The AFL as an institution...loose as

[NRLCrap1]

Awww you wrecked it!!

[King-Eliagh]

Jesus folks, valentines day was weeks ago. Ease off with the love in you're both having here and get back on topic.

Any predictions on the next AFL coach/staff member/player to disgrace the code? Here's some odds of blokes I got a sneakin suspicion will disgrace emselves and their loose organisation soon.

Paul roos - 100/1
Mick Malthouse 75/1
Jimmy hird 3/1
Eddie Macguire 3.5/1
Kev Sheedy 4/1
Buddy Franklin 8/1
Sam Newman 6/1

Anyone else you fancy is on the edge of the AFL's next disgrace?

[AFLcrap1]

BUMP.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-2...e-call/5335200
James Hird's wife Tania reveals details of 'tip-off' phone call to Essendon over supplements scandal
7.30

The wife of suspended Essendon coach James Hird says her husband was pressured not to mention a "tip-off" during the investigation into the club's supplements scandal.

Hird was suspended following the supplements scandal last year.

Speaking to the ABC's 7.30 program, his wife Tania said former Essendon chairman David Evans pressured her husband not to tell anti-doping investigators that AFL boss Andrew Demetriou had "tipped off" the club.

"Certainly I heard David Evans say to James on speaker-phone - I was taking notes... on July 25, David admitted that he said to James, 'Can you go into ASADA and tell the whole truth, but don't say what Andrew Demetriou told us'," she said.

Asked if she was referring to a "tip-off" she said: "It has been referred to as the tip-off."

Demetriou has always strenuously denied there was a tip-off.



What a disgusting sport.
Fat slimebag should be in court for tipping off Essingbong

[AFLcrap1]

LOUISE MILLIGAN: After 11 years as chief executive of the Australian Football League, the richest game in the country, Andrew Demetriou is resigning. He'll leave at the end of the season.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: I've always said that it's a privilege and an honour to serve the game, but I also believe that the time is right.

MIKE FITZPATRICK, AFL CHAIRMAN (March 3): I think you'll all agree that Andrew's been a significant force in our competition. And as chief executive officer, he's led our industry through a period of extraordinary growth.



LOUISE MILLIGAN: But there has been debate over the legacy he's leaving and the culture he has overseen during his tenure.

JEFF KENNETT, FMR VIC. PREMIER & FMR HAWTHORN PRESIDENT: Even with the announcement of Andrew's retirement - and I wish him well because he's done some wonderful things - to announce that for the end of the season is Dame Nellie Melba-like. He's going to be going to lunches where people are going to be standing up and it's all about Andrew, it's not about the code.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Former Victorian Premier, later Hawthorn president, Jeff Kennett, has been an outspoken critic of the AFL under Mr Demetriou's leadership.

JEFF KENNETT: It's become a closed circle of individuals protecting themselves against scrutiny and against transparency.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Football writers who have failed to toe the AFL's line have faced the wrath of Andrew Demetriou. The Australian's Chip Le Grand attracted Demetriou's ire last December when he broke a story that the AFL was about to settle its case against Essendon doctor Bruce Reid. Andrew Demetriou denied it was true and ridiculed the reporter on breakfast radio.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU (774 ABC Melb., Sept. 13, 2013): Given Homer's inside information - Homer Le Grand at The Australian, he must know something. He's been so intrepid reporter on this whole matter and got so much of it wrong, he's probably being consistently wrong again.

GERARD WHATELEY, RADIO COMPERE: I hesitate to ask, but why is Chip Homer?

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: That's his name, I think.

RED SYMONS, RADIO COMPERE: That's his real name. Chip is his nickname.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: I think so. I think so. But he's been so deplorable thus far, got so much wrong, he might fluke it.

CHIP LE GRAND, THE AUSTRALIAN: Looking back on it now, I think there were two things that were in play. One, that Andrew Demetriou as chief executive of the AFL wasn't well-informed, and two, by that stage, I think the hubris or the arrogance perhaps of being in that job for too long had got the better of him.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: The run-ins with journalists were going on behind closed doors too.

CHIP LE GRAND: The AFL was very unhappy with how the Herald Sun was covering the Essendon story. They denied accreditation, Finals accreditation to Michael Warner, who was probably the most critical of the Herald Sun reporters in his coverage of the AFL.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Critics of the AFL hierarchy also mention its handling of the coach involved in the Melbourne tanking affair of 2009. The Melbourne Demons club, coached by Dean Bailey, was accused of deliberately losing games so as to get favourable player draft picks for the following year. Bailey was suspended for the first 16 weeks of last year.

