009. Henry Kishmentuchus, now aged 14, made the claim that the team coach told his players on several occasions during the season that the objective of the game was not to win but to "have fun". This journalist does not accept the coach's comments. The young lad's evidence is clear proof of the culture of tanking that is so rampant within the Melbourne Football Club. It's time for McLardy, Schwab, Connolly, club captain Jordan Gysberts and the tea ladies to go, if not be indicted for treason for almost causing an international rift with a friendly nation. This matter will undoubtedly play itself out in the International Council for Human Rights.

He needs a bit of extra recovery time after carrying the midfield all season.

She's getting worse. She says we're 'pathetic and disgusting'. 'Pathetic'? Really? Caring about our long term prosperity is pathetic? I would have thought taking a view to your future is nothing short of responsible, Caroline. Then she says McLardy 'issued a plea for natural justice'. Like we're completely inundated with evidence and with nowhere to move. I didn't read the statement as a 'plea'. I saw it as a demand. She's made up her mind that we'll be 'harshly punished' and that Schwab and Connolly will be sacked. She's certainly hitched her wagon to that one. Next she rambles on about how the AFL was incompetent. Nice. Glad to see you have the ability to focus your attention somewhere other than us, Caro. Apparently it's not surprising a player has lifted the lid on the secret. Of course, she seems to think that that player knew it all. Maybe, Caro, that player's perception of things was slightly different to reality? Maybe, Caro, that player picked up on the same vibes that the rest of the football community picked up on. Maybe, Caro, that player is simply bitter. Apparently we're all 'rabid'. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume she used it in it's 'fanatical' sense, rather than trying to claim we all have rabies. Still, the word 'rabid' is not exactly nice. We're all as devoted and adoring of our club as any other supporters, but I doubt the supporters of Richmond would classify as 'rabid' in Caro's world. She then admits that putting players in for surgery and losing heart in a game aren't bad. Which is nice, because she then claims we had a plan that lasted weeks! Wow! Weeks! And here I was thinking that the board at Melbourne made decisions to last for a few hours at a time. She laments players being prevented from having more on-field success. Wrong, Caro. What we did was attempt to set our club up for the long run. Players don't want one or two wins here or there in 2009 when we're plummeting towards 16th anyway. They want a premiership, and that is what we were attempting to get them. You idiot. She repeatedly calls it 'fixing' of games. Incorrect again, you sloppy hack. To 'fix' a game is to predetermine its result. Which we clearly didn't do, given that at the final siren we were winning the f*cking Richmond game. We didn't 'fix' anything. To not have winning each game as the first priority is not to 'fix' the game. Finally, she tops it off by slamming us for not being able to retain Scully, a notion she hinted at earlier. Apparently, the AFL setting up GWS, giving them a massive budget, and allowing them to poach players was our fault. This piece, like all the others in her saga so far, is poorly written, unfairly biased, prejudicial, rude, unjust, and potentially defamatory. She may well be proven right. But as it stands, she is balancing everything on one thing: a directive to tell the players to lose. If that's not proven, and the whole thing falls apart, I cannot wait to see her get run out of town. Which would be good, because I don't know if I'll ever want to read any of her drivel again. Who's 'pathetic and disgusting' Caro? You.

What I sent... I have today cancelled my daily home delivery of your paper, and have removed the link from my Android phone and laptop, as a result of today's C Wilson article. I have come to the decision that a paper that allows an opinion piece at best, and a personal agenda at worst, to presented as a news article, and not as an editorial or as an opinion piece, cannot be relied on to provide objective unbiased reporting. I will source my news from other sources. Thank you.

