Geelong

[Sedat]

City Hall is full of former Geelong pant-sniffers and vice versa. Coupled with Corangamite being a huge growth corridor marginal electorate that has enormous govt-funding pull, and this sort of horseshit is the end result.

[GVGjr]

Found this.
GmYZrI7a8AAOjZu.jpg

[jeemak]

Unreal. If they worked as hard at finding something as they did at not finding something this investigation would have been wrapped up 6 months ago.

I loved how this line was included in the first round of articles for educational purposes - "An audit is an independent examination into financial reports to verify them and ensure they have been kept properly".

And now without any irony at all it remains in the body of the story.

If you were in any way a suspicious person, you might conclude this guy was moved into AFL house specifically to deal with this issue. The best guy to avoid finding the bodies is the guy who knows exactly where they're buried.

[Bornadog]

‘There have been discrepancies’: Geelong ‘expecting’ sanction over third-party player payments

Geelong is expecting to be sanctioned over discrepancies in their third-party player payments, with fines looming, according to a report.

The Cats have been audited by the AFL over the past few months as part of regular checks on club books and according to veteran reporter Caroline Wilson, the league has found several issues.

“The AFL conducts regular salary cap audit activities across a number of clubs every year as part of our annual salary cap compliance process,” a league spokesperson said in March.

“We do not provide commentary on the conduct or progress of any of these activities and the only time we release any information publicly is if we determine there has been a breach of AFL rules.”

The audit has reportedly found discrepancies between its results and the Cats’ books, including “lodgements that should have been noted but weren’t”, according to Wilson.

“The audit is virtually finished. Results have been slowed down by the fact that Geelong COO Marcus King has been away, I think studying actually at Harvard, he’s back, and my belief is that Geelong are expecting a fine, or there will be a fine from the AFL over the coming weeks,” she said on Seven.

“Geelong have been adamant, from the word go, that there is no smoking gun here, that nothing untoward was going on at the Geelong Football Club in terms of any attempt to hide third party payments.

“The AFL accepts this, but there have been discrepancies, there have been lodgements that should have been noted that weren’t, and they will lead to several five-figure fines, whether they go beyond five figures, I can’t tell you.

“I do know that one major lodgement issue was a car to a senior AFLW player that wasn’t lodged. And I think there might be a couple of other things as well.”

It would not be the first time a club has been fined for incorrect lodgements with Brisbane fined $10,000 in 2017 due to an administrative error which saw a discrepancy with their total player payment information.

“We’re not saying that there was any cheating, that there was any attempt to cheat the salary cap,” Wilson said.

“What it will lead to, and the AFL have told Geelong and other clubs, this is that there’s been a loosening of management issues at many clubs, and a warning will be given to all clubs with a crackdown on third party payments. And this has been led by what’s happened at Geelong.”

Previous potential payment issues cited around the Cats have included Bailey Smith’s deal with Cotton On, and Chris Scott’s deal with Morris Finance, both elite-level club sponsors.

[jeemak]

So they get a guy into AFL house to investigate his own murder (his time at Geelong) and it seems severe administrative errors have occurred, but no smoking guns.........**** the arseholes.

[GVGjr]

You have to wonder who seriously the AFL is actually looking into this. Sure they'll find some errors but they ever come out and say there was a level of cheating?

[jazzadogs]

Prepare the wet lettuce!

[Hotdog60]

Carlton needs to pipe up and say you hit us with a sledgehammer, and you give them a kiss on the cheek.

[Boots]

If the audit didn't cover Cotton On and Morris Finance, then the rules are bad, but Geelong are playing within them.

Having worked in philanthropy, this is how most of the world works - you leverage existing relationships to get your own way. The org I was working for had an 'in' to the Essendon board, which is full of multi-millionaires. It's where we got most of our funding - that one pool of old blokes who had a good experience with us and would talk us up to the rest of the circle. The Geelong-Cotton On- Smith connection works in exactly the same way. I hate them a lot, but unless it's forbidden, they'd be mad not to capitalise on it.

But it should probably be forbidden, given how broken player trading is.

[jazzadogs]

How many players private residences do we think the AFL CEO has visited this year? And why is it only one? Link

Geelong superstar Bailey Smith reportedly hosted AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon, among other top league and Cats officials, for a ‘secret meeting’ earlier this week regarding recent indiscretions.

As first reported by Seven’s Mitch Cleary, Dillon was joined by Cats coach Chris Scott, CEO Steve Hocking and football boss Andrew Mackie for the closed-door meeting with the 24-year-old, who has made headlines in recent weeks.

The gathering at Smith’s Surf Coast home on Thursday night follows a social media comment from Smith last month that satirically referenced illicit drug use to an online troll. The interaction comment sparked serious discussions between the AFL and Geelong, but ultimately stopped short of an official sanction.

Cleary added those with intel on the meeting at Smith’s residence noted of the league’s emphasis on his status as a competition-wide role model, and that a career with his trajectory involving less off-field dramas would only be beneficial for his marketability.

Such was the significance of Dillon’s meeting with Smith, that the AFL boss chose to drive 90 minutes to the Surf Coast early on Thursday before meeting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Marvel Stadium for Hawthorn’s clash with the Western Bulldogs.

Smith was fined earlier this year for ‘flipping the bird’ to a distasteful fan in Adelaide over Gather Round.

The former Bulldog is enjoying the best year of his AFL career to date, and is hotly tipped to be leading the Brownlow at the halfway point of the season alongside Crows captain Jordan Dawson and Collingwood young gun Nick Daicos.

Smith was however a late withdrawal from Geelong’s four-goal win over Gold Coast on Saturday evening with hamstring tightness, with Fox Footy’s camera crew exclusively picking up vision of his discomfort pre-game before final teams were submitted.

[jeemak]

They were only visiting with such a cavalry because everything is fine.

[chef]

Tick tick tick

[azabob]

Glad to see some more skelletons coming out, not that the media will remember next week.

Not only has Bailey Smith shown once again the type of human he is, it has now been reported that Chris Scott made Geelong employee cry after they beat Brisbane on Friday night.

They really do embrace shit humans down there.

[Aidan7557]

Glad to see some more skelletons coming out, not that the media will remember next week.

Not only has Bailey Smith shown once again the type of human he is, it has now been reported that Chris Scott made Geelong employee cry after they beat Brisbane on Friday night.

They really do embrace shit humans down there.

They are clearly one of the best run clubs in the world BUT also seem to get away with so much. Tyson Stengle overdose, Tanner Bruhn R@pe charges, Smith and Scott's latest incidents all in the last 12 months yet nothing ever is explained. Steve Hocking has to be a reason why with all his buddies at AFL house.

[jeemak]

Could you imagine the shit storm if Luke Beveridge made a female AFL staffer cry due to an outburst after a winning final?

This is what happens when you spoil children I guess.........