AFL slaps trade ban on Swans

[Untamed Snark]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-chief-gillon-mclachlan-defends-twoyear-trade-ban-imposed-on-sydney-swans/story-fndv8ujy-1227103904079

More tripe

[aardvark]

AFL chief Gillon McLachlan defends two-year trade ban imposed on Sydney Swans

More tripe

At least it sounds like the Academy is safe............for now.

[chalbilto]

Yes but what about the future selection criteria?

[JPK12]

The docile nature of the reporting of what he said by the melbourne media is the most grating thing in all this. The fact that if what polo gill was about any melbourne club the team at McGuire media would be frothing at the mouth.

We are basically being branded as cheats and the way the club is reacting in such a docile submissive way is really making me ask questions about my support for the red and white. I cant support such a compromised code regardless..you reach a tipping point where you start to hold massive resentment towards your former love.

Its just the docile nature of it all that made me so friggen mad!

- - - Updated - - -

At least it sounds like the Academy is safe............for now.

I am sick of the academy TBH. We pumped money into it and organised it all above board, we should be lauded for it, instead the narrative has been we use it as a production line for gun players.

I want to start a kickstarter campaign to sue, on behalf of all swans fans, McGuire media.

[southsideswan]

Maybe our way of increasing the rivalry is to vocally discourage Swans fan from attending GWS matches. That would at least get some attention from HO.

You play a tricky game when you try and artificially put barriers in front of teams, or the reverse, extra benefits. There is loss of integrity of the competition.

COLA is a benefit that I personally think is ok but the AFL had a knee jerk reaction and when commentators started sprouting lies the powers to be allowed it to continue without clarification.

The powers to be have got themselves in a big mess and need some digging to get out of it.

[liz]

COLA is a benefit that I personally think is ok

If you view it as a benefit, that is, rather than an equalisation measure...

I have no issue with the allowance being restructured to be more transparent. But it irritates the @@@@s out of me the way it has recently been portrayed as benefit to assist the Swans, rather than a measure to counteract a structural disadvantage beyond the club's control.

[southsideswan]

If you view it as a benefit, that is, rather than an equalisation measure...

I have no issue with the allowance being restructured to be more transparent. But it irritates the @@@@s out of me the way it has recently been portrayed as benefit to assist the Swans, rather than a measure to counteract a structural disadvantage beyond the club's control.

You are correct it was my terminology. It was the benefit to have some equalisation. The cost of living was found to be 15% but we were only able to pass on 9.8%.

On a lighter side maybe SA teams need a reduced cap due to cost of living .. but than I suppose a top up for living in Adelaide

[Swansongster]

You know what i dont get? The AFL is a compromised code..yet people still watch it in droves.

Its a true laughing stock, even so now with the a league rising and rising.

Seriously people wake up and put down that addiction to the world worst run code away.

The docile nature of the reporting of what he said by the melbourne media is the most grating thing in all this. The fact that if what polo gill was about any melbourne club the team at McGuire media would be frothing at the mouth.

We are basically being branded as cheats and the way the club is reacting in such a docile submissive way is really making me ask questions about my support for the red and white. I cant support such a compromised code regardless..you reach a tipping point where you start to hold massive resentment towards your former love

Its just the docile nature of it all that made me so friggen mad!

- - - Updated - - -

I am sick of the academy TBH. We pumped money into it and organised it all above board, we should be lauded for it, instead the narrative has been we use it as a production line for gun players.

I want to start a kickstarter campaign to sue, on behalf of all swans fans, McGuire media.

I appreciate your despair but there is no way that most of us are ever going to abandon the passion for the club and the game. True, there has been some appalling inconsistency in decisions from HQ in recent times and clearly there are some self-serving, perhaps even sinister, external interests that are affecting the short-term strategic direction of the game and alienating traditional grass roots fanaticism but it is still the best sport in the world and to walk away from it would seem to be, for me, irrational and impossible.

However, I too am completely frustrated with the course of events here and curse the timid response from the thinking media (which is not all media). I trust our club is doing what it can to protect the interests of all stakeholders (including its members and fans) before getting its ducks in a row and calling the AFL to account.


OK. Let's pretend that the AFL has called a press conference to explain the trading ban imposed on Sydney Swans and we are all granted temporary media accreditation. What question would you ask? If we compile a good list, maybe some journo will actually take advantage of their access to appropriate spokespeople and pose the questions that we want answered.

I'll start. What else do we want these buffoons to explain to us?

1. Excluding Sydney from the 2014 trade period would indicate that there has been some breach of rules, regulatory controls or contractual obligations. What exactly has Sydney done to attract such a sanction from its governing body?

2. What was the administrative and judicial process by which the AFL came to a decision that Sydney was in breach of any rules, regulatory controls or contractual obligations and what was the administrative and judicial process by which any appropriate sanction was adjudicated?

[Ajax]

AFL chief Gillon McLachlan defends two-year trade ban imposed on Sydney Swans

More tripe

Gillon McLachlan's attempt in this interview to explain the trade ban is transparently deceitful and underhanded.

Just look at some of his assertions:

He says the Swans made a 'compelling case that it was our (AFL) rules under which they contracted these players'. It was NOT a 'compelling case' it was FACT - no-one else created the COLA rules, it was the AFL.