The piece might not just be one that’s been past the lawyers but written to placate them. Certainly there are still assertions being made without substantiation and qualification, but the qualifiers are scattered strategically throughout the piece: A picture is being painted but it looks shocking for all concerned He seems to have been proven wrong As we said, the AFL was probably incompetent No other club seems to have done it quite like this Even losing heart in one final game for an earlier pick seems more forgivable than systematic planning, career-ending threats and a plan which seems to have dragged on for weeks leading into months (great writing, that!) If what some former players and coaches say There’s already plenty deposited on this thread about the comprehensive negativity and ugliness of this piece, and I’ll probably be repeating some of it. But I want to add a few points: (i) Wilson’s source or sources would seem to have dried up. She hasn't got much more to say, so she's rounding up all the stuff she's said as a kind of exercise in self-justification masquerading as the 'full case' against the MFC. Perhaps she’s served the AFL’s purposes. Perhaps there was nothing but a little bit of smoke from a few statements but subsequent evidence has given the investigation nothing, or has undone any conclusions it was hastening towards. Maybe she’ll get something else from them but for now it’s all dried up leaving Wilson to repeat herself, to repeat herself … (which she has in fact been doing with the same few scraps of ‘evidence’ all along); (ii) but she has managed one change in tack, or is signalling a change in tack with her humbug concern for the careers and reputations of all those young men we’ve destroyed (she really has a career in soap opera waiting, if only she’d notice) because this gives her another mallet to whack Melbourne with … poor development of young players and so on, a charge that would stick albeit that there are no AFL sanctions to be attached to it (not yet anyway except for good old ‘bringing the game into …’), but it can certainly be used to smear Melbourne a bit more and to help naturalise the ‘fact’ of tanking into the bargain; (iii) and that’s what I suspect the whole thing is really about. Dear Caro (dear only in the sense of what she’s costing us) is a moralist at heart, like all self-appointed crusading journalists. It’s all a story of good and evil for her (well, we do call ourselves Demons, what do we expect?) and that’s all she’s got left to tell … or maybe, like a true knight of the crossed-word, it’s the story she’s wanted to reveal all along. Unfortunately her version of it depends on a pretty ancient and discredited kind of associationism: the stuff of medieval theologians and phrenologists and physiognomists and nineteenth century racists, where the internal condition is always identifiable on or as the surface. An ugly face is the sign of an evil disposition, a bump here or there on the skull makes one a disputatious sort of fellow, black skin reveals a primitive brain, all that sort of nonsense. And so Melbourne’s moral turpitude (begotten in a vault somewhere) has of necessity been realised and is now on show for all to see in the shape of its failures on the field, even unto this year’s failures. We are thus the victims of not much more than Caro’s magical and mythical thinking. So I want to suggest (perhaps only a little facetiously) that we might even take some comfort in the fact that, perhaps unknowingly for the moment, she has crossed entirely her own personal Red Sea from journalism into the fictional domain. Why, she even ends with word story! (Yes, yes, I know it also means a journalistic – and so supposedly true – story, but also is the point …) Personally I’m almost interested in what the next chapter will be in this serialised fiction, foreshadowed as it is by her references to the false knight - or was he the once and future Giant? - who might have come to save us were we not so far cast down into a vault of our own desperate villainy. It will no doubt make gripping reading even if it will take us just a little further from anything like the truth. But the truth doesn’t matter to Caro, not now, and I doubt whether it ever did.

She has breathtakingly hitched her wagon to MFC's guilt even though due process isn't completed and no findings submitted. It may be a long bow to draw, but should the MFC be found to have no case to answer her position in football would be just about untenable. I find her inflammatory remarks and hasty judgment of the club prior to the completion of the investigation as disgusting as she finds the issue of "tanking".

Here's a conspiracy theory for you*: A. The AFL finally reach tipping point on the issue of tanking. Under pressure from the state and federal governments (due to gambling implications), they launch a genuinely thorough investigation. MFC are the scapegoat. B. The AFL intentionally undermines its own investigation by leaking explosive information to the press. C. The press report this information, prejudicing the AFL's investigation. D. The AFL hands down a heavy handed punishment, including massive fines and loss of first round draft picks for two years. The AFL is widely applauded for this action in the press. E. MFC takes the AFL to court, where the prejudiced evidence and flimsy definition of tanking makes it relatively easy to overturn the AFL's sactions. F. The AFL decides not to appeal, stating that they respect the court's decision but also warning all clubs that such actions will not be tolerated in the future. The AFL is again widely applauded in the press. G. MFC isn't fined and its draft picks are reinstated. The AFL continues to provide funding to financially vulnerable teams and is happy that MFC isn't placed in further financial peril. H. MFC gains an unintended side effect of the saga, which is a galvanised supporter base and focussed playing list. *Disclaimer: Brian Wilson has not, nor ever will be associated with Caroline Wilson, her family, associates, Facebook friends or Twitter followers.

