sue

While it was good to hear the issue brought up publically, I reckon Goodwin could have gone harder without being in danger of any sanction from the AFL. Given how egregious ANB's ban was, even the AFL may have been too embarrassed to hit back.

That is staggering. And very disturbing. Surely there is at least one person in the media not living in fear of the AFL cutting them off?

No depths to which the AFL won't sink sadly.

Another question for our legal experts looking at the weight the outcome should have in these cases. Consider the pedestrian hit by the drunk driver. If for example, the pedestrian ran against a red light which may have led to him being hit by any driver, sober or not, does that help the driver. Does the fact that in ANB's case the 'pedestrian' kept trying to kick the ball rather than protect himself carry any weight?

"or spread their players across multiple clubs." Any AFL club forced to do this by financial or other circumstances will be severely disadvantaged.

Not defending Melk here, but surely if he is entitled to move sideways, (which seems to be unclear) then the umpire shouldn't call 'hold', but instead call 'back 2 metres'. If the issue is the sideways movement, then don't they call 'east west'?

Mazer R's post shows just how inept the AFL rules are. All terms should be clearly defined. The game is hard enough to umpire without having rules that are open to 'interpretation' or are ambiguous in some or all situations. Get some lawyers onto it to draft them properly! Some of the dumber players may have trouble reading such rules, but it is easy for coaches etc to explain what is meant case by case. I know of sports with legalistic rules where there are accompanying documents which spell out what the rules imply for every case a player is likely to encounter.

No chance. All he has to do is ask the opponent what sort of chocolate his partner prefers.

No chance the AFL will bring a charge of bringing the game into disrepute?

Dear Abby, I'm torn about who to barrack for in the Rich vs Ess game this week. I usually have no trouble barracking for the team whose win is in the Demons' interest. Advice please. Yours, Perplexed of Demonland

All this just shows his mindset is the same as in 2000, namely that it is OK to hurt players outside of the actual game. No wonder his players do it, he encourages it. About time the AFL joined the 21st century. If I still had young kids I'd think twice before getting them to play footy.

As if I needed another reason for hating Essendon and Richmond. What a bastard.

I agree. The AFL carries on about setting an example to young people. Mocking and gloating over a defeated opponent is about as low as you can go.

A reversal is more than a double penalty these days because all the defenders have probably rushed forward and will be out of defensive position

While fines on the basis of wealth may look attractive, total wealth can’t be calculated without appraising and valuing properties of many kinds. And then you discover the offender can’t pay a fine without selling a house. While income can vary from the previous year it is easier to measure. your idea of not disqualifying from the Brownlow is a good one. If someone is rubbed out for many weeks for a really bad act then they won’t be getting any votes during that period anyway. But we have to punish the act more than the outcome.

Good on the NRL, let's hope the AFL follows suit. True it is more difficult for society in general to have fines proportional to income since loads of rich people don't appear to make any money so their taxable income is vanishingly small. But I'd still base fines on the last tax return which would cover a good fraction of the population and produce some equity. Don't have to publish the fine if that is a privacy issue. (Sorting out the tax dodging classes is a relatively difficult project.)

We don't know. But if he wants to stay we'd be mad to trade him for anything other than an ace player - which is very unlikely to be offered. So I reckon the real question is: if he wants to go, how hard do we go to make him want to stay?

Fair enough. Perhaps the current discussion needs a different title however.

I don't like the title of this thread.

How many suffer from their version of MFCSS? Or are we unique?

Well someone has to balance the "all is lost" and "it's in the bag" posts.

The fact that no one has posted a summary is pleasing - it means very few subscribe to that Murdoch crud.

Definition of no common sense: AFL umpires

You are assuming it takes no effort to plan a strategy. Planning two is harder than one. While the decision on the day may be as simple as long stops vs short, the work needed to develop and manufacture different types of stops is the relevant analogy.

Yeah that ruined my footy career too. (Pre contacts)