AFL penalises without punishing

[Ghost Dog]

And the AFL fines a club ( indirectly ) during an investigation for an offence, the definition of which they are not sure of.
Appoint John Cleese as the new AFL commisar, why not?

Not sure of the definition, or don't want to say; They facilitated a situation that Melbourne exploited.

The AFL is a small organisation by international sporting standards, run by a group of well heeled business types who are all in each other's pockets. It's a clique that will only run properly if an independent regulator of some kind is involved; but that's never going to happen is it. People are becoming jaded, because so much of it sounds like what we get in politics. We turn to sport to get away from that sh%% and here it is again!


And in all of this I can't help feeling for Matt Rendell who was drawn and quartered by Demitriou for SFA, while all this festers.

[jeemak]

Playing Devil's advocate, would adding more ex-footballers to the mix and skewing the commission away from corporate types do anything for the chronyism that you're alluding to?

It hasn't worked for the media. Basically all we get now in a lot of cases is a handful of players, ex-players and arse kissing "journalists" telling in-jokes at (not to) eachother.

The AFL is a high profile organisation, and is going to get an over-representation of empire builders and self-interested people fulfilling management positions due to its overall popularity.

It would be nice for the commission to be clearly more independant, but it's never going to work that way.

We can't regulate everything GD, ya Commie!

[SonofScray]

The AFL have really pushed the limits of what should be acceptable. They have put the cart before the horse, so enamoured with their formula for generating maximum revenue that they've rendered the concepts of competition and fairness obsolete. They did not account for them in their scheme to turn a football league into sports entertainment.

The AFL for me now sits in the same basket as WWE and the Harlem Globetrotters. Its not fair dinkum.

[jeemak]

The AFL have really pushed the limits of what should be acceptable. They have put the cart before the horse, so enamoured with their formula for generating maximum revenue that they've rendered the concepts of competition and fairness obsolete. They did not account for them in their scheme to turn a football league into sports entertainment.

The AFL for me now sits in the same basket as WWE and the Harlem Globetrotters. Its not fair dinkum.

Perhaps a touch extreme! Albeit heavily controlled there's still the element on the field with the players that is real. I take your point though.

Definitely take a lot from your first paragraph. For mine you've summed it up perfectly. What scares me is they didn't seem to see this cluster-boofing they're experiencing right now coming. I've seen so many examples of them sprouting the long term viability of the code being generated by revenue maximisation, with a severe level of smugness that I find it hard to take them seriously anymore.

I don't post at or read Bigfooty these days. If anyone does, can you tell me if other clubs' supporters are just as incredulous towards the behaviour of the league as we are after this off-season?

[Maddog37]

Yes Jeemak, it is a common feeling amongst all fans on bigfooty too IMHO.

[chef]

I find it weird that they went after Melbourne, but none of the other teams that have tanked over the last 10 years.

[Topdog]

Really the weirdest and most damning statement was "I dont know what tanking is"

That statement is possibly the worst made by an organisation since the start of time.

They spent 7 months investigating something they know nothing about.