That isn't her twitter account

Hahaha Read: I have NFI, but I want to sound like I do.

Companies can't sue for defamation any more. Connolly, Schwab and McLardy potentially could. The problem with legal cases is that under the 'discovery' process a lot of stuff might come out that the club. AFL and people might not want to see. The AGE would be thrilled with that. There is no smoking gun. Not one public statement has said 'I was told to lose". It didn't happen. The other stuff is like experimenting etc is not a crime nor a breach of rules.

Well let me understand what these journos want. They want a club that sits on the bottom of the ladder, bar two new teams, who will pass them soon with their lists of star players/top draft picks and also struggling financially, to be harshly dealt with, for a crime also perpetrated by many other clubs and seemingly condoned by the AFL, in a system it instigated. So lets get em then. Take away our draft picks for the next five years from 2013. Fine them a $1million dollars. Watch any energy or inclination to try disappear from the Board and Staff. Make them a pariah. Ensure no player will want to join them. Condemn their innocent Coach to a short career in the AFL. Comdemn their team to failure and by big margins. Take away the last morsel of hope from their supporters who are now at their wit's end. Don't affect the premierships of the Pies and Hawks obtained with players gained using the same system as us. Don't investigate other clubs even though their players and coaches admit to the crime. Watch as the player we got for the crime is now the highest paid young player in the game at the newest club, lured during his first contracted year and on the back of lying to his dying president and the football world. Yes rejoice as even more misery is brought to the MFC and enjoy the thrashings weekly on TV that come as a result of the punishment. Yes that is what you vultures want, blood. We might be found to have done the wrong thing in the end, but for what purpose, to give a club a chance to compete in a rigged competition, where it is banned from the best timeslot on fridays and given low crowd drawing games at the worst times. Where it is forced to compete against clubs that have received many priority picks, by losing large amounts of games and surprisingly playing finals the next year, while it twice won games that cost it some of those picks. Where it is forced to compete against new clubs that are just given lists of players that it cannot ever hope to compete with. Where even the latest star player leaving his club will be directed to the newest club for free. Yes lets feast on the carcass of the MFC. Yes lets sh-t on the last hopes of its supporters. In the words of Sheahan and Wilson, then we will know the meaning of "pathetic and disgusting behaviour".

"McLardy issued a plea on his club's website on Friday for ''natural justice'' as the mounting weight of damning evidence that the club fixed matches continued to emerge in all its shocking detail." Detail? Where's the actual detail? I'd just like to see some. All we have at the moment is McLean's original utterance; Wilson's opinions; some anonymous interviews from disgruntled ex-players, staff or coaches; circumstantial evidence that seems overwhelming but when taken in isolation means little; and conclusions drawn from hearsay.

"What Melbourne did in manipulating results was disgusting." I'm by no means a lawyer, but if Melbourne are proven innocent surely these kind of statements can get her in trouble?

This is an unfounded disgraceful slander campaign, and at the end i hope we sue her and her paper.

Anyone notice Caro in the bushes on the lookout for some new dirt to put on Cam Schwab?

Wilson is clearly baiting the MFC and it's supporters with this article. She clearly has little left in the tank and is hoping to fan the story via ours and the clubs reaction. This is what the modern media has become, a grotesque parody of itself, inciting a story rather merely reporting one. To react would give the fire of hatred within her the oxygen it needs. Ignoring her and subsequently her relevance would hurt her far more. Her actions appear to be desperate and I would suggest that she knows the story is starting to die a natural death. Given her position if this were to happen her career would be irrevocably damaged. With this in mind we must understand that she will not let this story go lightly. We must react in a calm and considered manner that will not afford her avenues of attack. She has been throwing some wild haymakers in this fight but so far none have connected. Lets stay light on our feet.

