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Discussion on recent allegations about the use of illicit drugs in football is forbidden

Mazer Rackham

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Everything posted by Mazer Rackham

  1. Shouldn't be too hard to orchestrate ... dog walking tracks or off-leash areas, a few BBQs, new soccer grounds for local clubs ... TICK
  2. They could make it easy and just say "the head is sacrosanct", but I think that may have been tried and somehow found wanting (although not sure how).
  3. The meaning of "all reasonable steps" will depend on whether the player is from a big club, and/or is a star player, and/or is a "good bloke who wouldn't have meant that". More long winded court cases coming up, involving lawyers hijacking a sporting tribunal and turning it into a criminal trial, quibbling over the meaning of "all", "reasonable" and "steps", until the tribunal members' heads are spinning and they don't know where they are or time it is, or indeed their own names.
  4. Hang on. They can talk about any subject under the sun. "The cricket world cup is on. How many AFL players have played cricket? Give us a call, the lines are open." "How about those Matildas? We'll talk about the AFL draft right after this short break." "Coaching drama at Melbourne City. What are some of the biggest coaching dramas in the AFL? Give us a call, the lines are open." "Spring carnival comes to a close. We'll discuss Carlton's chances next season right after this short break."
  5. As long as I get my Bertocchi ham before the doors are closed for the last time ...
  6. Yes, not so much rigged, as corrupt. I mean, it is rigged. When did we last play WCE twice in a year? When did we last play them not in Perth? How many times in the last 20 years have EFC, CFC, RFC played Geelong in Geelong? Follow the money. I understand the AFL has to run at a profit in the interests of stewardship of the game. Ask grass roots footy how well that's going for them. As for corruption, I take it as meaning "polluted, corroded, impure" rather than "brown paper bags under the table". Only have to look at the recent Cripps & Maynard tribunal farces for examples. Not to mention the calculated looking the other way in the EFC drugs, sorry, supplements scandal, sorry, saga. The complete arbitrariness on any and every issue. The list goes on and on. If it wasn't for my deep seated but irrational love for the mighty MFC I don't think I would give any attention to the AFL. This last season I watched more NRL than AFL!
  7. Still remember that. The "affirmation of noise" is very real. The "funny" (or disturbing) part of that Crows game is that every round of footy these days brings howlers every bit as bad.
  8. This is like trying to compile a list of Bucks Fizz's greatest hits. They had hits? There are "best" umpires? As long as the entire umps department is compromised by the fickleness and arbitrariness of their bosses ... as long as they are encouraged to umpire by this week's rule-du-jour [*] ... as long as they are confronted with a poorly-worded rule book ... as long as there are rules that require "interpretation" (unique amongst sports) ... as long as they remain amateur ... as long as they do not form "squads" that always umpire together and learn each others' style and idiosyncracies ... then the umps' quest for excellence will be akin to wading upstream against a flash flood of incompetence. Sounds great until tested in the heat of battle on game day. See 3rd para above. We are probably doing nothing wrong with our tackling or ball handling. [*] I am aware of the contradiction in terms.
  9. They won us a flag, gave Daisy a fitting send-off, won us a bunch of supporters and and helped win the McClelland, so all upside. Go girls!
  10. It was important to them as a club at that time to ensure the worse possible outcome for every issue, whether big or small. And by God, they succeeded at that, at least.
  11. Wow, couldn't have said it better myself. This is what the AFL has reaped from their sowing of unrestricted interchange. The other reaping we're in the middle of witnessing is the slow death of ruckwork. All because of the AFL's insistence on perfect bounces. They don't need to be perfect! The ruckmen don't need to be opposite each other! In olden times the umps bounced the ball all day, all over the ground, on mudpatches and bowling greens alike, and the ruckmen used their skill to anticipate and manouvre this crazy oval ball. But some coaches said it could affect the outcome of a grand final. Oh. Okay. The coaches, final arbiter of all things, have spoken. Newsflash! It already has affected a grand final. 2010, Steve Milne, crazy bounce, and no one had kittens. It was all accepted as part of the game. The AFL is killing ruckwork in the name of a perfection that doesn't and can't exist.
  12. That's been the story of our season, and funnily enough, mostly in the games we've lost. At what point does it move from bad luck to an indicator of a mental problem? 30 Brownlow votes and 3 successful tribunal appeals
  13. All he needs is to finally have a really good preseason. Are you aware of how long it took Tom Hawkins to come good?
  14. Biggest mistake the AFL has made in recent years, regarding the tribunal, is to allow it be seen as, and operate as, a court of law. It is not a court of law! There is no need to demonstrate anything beyond reasonable doubt, or on balance of probabilities, because no-one is going to jail, no-one is getting a criminal record like an albatross around their neck, no-one is being deprived of their freedom. It is in essence (or should be), a bunch of former players, who know something about the caper, saying "yeah, he clocked him. Two week holiday." It is on the AFL that they have allowed things to drift so far away from this, under the veneer of the respectability of the law. They have ceded control to the lawyers, who have proceeded to run amock. Like your tabby on catnip. Any time the word "law" is used in a hearing, unless it's the phrase "laws of the game", the hearing should be scrapped and started again. "Matter of law", my foot. It's a sporting tribunal!
  15. Murphy's Golden Rule: he who has the gold makes the rules.
  16. We should be challenging with a twofold purpose. First is to get Hunter off. Second, to show all the conflicting incidents, eg the Rankine one "nothing to answer", all of them, ad nauseum, with the intention of embarrassing the AFL. The MRO/tribunal has been chooklotto for years, dressed up in legalese, but continually perpetrating breathtaking injustices. The media, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them, and anxious to retain thier media passes, won't touch this, other than in the most superficial clickbait fashion. I am surprised the clubs havent shown some collective action about this. Surely they don't want a tribunal system that is out of control?
  17. The game can longer be umpired or referreed. This is what the AFL has wrought, in the name of speeding the game up for the great Television God. Are they proud of their works? They are killing the game.
  18. We're already there. No-one knows what's going on: the players, the coaches, the umpires, the MRO, the tribunal. Least of all the fans. It evolves each week like a soap opera, dramatic twists here and contradictory turns there, unpredictably. Main difference being that even a soapie has a plot. The AFL has lost theirs.
  19. He's so used to oppo players grabbing him off the ball, he thought he'd grab himself just to feel like he was involved.
  20. Hear, hear. What an ugly unattractive game it was to watch. If MFC hasn't been in it I would have turned off at half time. The AFL have devised a game that cannot be umpired. It was pathetic watching skilled athletes scrambling around for the ball like seagulls after a chip, throwing it, dropping it (incorrect disposal), barely any of which was penalised, because it all happens so quickly in such confined space that the umps can't be sure of any of it until a player dives to the deck pretending the ball is pinned to him. The game has evolved to where it cannot be umpired. Yes, it was wet and the pill was slippery. But the same things happen in perfect conditions too. (This is quote apart from lamentable skill deficiencies from supposed top level athletes, who can not kick with their "wrong" foot and who can not kick the ball while running in a straight line.) It didn't really strike me until this match. Holy moly. The AFL have let the game degenerate to the point where it cannot be umpired. Is there any other sport in the world that can make this claim?
  21. A player could get duped and pass the ball, out on the full. Then the face palming that ensued could easily cause concussion, and we all know the head is sacrosanct.
  22. Seventeen other clubs have broken out into cold sweats, now that they have seen what happens when you challenge the AFL and win ...
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