We've had enough McGuire!

[mcs]

Unfortunately the Swans are out on a limb a bit. The WA & SA teams, especially the WA teams with their big supporter bases and wealth have no worries. It is not in their interests to rock the boat or concern themselves too much with Melbourne paranoias. North of the border the Swannies have got a bit offside with Brisbane for 'poaching' Kurt Tippet and with GWS for ending up with Buddy. I may be wrong but I doubt that the Swans can look too much to them for support.

Our only ally with an understanding of the issues who is willing to speak up on our behalf it seems is Sheeds, good on him, but as he is prone to embroidering the facts to suit his purposes (like Eddie) maybe his support is a mixed blessing!

Any changes to the operation of the Academies and the current preferential selection system are going to be really important - not so much in the way they affect the Swans and Brisbane but will indicate how serious the AFL are about having strong clubs and therefore a strong power base in the Northern states going forward, when there is already fear in Melbourne of the dominance of interstate clubs - and justifiably so I have to admit! Only time will tell.

Beware the Swans with their backs to the wall I say. Go Swannies!!!

Surely those north of the border will still want to keep their academies. Wasn't Tippett off to GC, not Brisbane?

- - - Updated - - -

+1 this is exactly how it it will conclude.

The Swans are for the first time, not only favourites for the premiership but also considered as the most talented list. This has never happened in Sydney before and we all know Sydney loves a winner. The current situation with Eddie is starting to interest the Sydney media. Eddie isn't bullying a Chairman from a weak Melbourne club on life support or an unloveable club from a non-AFL state, he is taking on a whole club that is quickly becoming the toast of the town who are looking for a fight.

At some point Eddie will realise that his ranting contradictions are going to catch up him by Sydney's media who don't care about his powerful position. The 4 million plus Sydneysiders will show interest and in the end Eddie will realise that his brand in this city is being damaged.

I hope this goes on for a few weeks, but I suspect Eddie will stop the ranting much sooner.

What is so sad is all this crap coming out of Eddie's mouth will tarnish the fantastic achievements of the club in building a 'most talented' list in a most unconventional way. Buddy and Tippett are just cherries on the top of a very rich cake, built bit by bit, through exceptional recruiting, left field recruiting, a good scrape through the trash bin of the AFL, and some wonderful coaching. The nucleus of a wonderful side is a bunch of rookie draftees, an international rookie draftee, some tras . That is the real story of this Swans team. Buddy and Tippett are just a sideshow and the cherry on top. I have no doubt the current list could win a flag without Buddy and Tippett. But I have little doubt we would be a definite also run without the nucleus built from odd bods, rejected players, and players that came to Sydney for more opportunity. I would argue we are the list management masters - well in front of even clubs like Geelong, who are very good at it as well.

[AnnieH]

Yay.
Eddie bashing.
Sydney hates Eddie... whether you follow AFL or not.

Toot tooot.
Eddie bashing bandwagon about to leave the Sydney presses.

Buy popcorn.

[wolftone57]

+1 this is exactly how it it will conclude.

The Swans are for the first time, not only favourites for the premiership but also considered as the most talented list. This has never happened in Sydney before and we all know Sydney loves a winner. The current situation with Eddie is starting to interest the Sydney media. Eddie isn't bullying a Chairman from a weak Melbourne club on life support or an unloveable club from a non-AFL state, he is taking on a whole club that is quickly becoming the toast of the town who are looking for a fight.

At some point Eddie will realise that his ranting contradictions are going to catch up him by Sydney's media who don't care about his powerful position. The 4 million plus Sydneysiders will show interest and in the end Eddie will realise that his brand in this city is being damaged.

I hope this goes on for a few weeks, but I suspect Eddie will stop the ranting much sooner.

His brand in this city is already dead after the Channel Nine fiasco. He was virtually told to go back to Melbourne and don'tr bother coming back. He nearly sent Nine broke when it was Channel Eddie.

[wolftone57]

agree wolf

all businesses even if successful for a 15 year period can still take a nose dive

BUT part of the reason i popped down the article was that the people involved in making the important decisions need to be people of great integrity and I must say with the way Eddie has been acting he is not becoming of a leader, he craves the celebrity status, he constantly feels the need to be heard.

Hence my gut feeling that the elders of the game need to stand up now and and pull him back in line

Sheedy has started the process

Eddie has classic psychopathic symptoms. He has a great need to be noticed, has a major ego problem, has trouble empathising, a need to kill (crush, destroy, bring down to knees) anyone who opposes him, seems a nice guy but hiding behind the exterior is a monster just waiting to be released. Don't worry, Eddie is not the only executive with all these psychopathic traits. In fact every executive of Fortune 500 companies bar three had all these symptoms and more. I write psychological thrillers and have done a lot of research into psychopathia and he certainly fits the bill. But as I say, look at any person in a position of great power and there is probably a psychopath lurking in the background.