Jordan Mcmahon misses that goal and we're not having this discussion. With it coming down to such an incredibly fine line, it's astonishing we're talking about it 3 years later. There is 100% an agenda at play here.

Muralitharan stopped being a 'chucker' when the ICC, under pressure, changed the technical definition of 'throwing' by altering the levels of permissible arm bend etc. Tanking doesn't even have a definition. At best, it is loosely categorised as any of the following behaviours: Instructing the players to deliberately lose a match Using unusual tactics in matches, including improbable positional changes Resting a team's best players with minor injuries, who would probably not be rested if the team were in finals contention Conversely, resting players before finals where the result of a match is irrelevant (e.g. Fremantle) In collaboration with these, playing younger players who do not yet have much experience at AFL level. Only the first behaviour is a high-level, direct attempt to 'tank' in a game itself. I still doubt there is any evidence that this is the case in the current Melbourne controversy. Caroline Wilson hasn't produced one shred of evidence that this is the case, and she and other journalists are limited to the 'other' behaviours. Most of it is still conjecture, happenstance and hearsay, but they've drawn conclusions from these and other 'coincidences'. In our case, Wilson has totally avoided any debate on the functional differences between these behaviours, just labels them all as 'disgusting'. Take for instance, the games under question in 2009. Danny Frawley, commentating on the Melbourne-Richmond match, looks at the spent and disappointed Melbourne players after the game and specifically says 'you can't tell me they weren't trying'. Wilson and others point to the ' player resting' , 'unusual moves', 'limited rotation numbers' and 'player selection policies' in that and two other games and concludes 'they tanked'. Direct versus indirect evidence. The indirect behaviours have been justified (for Carlton, Collingwood etc.) and distinguished as sensible player management and a development strategy for a team with no chance of playing finals. However, somehow, Wilson has made this distinction for Carlton (labelling the idea as 'rot') but rejected it for Melbourne (labelling it as 'sickening'). Well, to me, if they're 'sickening' for Melbourne, they're 'sickening' for Carlton and the others. I just can't see the distinction that she can. I wouldn't be surprised that the AFL will find that at no stage did any Melbourne team or players 'tank' on the day i.e. receive direct instructions to lose. Is that enough to avoid a tanking penalty? Or ... like Muralitharan ... will the definition be moulded and re-defined to achieve a specific political end? Who knows at this point? I do think it entirely plausible however that the actions of certain individuals will be scrutinised in the report or findings, and that they might be subject a rule (such as 'bringing the game into disrepute') and some heads might roll. They still have to be proved, and the 'perpetrators' clearly identified. At this stage, even that's not clear, other than Wilson being on an apparent witch-hunt for certain individuals. PS. Our biggest and only on-field tank, when some players actually didn't try, was probably '186', but that's another fifty threads on Demonland.

It's quite amazing how football can make you feel intense hatred towards people you've never met.

That article reads like a post on bigfooty from an opposition supporter. Absolutely appalling.

I was speaking with a retired journalist yesterday and he was commenting on the number of gaffes that Wilson had committed over the past week in her haste to publish disparaging articles about the Melbourne Football Club. Those errors were ultimately corrected in updates of her articles without the usual mea culpa. He reckoned it was a sign of the declining standards of his profession that people weren't owning up to their own mistakes and compounds the original sin of shoddy journalism. Wilson's done enough already but this piece is both shocking and aweful. She's morphed into a self-absorbed person obsessed with her agenda of bringing down McLardy, Schwab and Connolly. Her vendetta with Schwab is particularly interesting given that both have Richmond blood coursing through their veins. I'm wondering how personal her agenda is and whether that's what is making her come across so bitter and twisted.