He goes on to say 'If you want to keep all those players there has to be some constraints, you can't have everything'. This infers that the Swans have acquired many players (all those players) outside the rules, i.e. rorted COLA. These are weasel, accusatory words from the mouth of a guy not fit to represent a national body of sport.

He then totally contradicts himself by saying 'we accept that the Swans have followed the rules'. So then why, if they've followed the rules, are they being punished?

The most telling part of this article is where he says 'the Swans got some things they wanted in the phasing out and we had to consider the interests of the whole competition in what they didn't get'. Basically what they didn't get was the ability to trade players for two years which helps the 'whole competition'. That is, the AFL is artificially restraining the success of the Swans so that other clubs can be more successful.

This guy's language is utterly two-faced and insincere, full of false innuendo and insinuation against the Swans. What a man to lead the AFL into the future.

[Meg]

3. By saying that Sydney were able to take part in the trade period only if they abolished COLA immediately the AFL has dropped a key recommendation of the Equalisation Committee that COLA should be phased out over two years. What is the reason for that change when even Eddie McGuire, a key member of that committee, said that an immediate abolition of COLA would not be fair?

Eddie McGuire on May 21, 2014:

"At some stage it was going to be immediately stopping but we just thought it would be fairer to ease it in."

"To be fair to the Swans, they need time to pull it back. To do it in one foul swoop would be too onerous. Two years, with this year, there aren't too many contracts over three years, so that should be able to get everyone through."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/eddie-mcguire-swans-given-a-fair-go-20140521-zrk8k.html

[JPK12]

I appreciate your despair but there is no way that most of us are ever going to abandon the passion for the club and the game. True, there has been some appalling inconsistency in decisions from HQ in recent times and clearly there are some self-serving, perhaps even sinister, external interests that are affecting the short-term strategic direction of the game and alienating traditional grass roots fanaticism but it is still the best sport in the world and to walk away from it would seem to be, for me, irrational and impossible.

However, I too am completely frustrated with the course of events here and curse the timid response from the thinking media (which is not all media). I trust our club is doing what it can to protect the interests of all stakeholders (including its members and fans) before getting its ducks in a row and calling the AFL to account.

So will you be happy to follow a code blindly that is ready to engineer negative otucomes for the club you love so much that might see no more success for a long time while they artificially create scenarios for a club in our region that no one wants?

Will you still be enamored and in love with "the best sport in the world" that only victorians care a lot about btw, in say 5 years time when the swans are hovering at the wrong end of the ladder thanks to efforts of the AFL whilst the hawks are winning flag after flag?

No wonder the AFL does what it wants, its fans are nothing short of subservient docile happy little consumers.

[Swansongster]

3. By saying that Sydney were able to take part in the trade period only if they abolished COLA immediately the AFL has dropped a key recommendation of the Equalisation Committee that COLA should be phased out over two years. What is the reason for that change when even Eddie McGuire, a key member of that committee, said that an immediate abolition of COLA would not be fair?

Eddie McGuire on May 21, 2014:

"At some stage it was going to be immediately stopping but we just thought it would be fairer to ease it in."

"To be fair to the Swans, they need time to pull it back. To do it in one foul swoop would be too onerous. Two years, with this year, there aren't too many contracts over three years, so that should be able to get everyone through."

Eddie McGuire: Swans given a fair go

Pedant alert.

I wouldn't expect a dunderhead like Eddie to know (and I am sure it is what he said because I hear it all too often from him and others) but you would expect any decent journalist and/or sub-editor to know that the correct terminology is "one fell swoop" (not foul).

At one fell swoop

Another fine saying from the Bard, so, while I am at it (my school reports always said I am "easily distracted"), this from a show I used to love watching with my kids.

Horrible Histories William Shakespeare Song - YouTube

[liz]

Pedant alert.

I wouldn't expect a dunderhead like Eddie to know (and I am sure it is what he said because I hear it all too often from him and others) but you would expect any decent journalist and/or sub-editor to know that the correct terminology is "one fell swoop" (not foul).

At one fell swoop

Another fine saying from the Bard, so, while I am at it (my school reports always said I am "easily distracted"), this from a show I used to love watching with my kids.

Horrible Histories William Shakespeare Song - YouTube

Maybe this time around it was the most appropriate terminology - we all think there's been some foul play afoot!

[Mr Magoo]

My reading of what he is saying is :
1. The Swans have been too successful for their own good, so we have to do something to bring that back.
2. We want GWS to be more successful as currently nobody is on the bandwagon and in melbourne we think that sydney people will immediately jump on the bandwagon if they are.
3. We dont want either team to be too successful though so as to win the actual competition - thats reserved for Hawthorn with occasional wins for Geelong , Collingwood , Carlton , Essendon and hopefully Richmond one day.
4. We just want them to sit mid table but have a really good rivalry between themselve like the other interstaters have so that way they can all be happy about winning the local derby each year and not worry about the premiership as thats for Victorian power house teams.
5. If the academies sprout any more top draft talent we will definitely adjust the rules so that the swans cant have them and if GWS dare to get too successful we will do same (we just havent told them yet). After all GWS is an excellent nursery for future Hawthorn players at the moment .

[JPK12]

That sounds like an AFL manifesto actually.