CHRIS POLLARD, LAWYER: Out of the Melbourne tanking scenario, no-one was ever charged, let alone found guilty. However, the Melbourne Football Club received a fine of half a million dollars. My client, Dean, was suspended, and really, it's just like me being charged with murder, going to court, being found not guilty and then serving 10 years non-parole. That's the absurdity of it.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Lawyer Chris Pollard acted for Dean Bailey. He was dismayed at what happened to his client. He says Dean Bailey was warned by someone on behalf of the AFL that there would be consequences for his career if he didn't settle the case.

CHRIS POLLARD: The threats were made that he probably didn't have a great future in the AFL football industry and Dean was concerned with that in terms of financially supporting his family. Matters have to be commercially resolved, swept under the carpet, dealt with quickly so there's no embarrassment to the AFL or perhaps the AFL going to court, and if they went to court, their rules and regulations may not stand up.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: After leaving Melbourne, Dean Bailey was employed by the supportive Adelaide Football Club, but diagnosed with an aggressive form of lung cancer at the end of last year. He died last week.

CHRIS POLLARD: He was very concerned about - after it about his character, about being tainted, and I say this colloquially, as a cheat, and also he was concerned about his future in the AFL industry. He clearly, through my experience, was a very, very, very decent man - a family man and a good guy. People that I think football needs. He was honest and this scenario had an effect on him.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: As Chris Pollard tells it, Bailey's experience was another example of the AFL riding roughshod over its people.

7.30 has spoken to senior club officials, both current and past, from around the country, who tell similar stories. All declined to go on camera for fear of repercussions for their clubs or themselves. The word most commonly used to describe their run-ins with the AFL was "bullying".

JEFF KENNETT: As president of Hawthorn, when the AFL was trying to move us out of Tasmania onto the mainland, and I said, "No, we have a commitment to Tasmania. We have 8,000 members there. We enjoy playing there. We're not going." And then I was offered a handful of money. Not me personally, but the club.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: How much money?

JEFF KENNETT: Oh, well, I think it was $1 or $2 million a year.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: And who offered it?

JEFF KENNETT: Oh, one of the senior officials of the AFL. And I'm just saying, they tried to press their point, and when they weren't getting their way, in the end, they just turned round and said, "We'll try and buy you."

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Mr Demetriou, you've always publicly promoted tolerance and good behaviour in the game. Would you say that yourself and the senior members of the executive have always demonstrated that good behaviour behind closed doors when you're dealing with people within the AFL and also the media?

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: Oh, God, I think so, 'cause I can tell you right now, I sleep very well at night about the values that I uphold and the way that we treat people and the way that we try and protect the integrity of this code, absolutely.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: That hasn't been Tania Hird's experience.

TANIA HIRD: It wasn't about the integrity of the game by any stretch of the imagination. It was all about the AFL brand.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: With Andrew Demetriou stepping down, the future direction of the AFL will be for his successor to decide.

JEFF KENNETT: We need to change the culture within the code. Lift the professionalism, lift the standard of governance and then recognise the importance of the code over any individual.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU: We are but custodians of the game. We get to borrow the game, have a lend of it for a while and hopefully hand it over to the next person in better shape than when we found it, and I hope we've done that. Thank you.

SARAH FERGUSON: Louise Milligan reporting.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s3968301.htm


Grubby filthy ,lying ,buillying mob run this abortion of a sport.

Good to see a few people willing to speak out..
as i have said before N Korea could learn a few things off Vlad & co.

[Swans4ever]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

[AFLcrap1]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Stick to the topic & stop deflecting
This thread has nothing to do with the NRL.
It has to do with the cover ups,the corruption,the lies the bullying of AFL house.

Disgusting sport followed by braindead morons.

[Swans4ever]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Stick to the topic & stop deflecting
This thread has nothing to do with the NRL.
It has to do with the cover ups,the corruption,the lies the bullying of AFL house.

Disgusting sport followed by braindead morons.

