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Well of course they can. They have done it before. Boot studders laying $2 bets. Ricky Nixon and the St Kilda school girl. Recent hanky panky at AFL house with Lethlean and some other guy. The AFL took action of their own volition in those cases. But these are all when the balance of power has rested with them. Boot studders don't have much comeback against the might of the AFL legal section, which probably takes up as many storeys as all the rest of the organisation combined. A down and out Ricky Nixon is a pretty soft target especially when the AFL probably felt like getting rid of him anyway. Lethlean ... was embarrassed by the story breaking, doesn't have much comeback, plus the AFL like to position themselves as social leaders, so they have the stronger hand. Now when we come to something like Dustin Martin and his chopsticks ... there was police involvement. What happened? Only a very few people know. (I’m not one of them.) But going after a big name player, at a big club ... with the media behind them ... means that the AFL would want to be very certain of their facts. They could easily leave themselves open to counter charges ... legal ones ... and every Richmond-supporting lawyer in Victoria would be weighing in. As it turned out, it was reported that the AFL leaned on the girl to "make her aware" that her life "might" become pretty "uncomfortable" if she did try to take things further. When faced with a murkier and more difficult situation, suddenly they weren't quite the social warriors any more. Now ... it is possible for things to happen and not be proven in a court. Or even get near a court. The AFL are free to conduct their own investigations and decide for themselves if things did or did not happen, in their judgement. And take action. Fairly or unfairly. What they cannot do is control the consequences. They would want to be very very very careful in this Bali case. If the victim does not want to take it further, it is difficult for a 3rd party to do so. And then to get a satisfactory outcome is even harder. (For the record: I do not know what happened, who supposedly was involved, or even if something happened at all. I have not even heard rumours of names. All I know is what’s been in the papers.) If the AFL are going to pursue this -- worst case scenario -- if they're going to take away a player's career and reputation, with effects ongoing into his after-footy life (depending on the seriousness of the charge), they may find that it is themselves bringing the game into disrepute. Because it is them bringing into the light something which the police won't, something murky and likely unprovable. In this case. It could be a big name. The backlash could be huge. There's a lot at stake when it comes to running a player out of the game when nothing's proven. Even if the AFL believe the victim. It's a hell of a precedent. When the balance of power is not nearly so slanted heavily in the AFL's favour, they take the course of least resistance. Which will end up being "nothing to see here". If the player is a lesser light, one seen as expendable, the AFL may give them a public shaming, with a POW confession of crimes and begging for forgiveness. But even if their investigations come to nothing, names will be leaked as "under suspicion". The AFL could well light a fire that gets out of control, and burns everyone, including them. The one thing that is sure, is that we will find out who the suspected player is -- by that I mean whose name has been floated on the grape vine -- because they will cop the Stevie Milne treatment. As soon as the teams run on to the ground in round 1, every nuffy and idjit will be screaming abuse and delivering their personal version of instant karma to the player. Mick Malthouse might even chime in. That's something that no-one can control. And it will never go away. Innocent or not.

Sorry 'bing', it might be a bit early in the morning for me but that doesn't clarify anything at all. Lots of nice words like...protocol, integrity, mechanisms, sending a message & appropriate support though. Sounds like 'Dill' speak to me.

Take the emotion out of it Deestar. It’s a matter for the Police and there’s been no offical complaint from the woman. It’s not up to the AFL to punish the ‘alleged offender’ because you feel he shouldn’t get off ‘scott free’. You’ve put yourself in the woman’s shoes, do the same for the player. Would you want your employer determining your guilt based on a half baked investigation? Without going too much into a sex assault investigation, a lot more goes into one than just interviewing those concerned. The AFL can’t do much more than that.

The only way the AFL can go it alone without Vic Pol or Bali Pol is if they have a watertight clause in player contacts which says they can do whatever the f*** they like and everything and everyone else can suck s***. Otherwise they better have massively deep pockets because both parties will sure them to kingdom come and back again

I like the comment on Frost today. He, OMac and Lever are working well together. Sounds like they plan on playing all three of them.

Jonesy wants a decent write up. Most players are sitting poolside sipping cocktails and our co-captain is doing this during the break.

One thing you are not factoring in is that the ABC is funded by everyones tax. So yes we do have some crazy Lefties on air, but we also have some serious Right Wingnuts as well. Bolt has had many shows on ABC Barry Cassidy on Sunday Morning often has great debates with Pierce Ackerman. We are always branded as “Left” but i feel that is a little unfair. The ABC is an Archive and it should always be that. Represent the people of the day, all of them. I don’t agree with everything the old girl does, but as i said, if she is killed off, she will be missed. Rupert should have gone to jail for that phone hacking in the UK a few years ago. I hope we never get that low in Australia.