More measured than CW who is like a dog with a bone ATM. Still a fair [censored] Smith although he at least lays the blame squarely with the AFL and acknowledges that it's a systemic problem and not just Melbourne's.

I admit I've been wrong about C.Wilson Initially I felt she was reporting only what was occurring behind the scenes and finally coming out. The last few days' writing however shows a dedication totally above and beyond the gamut of anything remotely approaching objective reporting and seems to have descended to the level of jihad - totally dedicated to the achievement of a pre-conceived outcome and to hell with any precedent consideration It's interesting to compare and contrast Patrick Smith's approach in The Australian today " Melbourne was not the only club and 2009 not the only year" Wilson writes as if the matter is decided and the only issue where to erect the gallows The Club should be allowed to present it's side of the matter without this sort of interference preventing a fair defense I'm very disappointed in the biased presentation of this matter in the Age Maybe it is time Gina Reinhart took over

Wilson calls us pathetic and disgusting when her own club has been just that for 30 years, which club's supporters spit on their own players, which club has failed for years to develop its players or recruit successfully; Richmond. Fiora, Oakley-Nichols, Tambling all high draft picks that have turned out to be duds and she has the nerve to have a go at us. How did they get Trent Cotchin by the way; they finished last after their coach admitted he stopped coaching the team in the hope they'd lose and he would get a priority pick; tanking perhaps? Her father was the President of Richmond when it went broke and was also President when the club was involved in one of the most disgusting brawls ever at Windy Hill in 1974 where his right hand man Graeme Richmond was suspended for 17 matches for his involvement in the brawl. Now we have the Dustin Martin saga and it appears that he is out of control and even though he is living with the Club President he is so uncontrollable that KB on SEN has said the may have to delist or trade him. Their new recruit Aaron Edwards was found guilty of being drunk in a public place; it seems the [censored] rubs off on them as soon as they sign up. Wonderful club she supports and I can see why she wants to divert attention away from them.

Right next to Ms. wilson's so called 'article' is the rehash of the Sheedy 'I didn't get the job, they were hopeless, I'm the only one that can save them' piece by Adam Cooper. Nearly a full page of irrelevant, self serving rubbish. Some context: there is written evidence of breaking clear rules by Adelaide, Tippett and his agents. Tigers have serial issues with Dustin Martin, and now Edwards. Facts that could be reported and commented upon. Please, Ms Wilson, as you troll this site (pun intended) to feel important, please note that your continued poor efforts at true journalism and allowing your bias to show serves no one. Your editors have let you down by allowing you to make a fool of yourself by publishing your vitriolic opinion. You, madam, are the Alan Jones of sports Journalism. Please put your facts up or shut up. Report or comment on facts based stories would be a minimum standard of even high school journalists. To spend 5 days pumping your own bandwagon, hatred and attempts to damage an institution and everyone in it based purely on innuendo is really poor form. Attacking the legacy of a dead person who had more courage, dignity and decency in a toenail clipping than you have in your whole body is reprehensible, appalling and belittles you further. I would suggest you crawl under a rock... But the spiders and slugs may find you too repulsive.

Caroline Wilson's attack, as has been noted by many previously on this and other threads is a personal vendetta against key members of the MelbourneFC administration. Her articles have lost their merit in rehashing information that she has used in previous articles to reaffirm her points in her future articles. This is the sort of rubbish journalism that comes from FOX news in the US, where they are allowed to make statements in opinion shows and use these as facts in their news programs. I would have to say that this last article was 'pathetic and disgusting' - to use her own words. This last article was the one which finally crossed the line for me. I could put up with the other articles but this last one seems to have lost all subtlety and is a blatant attack on all things MFC, including the great man Jim, without using any evidence to back up her points. It was just a negative opinion piece on the club. I have seen that some people on this forum have already started cancelling 'Age' subscription but was wondering if we should not go further? The message doesn't seem to have had too great an effect so far due to the fact that she is the Chief Editor for the newspaper on all things AFL. I am putting it out there - what if we all joined forces and wrote separate letters to the editor of 'The Age'. I am not asking for anything nasty or over-the-top but just providing the message that CW's pieces on the MFC have gone too far, our opinion of 'The Age' has been tarnished because of this. Another possibility is to have a few of the members on this forum create a really well constructed letter to the editor with a blank paragraph that each individual submitting could make their own; so it doesn't look too copy paste. The reason for this is that the MFC put out a very good press release, but beyond that are unable to combat CW without it blowing up in their face. So I put this call out the the Demonland people - can you take up the fight for the MFC and stop this CW monster from attacking the club we bleed red and blue for?