Says you - go trolling for more shit - the sport is a game pure and simple - you must have such a chip on your shoulders that you hate a game, did an AF player pot your misses? Or did the AF kids at school make you taste toilet water? You are pathetic! I know AFL house isn't perfect but in the end of the day they run the game for the games betterment - yet they are a separate business, not government or a government agency NO ONE has a say in THEIR business but them! So when you make allegations like these after scouring newspapers for negatives in the end it means very little - RL is the same but on many levels doesn't have the balls to make unpopular decisions instead their more interested in being PC! As for these allegations I take them ALL with a grain of salt because it's usually people who have done the wrong thing that make these claims against the administration but even if true it doesn't alter my love for the game just like narrow minded bigoted wankers like you don't alter my appreciation and admiration for RL as a game!
PS my post above was to point out all codes make mistakes but you thought I was deflecting - FFS get a life and have someone remove that MASSIVE chip in your shoulders against a game!

[AFLcrap1]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Stick to the topic & stop deflecting
This thread has nothing to do with the NRL.
It has to do with the cover ups,the corruption,the lies the bullying of AFL house.

Disgusting sport followed by braindead morons.

Says you - go trolling for more shit - the sport is a game pure and simple - you must have such a chip on your shoulders that you hate a game, did an AF player pot your misses? Or did the AF kids at school make you taste toilet water? You are pathetic! I know AFL house isn't perfect but in the end of the day they run the game for the games betterment - yet they are a separate business, not government or a government agency NO ONE has a say in THEIR business but them! So when you make allegations like these after scouring newspapers for negatives in the end it means very little - RL is the same but on many levels doesn't have the balls to make unpopular decisions instead their more interested in being PC! As for these allegations I take them ALL with a grain of salt because it's usually people who have done the wrong thing that make these claims against the administration but even if true it doesn't alter my love for the game just like narrow minded bigoted wankers like you don't alter my appreciation and admiration for RL as a game!
PS my post above was to point out all codes make mistakes but you thought I was deflecting - FFS get a life and have someone remove that MASSIVE chip in your shoulders against a game!

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>
Drink the Koolaid ,Vlad says its good for you.


& you dumb fuck Can Smith end up in Court for saying what he said.
Vlad can if it is proven he tipped off essingbong about an investigation by a Govt dept..
You have no fucking idea.
You have no comprehension skills.

1 point for trying & missing like the uncos who play your sport.

[Swans4ever]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Stick to the topic & stop deflecting
This thread has nothing to do with the NRL.
It has to do with the cover ups,the corruption,the lies the bullying of AFL house.

Disgusting sport followed by braindead morons.

Says you - go trolling for more shit - the sport is a game pure and simple - you must have such a chip on your shoulders that you hate a game, did an AF player pot your misses? Or did the AF kids at school make you taste toilet water? You are pathetic! I know AFL house isn't perfect but in the end of the day they run the game for the games betterment - yet they are a separate business, not government or a government agency NO ONE has a say in THEIR business but them! So when you make allegations like these after scouring newspapers for negatives in the end it means very little - RL is the same but on many levels doesn't have the balls to make unpopular decisions instead their more interested in being PC! As for these allegations I take them ALL with a grain of salt because it's usually people who have done the wrong thing that make these claims against the administration but even if true it doesn't alter my love for the game just like narrow minded bigoted wankers like you don't alter my appreciation and admiration for RL as a game!
PS my post above was to point out all codes make mistakes but you thought I was deflecting - FFS get a life and have someone remove that MASSIVE chip in your shoulders against a game!

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>
Drink the Koolaid ,Vlad says its good for you.


& you dumb fuck Can Smith end up in Court for saying what he said.
Vlad can if it is proven he tipped off essingbong about an investigation by a Govt dept..
You have no fucking idea.
You have no comprehension skills.

1 point for trying & missing like the uncos who play your sport.

Well until he charged its nothing more than speculation by people who have axe to grind - just like most of your comments! You would have been great in the Spanish Inquisition! -1 for slinging mud!

[MarkZZZ]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Just a question Swanny. I think you would have to agree that the NRL has more than "a minimal presence" in NSW & QLD. I'm just wondering which are the other 5 states that you talking about. I get 4. VIC, TAS, SA and WA. Which one am I missing?

Which school did you go to and what did they teach you?

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>

[Swans4ever]

Dave Smith CEO of the NRL we will be the biggest code in 5 yrs - even thou we have a third of the members, less than half the attendances of the AFL, earn 200 mil less than the AFL, have minimal presence in the other 5 states of Australia and only one club outside of our heartland states!