Nothing has been written in stone Dame, but departments are being splintered particularly in Radio. Both the AM & PM shows are shorter and more programs are being syndicated around the country than before. Catalyst is no more, now “Specials” will be made. It worries me that we now have more channels to play programs, but we make less of them. Royal Commissions have been called after 4 Corners programs have gone to air, and that is a good thing i believe i hope the ABC remains a part of Australian Communications long after i am gone, but nobody knows where TV and Radio will end up in 5 years technology moves so fast now the Smartphone has changed everything so much ABC Iview is a great App Everyone else is catching up to us on that one! The way of the modern world.

Ditto OD for a "pass mark" .... for a "good season" I have 6th and one finals win as my benchmark

To be honest I’d be very disappointed if didn’t win one of these - he has been thrown a lifeline of sorts with a second club after delivering little at his first. Yes he had his challenges at Freo but it’s time for him to clearly justify his place on a AFL list Hope he does just that

Most people are happy to put the boots into the ABC (Television and Wireless), but if it ever goes completely, then I guarantee within hours it will be missed. Try to imagine a Journalism standard akin to “Today Tonight” or “FOX News” as the ONLY News Source.... Kill me now

off to the crows then?

Well, no. It's up to the coppers to investigate, not the workplace. If the police don't have allegations to work with, that's where it will end. No formal complaint from an alleged victim, and there is nothing to go on. Too many people have already made their mind up that someone needs to be punished. Based on nothing more than newspaper articles which dont provide anything more than someones "opinion". No complaint = no investigation = no finding of guilt = no punishment. You know, the law and everything.

Apparently earlier today I was in a 'sel-harm' mood and instead of calling lifeline I went through with it and watched the last quarter of the final game against Collingwood. Jack Watts absolutely stank it up that quarter. From failing to cover his opponent (cost a goal) to spectating and then failing to lay an effective tackle or smother in the goalsquare (cost a goal), to spectating and then arriving too late to affect a contest just outside the square (cost a point, luckily) to fluffing a forward run, to a whole string of really poor body language, it was terrible. I don't have a personal problem with Jack Watts the way some people seem to, but rewatching his last quarter for us has left me with a much better understanding of why he had to be moved on. Wishing him all the best (up to a certain point) at Port, and also confident we made the best decision possible at the time.

Thanks for that Macca, i was unfortunately MIA on new years day due to a lock in at my local here....had to have rest. Pounamu!! how did he not win?? Love to see the photo! I will also be on the band wagon if he comes here, what a run.

I've been meaning to do this for a few days. Locked until further notice/developments.

The Demons onfield performances only compound the madness!!!!!

The abc is my main source for news, -tv, radio and online. What is guthrie’s motive SWYL? Is she wanting to broaden it’s appeal by dumbing it down? Or is it just cost cutting in response to the constant funding decreases? meanwhile I will miss Lateline...

oh hell.........let's go for first and home finals all the way !

Well done Mazer, I agree with everything you have written, and admire your effort and succinct writing style. You are so right about McLaughlin, his exclusion was embarrassing, I didn’t realise he left.

SEN have been low rent for much of their existence. They didn't start out that way. Started out with big names – Lyon, Brereton, Brownless, and big salaries. But quickly found out that while companies may fall over themselves to sponsor Collingwood and Essendon, they don't fall over themselves to sponsor a radio station that talks about Collingwood and Essendon. They ended up with a moth eaten collection of almost literally low rent advertisers. Jacques from Xenium Mortgages, anyone? In no time at all, Brereton left because they couldn’t pay the bills. When Pacific Star bought in, there was an uptick in the quality of the advertisers but not an equivalent growth in audience. They have been hovering at 2s and 3s for a long time. They recently tried it again. The “big stars”. Morning "dream team" with no chemistry. Garry promptly set up Hollywood Boulevard again and poor old Hamish "brother of" was let known, even on air, that he was not part of the boulevard. He was an onlooker. He was right to leave. And still ratings flatlined. The "big names" talking about the same stuff as the no-names doesn't draw extra listeners, because the die-hards are all listening anyway. Now Whately ... the big fish ... this is Francis Leach all over again. The "inna-lekshul" "egg head" "big words" toff. Doesn't fit the demographic of tradies and bogans. It looks like they may be trying to change the demographic but realistically ... how much more can they eke out of the broader radio audience who mostly want old songs, daft DJs, and talkback lashing one political party or the other? By the way, it's clear that Whately left the ABC in such a hurry because Hutchison said, I'm offering $$$$ but you need to make your decision today! The offer's only open until close of business. If you can't commit, we're not interested! And yet Hutchison obviously was very keen on getting Whately. Hutchison is much more experienced in the wicked ways of the commercial world than Gerard who is a babe in the woods. There may be some room for growth as SEN have increasingly gone all out on AFL. Bugger-all soccer, hardly any cricket ... recently when Chuck Berry was hosting, he said one day "there you go … we were supposed to be talking about cricket but somehow ended up talking about St Kilda." They struggle to go for 5 minutes without coming back to AFL. Whately looks like their gamble to pick up some disaffected fans of general sports. Can’t see it working. Their bigger strategy might be that they want to get into live commentary of cricket, soccer, tennis, Olympics to add to AFL and basketball. With sports increasingly going the other way, into pay TV, free to air coverage for the die hards on SEN could look attractive! People like Maher and Fine, for all their flaws, represent good value for SEN as they surely can't cost much but actually know how to keep the show moving. Guys like Lyon need a chaperone/MC like Hamish or Huddo. Harford was a good performer and they let him slip. Dunno why they dumped Ox. It’s taken years but he has grown into a polished radio man. Whereas “Marko” remained one dimensional, and that’s putting it kindly. KB & Doc … KB is an inveterate stirrer and cannot resist an opportunity to do so. With solely him in the driver’s seat, it's somewhat amusing to see how many people he gets to bite. He is SEN's best performer and actually knows something about sport other than AFL, specifically, athletics. (Also horse racing, on the generous assumption that that counts as a sport.) Doc generally makes for good radio and good entertainment. KB & Doc for 3 hours ... No. Their Tuesday morning one hour love-in consisted of KB trying to bait Doc, and Doc slapping him down, rinse and repeat. 3 hours daily? No thanks.

