THE AFL landed in smelly chaos last year. A chemical reaction of an indulgent, overambitious club with a coach who thought there was not a convention that he could not flout; and a commission and administration that thought there was nothing it could not control. A toxic mix left the game in a noxious mess. Gas masks at 10 paces.
Here is how it happened. The AFL — in all its parts and parcels really cares for nearly nobody. The league administration and the football clubs just take and then take some more. They presume loyalty and then abuse it. No one is rewarded except those tucked into the AFL family bed. How much of the $1.25 billion TV deal did the fans get? Nothing. But ticket prices for in-demand games are on the way up.
Oh, gee, thanks fellas.
But that is always the way — all take, no reward. The AFL does not even have the decency to reward their support base with the truth.
Andrew Demetriou said this week that the game had been damaged by what had happened last year. To his credit he did not try to gulp down his admission. But there has been no apology of any depth or sincerity from the AFL commission who had its hand deep in the mire of the 2013 season.
Demetriou told The Australian: “The game has been damaged by what happened last year. There is no doubt that we have tested people with what happened last year. Tested them surely.”
Yet no apology. Yet no mea culpa for throwing last season into the hazardous chemicals bin. No truth-on-the-table moments either. Yet surely that is the very least the game’s supporters are due from the commission.
Why has the AFL not told its public why its chief executive was adamant embarrassingly so that James Hird would not be paid while he was out suspended for one season. Hird has been paid upfront. He’s rolling in it. In what, depends on your take on his behaviour last year.
His take could have been as much as a million if incentives were tossed in. Why was the public asked to believe Demetriou about Hird’s pay and then not consulted, apologised to or told the truth when Demetriou was plainly and fundamentally wrong?
Because the AFL doesn’t think you need to be rewarded for your loyalty. You’ll rock up like you do every season.
Why has the AFL not told the public why its chief executive ridiculed and vilified The Australian’s Chip Le Grand when he exclusively broke the news that Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid would not face sanctions and his court action be dropped?
Demetriou spent every moment of the day that he could spare after Le Grand’s report taunting the journalist. Le Grand, of course, was proved right. The AFL settled with Reid and a messy court confrontation was avoided. No, the AFL sought to humiliate Le Grand and mislead the public. Thanks fans for your undiluted support.
This week Demetriou had a crack at explaining his actions.
“In my belief I knew what was happening but as it turned out sometimes you assume things are done and sometimes things are agreed and it turned out people have different recollections.
“I think I know where you are going with this but I do not agree that it is because of a breakdown in communication,” was his summary of the debacle over Reid and Hird’s payment. But wait, there’s more: “Yes, I said that (about Hird’s pay and Reid’s sanctions) but I don’t want to go into details,” Demetriou said.
Asked if that might not go to the very heart of his integrity, Demetriou continued: “The people are entitled to make that judgment call. I get that. And people are entitled to have a view about the pay. I accept that, they are entitled to be disappointed.”
There’s your reward, you lucky guys.
Doesn’t the bewildered supporter reading that gibberish need to be rewarded for having to put up with such heavy-handed patronisation. Perhaps the truth even.
There is also the case of the musical chairs that are the property of either AFL boss Mike Fitzpatrick or Sports Commission chairman John Wylie, depending on who allocated themselves chairmanship for the day. That the AFL was happy to deal with Wylie as broker between Essendon chairman Paul Little and the league is stunning in its insight to the uselessness of the commission on the most important issue any of them had ever faced.
That it was attempted to be done in secret only makes supporters feel more detached from the body that is there to best serve the game and its followers. The AFL’s position is that Fitzpatrick was taken by surprise with Wylie’s role. Which is interesting given Wylie kept himself busy putting together an offer to Essendon that we can only presume was eventually accepted by the commission.
If Demetriou was ruled out of negotiations because of his role within the commission why was it not considered appropriate for the other senior league administrators to carry out the wheeling and dealing? Not good enough? Little didn’t like them? The commission couldn’t trust them?
The AFL supporters’ reward for believing the commission would not take part in such a charade was to be held in contempt themselves. Oh, hell, they’re only fans, they wouldn’t understand the clever things we do at commission level. Could you pass another scone, Wylie old boy.
Oh, oh, and can we be clear about this. As Wylie is chairman of the Australian Sports Commission, does Fitzpatrick take a turn at running the premier funded sports body when Wylie needs to take five?
Demetriou is bored with being asked about his future plans: “I get the same question every year. People are more interested in what’s happening on the field and what’s happening with the players and their teams.”
What’s happening with their teams? Good grief, Andrew, Essendon players would be grateful if somebody could tell them what drugs they were given in 2013. But then again, Andrew has got the balance just right. Don’t you dare wish him Merry Christmas or happy birthday. Dear God, poor Andy gets all that every year too.
After the fumbling embarrassment of last year and how Demetriou was exposed as being surplus to inquiries, he is now the walking dead. Leigh Matthews’s words on the eve of Brisbane’s triumph over the once-invincible Bombers must ring in his ears. “If it bleeds, you can kill it.” Oh, and that smell? May well be gangrene.