Just a question Swanny. I think you would have to agree that the NRL has more than "a minimal presence" in NSW & QLD. I'm just wondering which are the other 5 states that you talking about. I get 4. VIC, TAS, SA and WA. Which one am I missing?

Which school did you go to and what did they teach you?

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>

Stand corrected 4 states and a territory - but I think you knew where I was going - bit like the NRL being a national comp but having a side from NZ in it - or calling yourself national with 3 other states unrepresented. But if you want to nit pick go right ahead!

[AFLcrap1]

Combustible elements continue to be poured, indiscriminately, into an already volatile mix. Just as it is hard to know whether James Hird or the AFL is more damaged by Thursday night’s report on the ABC’s 7.30, it is now even harder to know where and how the Essendon story will end. And who else it will take with it.
I would argue Tania Hird was not the key figure of Thursday night’s report - that title belongs to journalist Louise Milligan. It is unlikely, though, she will collect an AFL media award. She ploughed into a field most football reporters tend to tiptoe around, presenting the AFL - with a rawness to make hard men wince - as an organisation with a non-transparent, quick-fix approach and a reflexively bully-boy culture.
It was a brutal national expose. An organisation whose brand-consciousness is matched by its pride at appearing as a model administrative citizen will be deeply offended.
Bulldozing and deal-cutting ways were savaged by lawyers representing James Hird in the Essendon saga and the late Dean Bailey in relation to the Melbourne "tanking" issue. And it is well known by now that another lawyer, Tania Hird, was also less than complimentary.
Advertisement
Admittedly, these are critics with a professional and/or personal axe to grind. But they have loudly reiterated the AFL's inclination to ignore process and achieve managed outcomes on big issues of public interest, regardless of lack of transparency.
Many within the football industry have been exposed as the Essendon issue has refused to go away over more than a year.
The AFL Commission must surely be looking to expedite the appointment of a successor to Andrew Demetriou as chief executive. The need for cultural change, as Jeff Kennett has long urged, is now well etched in the public psyche.
The question of whether Demetriou improperly tipped off Essendon’s then president David Evans about an impending investigation in February 2013 has again been raised. Tania Hird implicitly accused the CEO on Thursday night’s program: a claim cutting to the heart of the integrity of Demetriou and his administration. It is not unknown for the AFL to push such matters and it would be well within its rights to use the legal process in protection of its chief’s, and accordingly its own, reputation. It would be fascinating to see who blinked.
Apart from this matter, the 7.30 story also flushed out some answers to lingering questions about the Essendon affair.
On Friday, AFL Commission member and former union and political heavyweight Bill Kelty cast light on elements of what has transpired over the past 13 months. Speaking on ABC Radio about his involvement in the saga, Kelty said: "I had a concern that the AFL had subcontracted out the responsibility and that we couldn’t clearly say to the parents or to the players that this drug was authorised ... and I thought we should bring it back in ... to reclaim the ground, revert back to what it was."
"What it was" is presumably the more familiar landscape on which the AFL runs its own race. For the fact is, Kelty's expression "subcontracting the work out" described the modern-day requirement of responsible sports administrations to hand over doping investigations such as the Essendon case to an authorised authority.
Kelty also said: "We were entitled to have a more conservative view about some of these things than ASADA or anyone else."
He insisted the AFL's approach to the matter was purely to ensure, as best it could, the welfare of the players and the integrity of the game.
While I do not doubt the sincerity of this, I seriously question the logic. Because surely the knowledge Essendon was under investigation by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority would have been enough to ensure no further excesses occurred. The release of the news, to club and public, would have turned things upside down in an instant.
As for the game's integrity, I fail to see how the AFL imposing itself on ASADA, as Kelty appears to admit was the case, could be good. Indeed, it is hard to see that the opposite is not the case.
The AFL has often reminded us how laudable is its commitment to the World Anti-Doping Agency protocol. But when it came to walking the walk, it emerges - based on Kelty’s description - as less than wholehearted. Living out WADA compliancy must be more than talk.
When a problem emerged, the AFL - in its inimitable way - sought to "bring it back in ... reclaim the ground," as Kelty put it. Just what channels it pursued to achieve this remains a mystery.
It shouldn’t. The public is entitled to know precisely what happened. Many from other sports find this outrageous. Providing the most honourable and transparent of processes should be a fundamental for every serious sports administration. Especially as Australians have long been harsh critics at any lack of rigour on anti-doping matters in other countries.
The AFL appears to be still learning of the responsibility it bears on matters doping. And it is learning the hard way. This saga has entered its second year and that combustible mixture keeps bubbling away.

http://www.theage.com.au/AFL/latest-...#ixzz2wihSw4Fz

[AFLcrap1]

Hell hath no fury like an AFL system scorned
By Louise Milligan

Posted March 24, 2014 16:51:55

When Tania Hird spoke out about the suspension of her husband as Essendon coach, she was subjected to a barrage of sexist outrage usually associated with the 1950s, writes Louise Milligan.