I'm thinking 5th and anything goes...!!!

Agree DJ nothing less than 8th place and finals football in 2018 will be considered a pass mark for the Dees IMO.

Uh oh...demonland and politics don't make happy bedfellows..

Jack was singularly responsible for his drop in trade value We got market price after 9 years or erratic and poor perfomances and a percieved lack of commitment Good luck Jack at Port I, for one ,no longer cares what he does

The Managing Director has an agenda. Previously she worked for Rupert

According to reports today, Whately did not want to leave the ABC, but felt that his former employer was too slow in getting a contract on the table. If his preference was to stay at the ABC, you have to wonder if his heart will be in it at SEN. Time will tell I guess.

Watts will bag 9 against the dees

If someone knows what round Emerald is referring to, it may be on the VFL’s YouTube channel. https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC0rmkHg_FJhoHCfISDaIqBw

The AFL are pretty clear: "Our sport is committed to addressing the cultural issues that cause harm to women and girls. We know that it requires policies, procedures, education and leadership to address those issues. This policy is about making sure that if and when we face incidents in our game that have harmed women, we have a transparent and trustworthy process to deal with complaints. The new policy includes: A clear complaint, investigation and support protocol The ability for members of the public to complain Increased oversight by the AFL's integrity unit Principles and objectives for disciplinary responses to harassment and violence against women Maintenance and review mechanisms "We know that football has fallen down in the past on the management of incidents involving harmful attitudes or actions towards girls and women. We need to send a message that individuals will be treated fairly and ensure they are provided with appropriate support." http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-11-16/transparent-trustworthy-afls-new-respect-policy

we should only accept bona fide atheists - simple edit: provided they are not nihilists or anarchists edit2: better exclude hippies and hipsters too

The problem the AFL now has it that if they truly want to protect the “victim’s” privacy, then they cannot act against a player, because as soon as the player is identified then the victim is easily identified. Surely the “bringing the game into disrepute” path can only be taken if the case becomes public (that is, people involved are disclosed publicly)? The AFL appears to be caught up in a perfect Catch22 scenario.

The matter was correctly referred to the Police by the AFL. If the woman chooses to not assist Police then there is absolutely nothing the AFL can do in way of penalising the player. If the woman did provide a formal complaint and go through the investigation process, then the player’s club or the AFL may have chosen to stand down the player while the matter was being investigated and/or going through the court process.

Another reason why these matters should be left entirely to the police. I cannot see why the AFL should have any role in this sort of thing. For a start their prime motivation will be protecting the image of the AFL. Fairness to the parties involved will be secondary. And even if they were fair, I don't see why the AFL should poke its nose in until the court process is finished. Edit to add:. And if there is no court process, what possible role has the AFL got other than getting involved in a libel action. (Of course they could threaten an 'employee' in some way but that is also objectionable. If mediation is required, once again I don't see a role for AFL house which has a major conflict of interest. )

Safety on ALL Mining Sites is a red hot issue. Nothing gets out. Especially the accident stats. Conversely on privatised Port sites like Freo and Darwin a fair amount of stuff gets in. Like Unknown drugs etc. God, those bloody Unions were a nuisance.......