[Reggi]

Guessing in the past 24 hours someone has told Eddie to pull his head in. Interesting to see what happens post the next Presidents meeting.

A Pridham has done really well

[707]

Guessing in the past 24 hours someone has told Eddie to pull his head in. Interesting to see what happens post the next Presidents meeting.

Eddie's ravings must destabilise Collingwood a bit. I know I wouldn't want our President campaigning loudly and publicly against another team.

I really think that Eddie is a bit like Malthouse - talk about anything else to distract the media/supporters from the poor performance on the footy field and those two traditional rivals both have big on field problems.

[tasmania60]

Northern supporter for 40 years was worried when Colless stood down , but buoyed by stance of Pridam , the real reason of Eddys ranting are he cant duplicate the Swans culture ,team supporters, and forsight. CHEER CHEER RED AND WHITE .

[Nico]

while we are talking about change
i thought i would cut and paste a very interesting article by Jim Collins (an oldie but a goodie)
i think it is relevant to the effect of Eddie and what we want as supporters....... but just ignore if you feel not relevant

Jim Collins - Articles - Good to Great

There is a direct relationship between the absence of celebrity and the presence of good-to-great results. Why? First, when you have a celebrity, the company turns into ?the one genius with 1,000 helpers.? It creates a sense that the whole thing is really about the CEO. At a deeper level, we found that for leaders to make something great, their ambition has to be for the greatness of the work and the company, rather than for themselves. That doesn?t mean that they don?t have an ego. It means that at each decision point?at each of the critical junctures when Choice A would favor their ego and Choice B would favor the company and the work?time and again the good-to-great leaders pick Choice B. Celebrity CEOs, at those same decision points, are more likely to favor self and ego over company and work.

Celebrity CEO's are not leaders.

[Nico]

Northern supporter for 40 years was worried when Colless stood down , but buoyed by stance of Pridam , the real reason of Eddys ranting are he cant duplicate the Swans culture ,team supporters, and forsight. CHEER CHEER RED AND WHITE .

And they are heading south on the ladder. All of a sudden Eddie is gripped with the fear of his team failing and he being one of the reasons.

[Auntie.Gerald]

i think the ravings of Eddie saying to Derm and the panel who is Andrew Pr*^%$) ?

what has he done !

he probably lost everyone in the nation at that point and you would reckon Eddies wife would have said " pull your head you clown..........no one likes a bigshot shooting his mouth of surrounding himself in his achievements ! "

[Auntie.Gerald]

maybe all the AFL clubs are sitting back laughing and thinking ahhhh just let Eddie do himself slowly !!

And maybe the journos are "stripped down and ready to go"

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[Reggi]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/northern-expansion-clubs-form-alliance-to-protect-academies-against-southern-attacks/story-fnelctok-1226990097086

Ok looks like we are going on with it. Guessing old Jellyback Mike Fitzpatrick will say or do nothing. Part of this needs to be to combine with SA and WA that half of the Commissioners need to be non victorian. Kim Willliams is. Not sure about others

[Mug Punter]

Just thinking a bit more about Quayle's suggestion, what would we do if the AFL forced us to decide between Mills and Dunkley if they were both rated around the same mark.

Both are compelling reasons, Mills to keep faith in the Academy system in that if you are good enough, we will select you, Dunkley for the F/S connection and doesn't he have a younger brother just as good that we won't get if we burn Josh for Mills.

It's really important that we don't get any changes for next year.

Or we can get Mills to tank next year :-)

I don't have a massive issue with us only having one first round concession pick (i.e. either a F/S or Academy but not both). We should, however, be able to claim the second if a club does not select him in the first round. This should be standard practice - it provides us with an incentive to make the system work but not an unfair advantage. Abe Davis does not appear a genuine first round pick but if he was we shouldn't be able to select him and Heeney, we would have to choose. Of course we could always tap Abe up to be a right prat at the draft combine ))

I think we need to be conscious of not being greedy here....

As for who we should select, simply whoever is the better footballer. If the other goes in the first round it actually demonstrates the benefit of the Academy System, especially if we took Dunks at F/S and someone else got Mills.

[Ludwig]

I am glad to see that the chairmen of the northern clubs are taking the advice of the RWO community and going on the offensive. What would they do without us?

Wouldn't it be great if the AFL expands the academy and draws the additional funding from the wealthier clubs, primarily Collingwood. That would be poetic justice at its best.

[Mug Punter]

I am glad to see that the chairmen of the northern clubs are taking the advice of the RWO community and going on the offensive. What would they do without us?

Wouldn't it be great if the AFL expands the academy and draws the additional funding from the wealthier clubs, primarily Collingwood. That would be poetic justice at its best.

It would but I actually have some fairly serious reservations about Gillon.

He is an appointment by the Melbourne Establishment for the Melbourne Establishment.

I have major fears that he will pander to the Melbourne club presidents