'When I was told I was sacked, I broke down for 15 minutes'

[Scraggers]

When I was told I was sacked, I broke down for 15 minutes

I FEEL gutted. Stripped bare, taken apart, stripped of everything I thought was important in a football club.
You get asked to adhere to certain stipulations and you are found wanting by a group that ultimately will be judged by premiership success.
You know what? I desperately hope that the Western Bulldogs win this year's flag, so someone as deserving as Dale Morris can stand up with the premiership trophy in his hands.
He is the one bloke in my time with the Bulldogs I will look back at and say, you could learn something from that player.
When I was told the club wanted me to resign - which is the new way of saying you are being sacked - I broke down for 15 minutes.
From memory, I didn't even have a shower, but who would know?
After all, how many players have been sacked like I was?

ARTICLE IN FULL ...

[comrade]

A couple of swipes but suprisingly restrained. We'll see how contrite he is with the nuffies egging him on on live radio, but not a bad start from Aker.

[Throughandthrough]

A couple of swipes but suprisingly restrained. We'll see how contrite he is with the nuffies egging him on on live radio, but not a bad start from Aker.

Well its been 12 hours and he hasn't potted someone yet. Good start...


I presume he will keep that for The Footy Show.


Dale Morris should take him out for a Coffee and please with him for 2 months of STFU followed by 50 years of go your hardest.

[angelopetraglia]

He is starting to throw a few grenades with Steve Price.

Aker is definitely playing the "poor little Aker sympathy card" and it appears to be working. Public opinion is slowly turning towards him since he has started speaking out.

He is starting to win the PR battle, not with journalists who know the real story, but with the general public. The club needs to get on top of this quickly.

In my mind the club made the right call. All supporters need to back the club on this. Can't believe the hysteria from some so called club supporters.

[angelopetraglia]

He even had a falling out with his own manager, Ricky Olarenshaw, who stated that he was unmanageable.

You feel sorry for the bloke, just one of those guys who will end up having no friends.

When you mentor is Steve Price, who only wants to be your friend for his own promotional gain, you are in big trouble.

[G-Mo77]

He is starting to win the PR battle, not with journalists who know the real story, but with the general public. The club needs to get on top of this quickly.

In my mind the club made the right call. All supporters need to back the club on this. Can't believe the hysteria from some so called club supporters.

The club did the right thing and I don't think they need to hose this down at all. The best thing they can do is just look forward. If Aker wants to make backhanded swipes at our president, coach and captain then let him.

As for the general public, all you hear are complainers, they're the more vocal ones.

[Desipura]

A spoilt child he is coming accross as. Reminds me of that little germ that played for the Hammerheads in the reality footy team some years ago.

[Stefcep]

The club did the right thing.

How, exactly, do you make that assessment when the club has not made it known specifically why he was sacked?

[Ghost Dog]

He is starting to throw a few grenades with Steve Price.

Aker is definitely playing the "poor little Aker sympathy card" and it appears to be working. Public opinion is slowly turning towards him since he has started speaking out.

He is starting to win the PR battle, not with journalists who know the real story, but with the general public. The club needs to get on top of this quickly.

In my mind the club made the right call. All supporters need to back the club on this. Can't believe the hysteria from some so called club supporters.

Why so called supporters? you can support the club but have a different view from some of its decisions. Not all of us like to follow blindly. Debate is healthy and diversity of opinion is good no?
support the club, but the jury remains out if they made the right choice as not all the facts are there. Even moderators on this blog ( GvG ) are saying the club does not deserve to be patting itself on the back 100% - that there are some things it could have done better. These people know more about the situation than me.
Also, Desipura, how does it help to sling mud at Jason by calling him a spoiled child?
If we don't want him to sling mud, best not to sling it at him.

[Desipura]

Why so called supporters? you can support the club but have a different view from some of its decisions. Not all of us like to follow blindly. Debate is healthy and diversity of opinion is good no?
support the club, but the jury remains out if they made the right choice as not all the facts are there. Even moderators on this blog ( GvG ) are saying the club does not deserve to be patting itself on the back 100% - that there are some things it could have done better. These people know more about the situation than me.
Also, Desipura, how does it help to sling mud at Jason by calling him a spoiled child?
If we don't want him to sling mud, best not to sling it at him.

I suggest you read the first bolded part from yourself. I see it that way, I tell it that way.
Im sure me slinging him is not going to cause him to lose any sleep.

[Bulldog4life]

He is starting to throw a few grenades with Steve Price.