Tania Hird is "just a suburban housewife". Tania Hird "needs to shut up". Tania Hird needs plastic surgery. Tania Hird has already had plastic surgery and they didn't do a good job. James Hird should "control those around him". James Hird needs to keep Tania Hird on a "leash". Tania Hird is stupid. Tania Hird is a goose. Tania Hird is merely delivering her husband's lines. Tania Hird is the Yoko Ono of Essendon. Tania Hird is upsetting the maligned fans of Essendon. Tania Hird is a "dumb bitch".

These are all actual things said about Tania Hird, wife of James Hird, over the past few days. From senior club officials, to hallowed football writers, to grumpy fans of other clubs, to Twitter trolls. Hell hath no fury like an AFL system scorned.

Last Thursday night, ABC TV's 7.30 program aired my interview with Tania Hird in a story about claims of a bullying culture within the AFL. Ms Hird said she believed James Hird was a scapegoat in the Essendon ElephantJuice in sport scandal. She pointed out that he'd never pleaded guilty to anything, was never found guilty of anything, and the bargaining system that ultimately saw him accept a one-year suspension was fundamentally flawed.

It was, mind you, a story that included four men with similar claims. But their concerns somehow largely disappeared into the ether. The AFL mates decided the lady doth protest too much. The next day I woke up and thought I must have been catapulted into the 1950s. 'Shut up, Tania Hird, and get back into the kitchen of your Toorak mansion', appeared to be the vibe of the thing. Don't you know there's football to be played? The timing is "appalling". How dare you upset the football with your claims of lack of due process or natural justice? Go away.

Of course, we're not in the 1950s before second-wave feminism. We're in the "mate, mate, mate" world of AFL right now. A code that, latterly, has prided itself on its appeals to women, its culture of dignity and respect on and off the field, its willingness to elevate women to high office. But if the treatment of Tania Hird is anything to go by, that's all marketing guff. The ladies are only all right if they don't upset the hierarchy.

The idea that James Hird was gone because his wife had been let off the leash started early Friday morning. First off the mark was Mr Football, Eddie McGuire. On his Triple M Hot Breakfast show, Eddie McGuire confidently predicted "I don't think we'll see James Hird coach Essendon again". Around the same time over at Channel Nine's Today, Karl Stefanovic was predicting Hird was already was sacked. Of course, that was not true. Someone was spinning it, though. And why was he being sacked? For the words of his wife. James Hird has been gagged by the AFL's "non-disparagement" clause in his settlement agreement and by the Essendon chairman, Paul Little. So of course, I was not at liberty to interview him. Paul Little is the one who later said on 3AW's Neil Mitchell program that Hird needed to "control those around him". That's Tania, apparently. Now, I'm no industrial lawyer, but I'm guessing that if we start binding people's spouses in their workplace agreements, we're getting into problematic territory. And I thought we had got past the era where husbands had to "control" wives.

Patrick Smith is an absolute legend of football commentary. He has been critical of the AFL's processes. But when a woman does the same thing, he dismisses her as "Lady Tania", off to "Paris in the Spring".

"I have a lot of sympathy for the Essendon supporters and the club", AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou opined when asked about my story on Friday morning; he too was gutted at the dreadful "timing" of Tania Hird's claims that he might not be running his operation in as top notch away as he'd like to think. Essendon was playing its first game of the season, Dustin Fletcher was notching up a wonderful 379 games for the club. Apparently these elite athletes, who have been training all summer under club legend Mark 'Bomber' Thompson, could be stymied by some discussions by their suspended coach's wife about the flawed governance practices of the AFL. Except that didn't happen. Essendon romped it home against North Melbourne. And as for the fans, I am on Twitter. Twitter is a place where people get very angry. Twitter is a place where football fans get fired up. Of the litany of messages I have personally received from Essendon fans since the story broke, only two are not supportive of Tania and James Hird.

