Arizona Trip

[Max469]

Was anyone listening to SEN this morning?

One of the guys at work, come over to say that he heard on SEN that a team that is going to train Arizona, may not be going.

Says that that one of the players has been playing up.

Is it us - any other team going?

Please do not be true, we have been good boys.

Lunchtime at work for me, so thought I would check.

Thanks

Max

[Missing Dog]

Re: Arizona Trip

This may be related to what you heard.

Rookie causes turbulence with high jinks

Caroline Wilson


MICHAEL Wundke has not played a senior game for North Melbourne but the South Australian rookie might well have secured his place in the club's history for his part in the downfall of a time-honoured Kangaroos tradition.

The end-of-season footy trip in its most old-fashioned sense is not something the AFL or its club bosses look forward to any more. In fact, since the Bali bombings of October 2002, they have become the subject of some dread and many clubs have discouraged the concept to the point of distinction.

Not North Melbourne, whose players — some 37 of them — headed for Las Vegas last weekend where wooden-spooner Melbourne was also holidaying. The iconic, glittering night-town in the Nevada Desert was also where West Coast's Chad Fletcher almost died two years ago in an incident which almost single-handedly led the AFL Players Association to agree to holiday drug testing.

Depending on who you talk to, the incident involving Wundke, 20, which took place on a Qantas flight five days ago, involved as little as a drunken prod which upset a female flight attendant, to as much as the threat of handcuffs and an interview with US customs officials once the plane had landed.

Melbourne radio's "rumour file" on 3AW early yesterday did not name the club or the player, but several hours of international telephone calls conducted by the Kangaroos hierarchy established that Wundke was refused further service of alcohol after he drunkenly stood up and demanded it. North Melbourne confirmed that he became moderately physical towards the flight attendant, but denied he became overtly threatening or violent.

"It seems to be a relatively minor incident," club chief executive Eugene Arocca said last night. "There seems to have been no official action taken by the authorities."

The point about Wundke is that his "relatively minor incident" comes off the back of the Sandhurst Golf Club mid-season debacle which saw Shannon Grant suspended and several sponsors and club members disgusted by player behaviour.

And the North players weren't the only ones who appeared on ABC television "on the cans" as they watched their VFL affiliate contest the finals — the Bulldogs did the same the following week. Both were noted by the AFL, which was not happy.

For 18 months the AFL has been formulating its Responsible Use of Alcohol Policy, to be launched early next month. It has held sessions with 15 of its 16 clubs explaining the dangers of binge drinking, which is so prevalent in football.

The Federal Government earlier this year launched a $53 million national strategy to tackle the issue and the AFL, along with most leading sporting codes, has jumped aboard.

Since West Coast's post-2006 premiership summer of madness and Alan Didak and Heath Shaw and Nathan Carroll, most drunken incidents involving players — even without their occasional partnership with cars and guns and violence and illegal drugs — don't seem so funny any more. And anyone who has sat anywhere near an obnoxious drunk on a plane knows how tiresome it can prove.

So the previously little-known Michael Wundke might be a victim of an exaggerated rumour on 3AW and guilty of nothing more than drunkenly pushing a female flight attendant, but his timing was poor.

And those North Melbourne personnel on the flight with him — there was at least one club official on board — should have stepped in earlier.

[Sedat]

Re: Arizona Trip

"It seems to be a relatively minor incident," club chief executive Eugene Arocca said last night. "There seems to have been no official action taken by the authorities."

The point about Wundke is that his "relatively minor incident" comes off the back of the Sandhurst Golf Club mid-season debacle which saw Shannon Grant suspended and several sponsors and club members disgusted by player behaviour.

And the North players weren't the only ones who appeared on ABC television "on the cans" as they watched their VFL affiliate contest the finals — the Bulldogs did the same the following week. Both were noted by the AFL, which was not happy.

For 18 months the AFL has been formulating its Responsible Use of Alcohol Policy, to be launched early next month. It has held sessions with 15 of its 16 clubs explaining the dangers of binge drinking, which is so prevalent in football.

So the Bulldogs enjoyed a couple of cans at the VFL after their season ended - hold the presses

Caro wouldn't even know how to get to the Whitten Oval. I doubt she has written a genuinely informative piece on the Dogs in 5 years, her stock in trade is negative hyperbole on the 'weaker' clubs

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Arizona Trip

Oh my God, young men seen drinking beer from cans at suburban football match.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Arizona Trip

Oh my God, young men seen drinking beer from cans at suburban football match.

Yes, pretty ridiculous.