Have just cancelled my home delivery of The Age and removed the link from my Android. Years ago watching 60 Minutes I saw a story that I had inside knowledge of, was clearly done with an agenda, and was based on only one side of the story. Haven't watched the show since and am getting on fine. Think I can cope without The Age. There are many great places to get news online now, and I can clean the BBQ with paper towel.

The AFL will have to gather all the information surrounding the allegations and then examine it to see if any rule has been breached. They will interview all relevant parties to see what was said and what if any threats were made. Comments like "Jimmy nearly fell out of bed when we won" will probably not be considered because they can't be substantiated, unless there was someone else with CC when it supposedly happened, otherwise it is hearsay and not admissible. Unknown players coming forward and spilling their guts to Wilson won’t be considered unless she names the parties concerned and are they interviewed by the investigator and sign a declaration to confirm their conversations. Comments like “we are going to play you in a different role in the second half of the year” may to some sound like a tanking conspiracy but to anyone with half a brain they sound like “we are going to play you in a different role in the second half of the year”. There may be a case to answer, or not, but at the moment we can’t refute any allegations because there haven’t been any made, at least by the people that count, the AFL. There will be time after this to go after the media but that’s a fight that will have to wait for another day.

Sounds like Caro is really carrying the can for the players whose careers "were wrecked by tanking." Funnily enough, if they were any good to begin with, there'd have been no need for tanking, or they'd have won anyway. I'm sure one of her sources must be at least one bitter ex-player.

Patrick Smith, in his article today, said the following: 'it has been a dogged and expansive inquiry which has unearthed damning evidence that Melbourne had made draft picks a priority ahead of victory' So the allegation seems to be that we had draft picks as a paramount priority. How can this be a crime? How can wanting to secure the long term viability of your football club be something the AFL wants to punish? If this is all the AFL can hang on us, then they surely can't punish us, as to do so would be to say that clubs must always take the short term view in each season.

She's merely referring to the idea she tried spouting that there are or were 'factions' in the club which 186 brought to a head, and which might still be causing problems. She's already touched on it. She has no more evidence to back it up, so she didn't go into it. You have no more evidence, or any evidence, or even a brain. So shush.

I will go out on a limb here and say if Schwab was not reappointed, Brock would not have been on OTC and we would not be in the middle of this.

It's funny, when these games were played and were most relevant, there was none of the outrage we see today. It was as if people understood the position Melbourne was in, and turned a blind eye to what had to be done. In fact, I recall an episode of Footy Classified where Craig Hutchinson openly implored the club to do everything in its power to secure the priority pick. (I don't recall Caroline Wilson referring to those sentiments as "disgusting" at the time.) Now 3 years later and without proper context, some journalists have decided they were outraged after all.

Good point. Garry spoke at Jim's funeral. They were very close. He is still close to Sam. Caro has called Jim a liar. Surely Garry will need to confront her as Jim can't. If it was my mate, I would. Truly "disgusting and pathetic" Caro, attacking a dead man. How low will you go?

Air of desperation to this latest piece, maybe CW should scream a little louder

Interesting to hear Danny Frawley's comments at the 3:06 second mark of the video:

This is an opinion piece from Wilson and she's entitled to have opinions although many might ask, given that she holds these particular opinions, whether she is capable of reporting the facts on the issue of the Melbourne Football Club objectively. Personally, I don't think she is but I won't hold my breath waiting for the newspaper's editor to do what's morally right and take her off this case. On the other hand, I think it would be not only helpful, but fair if the Age gave space for someone to provide an opinion piece giving the opposite viewpoint. Finally, while I give credit to her for her work from time to time as a journalist, she needs to brush up on her skills when writing op eds.