Aker is definitely playing the "poor little Aker sympathy card" and it appears to be working. Public opinion is slowly turning towards him since he has started speaking out.

He is starting to win the PR battle, not with journalists who know the real story, but with the general public. The club needs to get on top of this quickly.

In my mind the club made the right call. All supporters need to back the club on this. Can't believe the hysteria from some so called club supporters.

That is the key. In my opinion you get nuffies ringing from all supporter bases insisting they are Doggie supporters.

[Ozza]

I haven't seen a Bob Murphy article today...does anyone know if Bob or the club have decided not to run it this week? Its a highlight of my Thursday mornings!

[LostDoggy]

I haven't seen a Bob Murphy article today...does anyone know if Bob or the club have decided not to run it this week? Its a highlight of my Thursday mornings!

I'll Now have to "Buy" The Age. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[aker39]

Here it is

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/polit...721-10l7c.html

[LostDoggy]

My first and last two cents on the matter:

Look, Aker is a wanker. We all knew that the moment he ran onto the field as a ratbag kid, and we certainly knew that when he came over to us from the Lions. Yes, he brought this on himself because he can't keep his mouth shut -- we also knew this, yet we said go ahead and do your media work because we can't pay you your market rate anymore. And you know what? That was a good thing -- we don't have to be so ridiculously precious about this stuff.

My point is, how has any of this blindsided the club? Were we that naive to think that Aker the media personality, who's entire raison d'etre is to be an opinionated dickhead, wasn't going to say some things that may be a bit.. risque? If we didn't want innocent opinions (and I mean innocent, more on this in a second) to air, then the last person we would want on a dual media/playing contract is Aker.

It just seems to me that the club hadn't really thought through the implications of the contract offer to Aker from the end of last year, and hadn't really done a thorough risk/mitigation audit on its impact, and are now reaping the consequences of this shortsightedness.

I'm not absolving Aker of his part in this mess, but what was he reasonably expected to do? Take a media job but be bland and unopinionated? Take a 50% pay cut with the blessing to do media, but be expected to churn out the same output on the field yet shut up off it? He had two jobs, and as far as I could see, he was doing them both well (enough) in their own sphere -- it seems that the cross-over was where the Dogs had a problem, but they should have thought about it BEFORE they offered the opportunity to him. It was a very badly designed experiment (and let's be frank, if the match committee didn't think he would be able to contribute this year they would have made him retire -- they wanted him, but just on the cheap), and it has blown up in the administration's faces.

My final point will be about the rest of the team: there have been numerous reports about how some of his teammates have been offended about this that or the other. Well, all I can say is, seriously, harden the f**k up, boys -- everything he has said about the club has been, relatively speaking, pretty innocent, if tactless (which, again, can't be a surprise). Other clubs can successfully integrate rapists, murderer's mates, wife bashers et al and still be challenging for a flag, but we get our panties in a knot because a guy is a loud mouth. Surely the players should know by now that Aker's the kind of guy you take with a generous pinch of salt, unless of course their personal and collective insecurity is too great to handle being criticised by a triple premiership player and brownlow medallist. And if the retort to that is that being a rapist etc. is okay as long as you fit into the club rules and culture, then there is far more wrong with our game and our so-called 'club cultures' than I would care to go into.

If we all want groupthink, we will go down together. Some of the best teams in history had people who openly hated each other, but they were professionals and got on with the job. The perceived softness in the group has been regularly linked in the past to a need to be liked and safety in numbers (thus the lack of individual initiative from anyone when close games are on the line), and rightly or wrongly, this is just another example of an inability to display maturity or handle individuality constructively (or even just ignore it) -- if Johnno, Gia, Murph, Coons etc. can't collectively or individually temper Aker, what chance at tempering a rampant Geelong or Hawthorn or St. Kilda (all hard nuts) come September? Well, from past experiences, zero, actually.

Aker made his bed and has to lie in it, but the club bought him the materials and tools to do it, and made themselves and the playing group look just a bit too precious in the process. For those who have said that Brisbane did the same thing, I would observe that the Lions have not experienced any type of success since that time, and while pinning it all on the manner of Akers' dismissal is too long a bow to draw, it was certainly a symptom of the collective insecurity and malaise permeating the club then that they still haven't recovered from.

One can only hope that this isn't just a way of deflecting on our underachieving year (the last 6 weeks notwithstanding), or for underperforming players to blame an external factor as a distraction rather than looking at themselves in the mirror. And of course I still hope we win the flag, but if the reports of players' thoughts on this matter are any indication of our mental state as a group, then I despair.

But that's just my two cents, and I'm sure I'm in the minority.