AFL slaps trade ban on Swans

[goswannies]

Biggest trade period ever! Can you imaging what we would've done without the shackles?!

[Ludwig]

Re my earlier post on the way the AFL should have handled the transition phase from COLA to housing assistance, I subsequently thought of one further modification to my point 3, adding the words after the comma as below.

My reasoning is that I think some existing players, e.g. rookies, would be better off under the housing assistance than under existing COLA if (as has been variously reported) it is set at a flat $10,000 or $15,000. And even more so if it is provided as a fringe benefit by the AFL which means the AFL pays tax on it but not the recipient.

3. Announced now the salary cut off point and conditions for payment of housing assistance and started to pay it from 2015 to new qualifying players, and in place of COLA to existing qualifying players in any cases where they would be better off (with relevant downward adjustment then made to the total COLA amount).

No journalist has ever brought the AFL to account for how it can permit COLA provisions to be mandated in player contracts then seemingly (who knows, because this is the unaccountable part) transfer those obligations to the club, unilaterally. And as you say, why couldn't the AFL handle the COLA transition on a contract by contract basis?

The combined COLA portion of GWS contracts for Mummy, Shaw and Lamb would exceed that of Franklin. The Swans have an experienced management team. So why do the Swans need to be led by the nose through the 'transition period', while the inexperienced GWS with even a bigger COLA portion of their payroll, can do whatever the hell they want?

Why doesn't any journalist ask even one of these obvious questions?

[barry]

Dont think the Swans arent a big player financially like Collingwood and others. We arent far behind. Sure, they have 70,000 members, but each member only pays bugger all. Sydney have consistently had the biggest sponsorship deals in the AFL year after year. We are the only ones who can bring in a million viewers to an AFL grand final* (assuming we turn up). Financially we are as important as anybody.

What we dont have is a voting block with media profile. Even for Sydney siders, AFL is seen as a victorian game controlled by victorians, played for victorians.
I'd love to see a time when the balance of teams outside victoria is greater than inside. Then a non-victorian voting block will emerge and we will see great change.
The reason McGuire and so forth dont want pissant victorian clubs to fold, is because it will weaken victoria's power base.

[ScottH]

Biggest trade period ever! Can you imaging what we would've done without the shackles?!

Are we there yet????

[mcs]

And the penalties are quite similar. So we have done something just as bad as those two clubs. Don't be led by blind faith. And no I am not a simpleton.

Not for a minute saying that it isn't a possibility - but I think its a long throw to suggest the AFL Commission is solely acting in the 'interests of the game. I certainly do not have blind faith..... but if we have broken some rules, as your conclusion (a more than valid one) would suggest - then why exactly are the AFL covering it up? As i said, they are more than happy to hang clubs out to dry - why have they not done that in this case? You'd hardly argue we are above the law. I think that would support an argument that we've broken the 'spirit of COLA' somehow, but not actually broken any rules.

[Ajax]

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this but if the Swans management knew about the impending trade ban prior to the GF and if that knowledge had been communicated to any of the coaches and/or players prior to the GF then that would have had the potential to be enormously de-motivating, hence the poor performance.

[Zlatorog]

Ah, another conspiracy theory. They were floating around quite a bit after the GF. Maybe we'll find out about in a decade or two what really happened prior the GF in 2014 and the ominous fade out of the Swans that day.

[Jewels]

Ah, another conspiracy theory. They were floating around quite a bit after the GF. Maybe we'll find out about in a decade or two what really happened prior the GF in 2014 and the ominous fade out of the Swans that day.

Fade out? I didn't think they were ever IN it to have faded OUT of it!

[Ajax]

Ah, another conspiracy theory. They were floating around quite a bit after the GF. Maybe we'll find out about in a decade or two what really happened prior the GF in 2014 and the ominous fade out of the Swans that day.

Not so much a conspiracy theory but an attempt to understand why they played so inexplicably badly. In this case maybe two inexplicables (the ban and the game) make one explicable.

[desredandwhite]

No single thing can explain what happened.

On a side note, was I the only one who felt a rush of guilty joy when the Jollys got dudded in the Block finale? It's taken eight years, but a small piece of me is at peace now.

[ScottH]

No single thing can explain what happened.

On a side note, was I the only one who felt a rush of guilty joy when the Jollys got dudded in the Block finale? It's taken eight years, but a small piece of me is at peace now.

I did get a giggle out of one report that he wasn't too disappointed because as a footballer he got used to losing.

[CureTheSane]

I wasn't sad.
in fact I clicked across randomly to see the last 3 houses go for auction.
Didn't watch the show at all other than that.
Thought the ending to the show well suited the actual series

[Melbourne_Blood]

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this but if the Swans management knew about the impending trade ban prior to the GF and if that knowledge had been communicated to any of the coaches and/or players prior to the GF then that would have had the potential to be enormously de-motivating, hence the poor performance.

If anything, i would think that would have the reverse affect. Maybe they should have have put that in their pre game/ half time motivational speeches?

[S.S. Bleeder]

I'm not sure if anyone has suggested this but if the Swans management knew about the impending trade ban prior to the GF and if that knowledge had been communicated to any of the coaches and/or players prior to the GF then that would have had the potential to be enormously de-motivating, hence the poor performance.

Yes, it's very "unusual" that the VFL told the Swans during GF week. Couldn't they wait until Saturday night? I would hope that the management at Swans kept mum about it until after the GF anyway. Longmire wouldn't need the extra burden of knowing this when preparing for a GF.

[Meg]

AFL slaps trade ban on Swans

Swans trade ban

the club widely acknowledged as the best trader in the game had to sit on its hands during the two-week trade period.

Perhaps the only winner at the club was coach John Longmire, who was the designated contact for the media if the Swans were involved in a trade. It's safe to say, Longmire enjoyed some rare peace and quiet.

AFL silent on Swans ban
Although the merits of the AFL Commission decision to impose a trade ban on the Swans can be debated, the League's lack of transparency was a concern. The AFL did not announce its decision until it was revealed in a report last Thursday. Surely, football fans, especially Swans supporters, deserved to be informed before the trade period opened.

From Boydy the billionaire to Balme's biscuit: The winners and losers from the trade period - AFL.com.au