Yet again CW has written an editorial piece with no new information, just another opportunity to whack at low hanging fruit. I normally wouldn't be in for this, but honestly I would be happy for us to drop The Age as our sponsor. They are shaking us with one hand and (with Caro) stabbing us in the back with the other.

I thought we have been shooting the messenger up until now but this is totally over the top, she's throwing the toys out of the sandpit. Maybe it's because I'm an MFC supporter that I much prefer Mark Fines' approach to this. Good old 'Viney' who has as good a handle, well probably much better handle on the average supporter than anyone else in the media reckons that he and the supporter in the street see Melbourne as being victimised for something that has been going on with all clubs since the priority pick came in. Own up to the mistake AFL, amnesty and move on. Unfortunately much bigger ego's than 'Finey' run the AFL so I can't see this happening.

Let's face it, nobody here really knows whether what she is saying is true or not, however I would think like has been posted that she would be treading on extremely rocky ground if she was making assumptions and there was no fact to what she was saying. That's the concern for me, that there is thought that has gone into her articles, and she obviously thinks she has a basis for what she is saying. However, on the other hand, it's surprising that it's only Wilson who is saying much at all on this topic. Most of the other journos, for instance from the Herald Sun, are reporting things fairly generally and not being brash at all. It's rare for this type of thing to happen, for only '1' journalist to be 'in the know'.

For those wanting us to sue the paper, it is one of our Gold Sponsors. Well there is a dilemna.

Wow Caro really is milking this for all she can. No new information contained in that article and a writer who once condemned the AFL for their incompetence when it came to the tanking issue is now defending them. Caro seems to be writing AFL propaganda now, and it's unsurprising. For a case which the AFL have seemed desperate to keep confidential it's amazing how much information Wilson has managed to extort from loose-lipped witnesses. Surely the AFL would tell these witnesses to not talk to the press about a confidential investigation. Amazing that they didn't listen and all of them spilled their guts to Wilson and only her. No. Caroline has one source in all of this, that is the AFL who are doing damage control of their own to create a visage of villainy that would be the Melbourne Football Club, and why wouldn't they? The AFL have been, for years, slammed for their ignorant approach to the tanking issue. Too afraid to open that can of worms which could expose an issue that has plagued the competition for up to ten years. Unfortunately their hand has been forced and in order to avoid the massive embarrassment they've paid off a journalist who has a lust for a good exposé. So Caro has sold her soul to the AFL for the chance to break the biggest story of the year and now writes vitriolic propaganda pieces to protect the reputation of the white collars who run the joint and have been shown up for their incompetence to enforce the rules of the game, and creating an environment where cheaters believed they could prosper.

New respect for Steven J Peak on SEN ripping into media speculation, especially the rumours purported as fact by everyones favourite halloween witch.

I'm actually shocked that she is allowed to write such crap and not be held accountable for it. I hope the club is waving this [censored] in the league's face and screaming 'persecution'. Would love to sue her for defamation and for being a pathetic sensationalist.

Wouldn't care if it's left, right, up or down.

i am actually shocked at how ridiculous and personal this article is. Someone at the club really did something wrong to Caro somewhere along the way as I have never seen her write something with such vengeance before. It is written from the heart, with no facts to support it. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

I hope we [censored] them off it's principle and that's worth more than their money.

I would say there is an army on Collins St alone.. You know what unifies people quickly? A common enemy.

yes I have met and spoken to him many times and yes he LOVES melbourne he has always made time to call me back and talk to me , he has always asked how my wife is , as she has not been well ,even 2 weeks ago , always up for a chat and a laugh , he has always helped me and even gotten me and my company back to the dees . I thank him for that

Just thought everyone should know that there's at least one very well heeled Melbourne supporter out there prepared to kick in $s towards our legal defence fund should it become necessary.