"Now you said you like to take notes," snapped columnist Patrick Smith in The Australian, referring to Tania Hird's room full of notes taken as she bore witness to the machinations surrounding her husband and the Essendon supplements saga. "Grab a pen. Get a pad. We are going a'jotting. Take this down for starters. You and your suspended coach of a husband need to leave the club immediately. Just walk away."

It might have well have started "sit down, girlie". The tone reminded me of how the 1960s male advertising executives in Mad Men spoke to their winsome secretaries when dictating a memo. Patrick Smith is an absolute legend of football commentary. He has been critical of the AFL's processes. But when a woman does the same thing, he dismisses her as "Lady Tania", off to "Paris in the Spring". A spoiled princess whose husband should be sacked because she has the temerity to speak out against what she perceives is an injustice. Criticism is one thing, presuming he can tell her what to do is another.

And then there was Caroline Wilson at The Age: "If Hird thought he was smart allowing his wife to speak for him then he has outsmarted himself. If Tania Hird thought it smart to continue her campaign against Demetriou, then her focus only underlined her stupidity."

If Tania Hird is right, if James Hird has taken a one-year suspension simply because it was made clear to him that there would be huge consequences for him and his club if he didn't, well, call me old-fashioned, but I reckon that's worth a look at.

OK, so first, Tania Hird, a former corporate lawyer, is stupid. And second, Tania Hird's decisions are made for her by her husband. While, it is true, most would say it's implausible that she made the decision to speak on 7.30 against her husband's wishes, there's a long distance between that and Wilson's later claim on ABC's Offsiders program that James Hird engineered the interview. She is but a mouthpiece, a cipher, a woman who does what her bloke tells her. Caroline Wilson is a gutsy lady and a decorated journalist. She takes no prisoners and good on her for that. I'll bet that like me, she would be pretty cranky if anyone said her words about anything were those of her husband.

Injustice is blind. It doesn't matter where you live or how attractive you are. It eats away at you. Rightly or wrongly, it is eating away at Tania Hird. And if Tania Hird is right, if James Hird has taken a one-year suspension simply because it was made clear to him that there would be huge consequences for him and his club if he didn't, well, call me old-fashioned, but I reckon that's worth a look at.

I don't hold a firm view at this point on what happened at Essendon. And I think I shouldn't until there's some sort of definite ruling on all of this. That's public.

Debate is a good thing. Free speech is a good thing. I spoke to many people off the record for my story, people who were scared that if they did what Tania Hird did, their livelihoods or their clubs would be threatened. Judging by what's now happening, it seems they were right on the money. Don't stick your head above the parapet in AFL land. It'll get blasted off.

Rest assured, this debate is going on behind closed doors. This debate is raging down phone lines, at club functions, in online footy chatrooms. But to do it the night before game day? Forget it. To do it if you happen to be blonde and conventionally pretty and live in a lovely big house and are off to France for a few months because your club is still paying your husband big money because, you say, no court or other proper regulatory body has (yet) found he did anything wrong and you feel like you are all in something out of Kafka? Are you kidding? Shut up.

I am not a defender of Tania Hird, but I am a defender of her right to free speech. Tania Hird is, I am sure, like the rest of us, not a saint. Tania Hird has, by her own admission, led a fairly charmed existence. Tania Hird's husband has had some very serious questions asked of him and his club. Many of those questions hang, frustratingly, in the balance. But take all of that out of the equation for a minute. Focus on the process. Because, you know, reputations are at stake. And you can't buy a reputation, no matter how many Toorak mansions you own nor how much time you spend in France. And then focus on the way a woman has been treated since she dared to open her mouth.

Louise Milligan is a reporter for the ABC TV's 7.30 program.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-2...corned/5341686

[Swans4ever]

I can tell you now people in Melb are well and truly over this - and it's not even talked about ONLY RL people with an axe to grind bring it up - give it a week and all the oxygen will have gone out of it. But by all means waste your time searching for shit like the above.

[AFLcrap1]

I can tell you how you are full of shit.
These stories are in major papers ,on TV ,all over social media.
There are 1000s & 1000s of posts on BF about this,yet the good little Foot soldier ,after drinking Vlads Koolaid ,chants the mantra..

Nah its not even talked about.

Well you are wrong,as much as you would like to sweep it under the carpet in true AFL style it is NOT going away.