Not sure what stats you base those views on faulty. Union membership overall has dropped rapidly from about 60% in the 1960s, fast heading towards single digit figures now. Union membership in the construction industry is around 9% and the highest unionised catagory is professionals/managerial eg. education. The decline in blue collar workers in Oz mirrors the decline in union membership overall in the last 60 years.

If no complaints or charges are made and the AFL decides to impose a penalty could they not be opening themselves up for defamation charges?

Unions in the cities have been smashed Faulty. Most kids i have spoken to don’t know what a Union Membership is, and work 2-3-4 jobs on short notice. The Mining Industry i am not privvy to. It is a big problem for the ALP. The Liberals still have ideas that are relevant inside Toorak!!

Since all the Utilities (Gas, Water, Electricity, Public Transport) were sold off by the State and Federal Governments in the 90’s there is a much smaller gap between parties. Taxing is their only way of revenue raising. The ALP has an image problem today. What do they stand for?, unions have been smashed, we are heading down the American road which scares the sh!t out of me. The LNP is definately scared of The ABC and Guthrie, ( The MD) is doing a job to dilute. Losing “lateline” is so obvious. The young generations have got to decide whether they want the truth or the corporate truth? Social Media may be what saves us, but the sources must stay clean

It is interesting that most ABC listener are older Australian's, who also mostly vote LNP and under a LNP government the ABC will get huge funding cuts, because the ABC refuse to only report the LNP like Murdock press does, they want the ABC to not report negative stories about the Australian government, for example the refugees treatment by Australia, and when the LNP banned government ministers going on Q&A, after these 2 issues massive funding cuts started at the ABC, do u agree with that. A vote for LNP is a vote for ABC funding cuts,

Gerard is a nice person, knowledgeable, balanced, and experienced. I doubt you'd hear a bad word about him. I find him boring.

Whateley is doing a Tim Lane. He is probably the closest radio/TV person to Tim Lane, as an articulate and intelligent broadcaster of virtually all sport. He does his homework and speaks knowledgeably about the sport that he is broadcasting, provides accurate commentary on the action and provides analysis on the sport. He does the micro and macro stuff well. Was Tim Lanes move a success? I'm not sure. Probably ask Tim. The listener may have a different slant but none of us can get into the mind of the commentator. From GW's view it is understandable. Age and career wise, and money wise. Things are not hunky dory at the ABC with cuts, cuts and more cuts. Morale is poor and the ABC risks being cut out of some sports or having reduced coverage or reduced broadcasting rights in the future. People talk about the bogans on other stations, but the quality of commentators on ABC has decreased over recent years, presumably due to funding cuts and the ABCs need to reduce expenses. I don't think it will be a big deal if the SEN thing does not work but it will be a stepping stone for GW to take on other opportunities and improve his pay packet.

Ease up. Dr Turf has been a clever, successful and funny bastard since his days on 3RRR A lot of the topics he raised with KB were very worthy of discussion and no i am not gambler or horse lover of any note. The Jon Ralph hours were far worse

You might want to have a shave and take those glasses off Ethan before you go to the park to play on the swings. Looks a bit creepy otherwise.

Ha ha! Again, just a great story D77. As much as it's a gambling sport, the stories that surround the winning & the losing of these major races is very real for the participants. I really do like seeing people achieve their lifelong ambitions. It's part of what attracts me to these group races ... they are quite literally life-changers. Anyway, we've got the Magic Millions coming up on the 13th of Jan but I may have a nibble at Japan & HK next weekend (there's 3 or 4 Group 3's on show - all with very healthy prize-pools) And for those who haven't seen the Perth Cup, here it is as well as the interviews afterwards et al ...

Yes it was, got stuck behind some traffic, hemmed in at stages and when a run presented, it finished off like a train and missed by centimetres. I thought the trifecta paid ok considering 2 favourites filled the top 2 spots. If they bring Pounamu here I will be jumping on the bandwagon. Always a great story when there's a family involvement and Ms L Warwicks' post race interview was a good one too. ‘’I was out in front a long time by myself – it’s a massive straight.’’ She said things were ‘real quiet’ but she kept telling herself that ‘no, he’s coming’.

Pounamu was a good thing beaten wasn't it? Definitely worth following if it comes over to the East - looks a Flemington horse the way it powers home. It's a 6 year old but it's found it's true form. I got a percentage of the Tri as I changed my mind on Material Man - took it to win as well as Pounamu & Trap For Fools instead of Royal Star to win. But it was a grandstand finish and a fairytale ending for the family involvement of Material Man. A great story.

Terrific finish to the Cup Macca, couldn't be any closer. Once again your selections filled the places. Pounamu can certainly chase hard.

I really shouldn’t have posted anything on this thread. I’m off to the park to play on the swings.

Just show them your posts ? *joking ?