2012 in review

In January we predicted a repeat of 2011’s pre-occupation with Tom Scully’s end of season decision. Unlike Nostradamus, AussieRulesBlog didn’t cloak our prediction in impenetrable verse, we just came out and said it. And we were spectacularly wrong. The queries over Brendon Goddard, a proven top-level player, didn’t go close to matching the breathless hyperbole of the Scully prognostications.

 

February was video month and the star of the show was the now–recently-departed Adrian Anderson. Anderson’s scheme for video review of goal-line decisions had more holes than a colander and most of them were displayed within the first few weeks of the pre-season competition.

 

The real stuff began in March, with video still dominating discussions as The Giesch and Anderson sought to find new ways to drive us all crazy. And we were treated to the grandfather of all would-be mountains of controversy when Caroline Wilson and Jason Mifsud accused Paul Roos and James Hird of promoting racist drafting decisions. Of course they’d done nothing of the sort. We’re not aware of a public apology, but we sincerely hope there were private apologies proffered.

 

It was not just April Fool’s Day, but April Fool’s Month. Jason Mifsud prompted an extraordinary accusation against a senior AFL coach, incorrectly as it turned out, but appeared to avoid punishment, publicly at least.

 

We took little joy in highlighting the errors of judgement by the NRL and FFA in allowing Nathan Tinkler to take over the respective Newcastle teams. Less than a year on and Tinkler’s house of cards is at least teetering.

 

And finally, there was the contretemps over Lindsay Thomas’ accidental contact with Gary Rohan that saw the talented Swan out for the season with a broken leg. Adrian Anderson’s Match Review Panel — who will pick up this poisoned chalice in 2013? — outed Thomas, but the Tribunal, thankfully, overturned the decision. For weeks, all we heard about was ‘slide tackles’.

 

Oh, and there were more video cock-ups!

 

Our catchphrase for May was zero tolerance. We are tired of highlighting how zero-tolerance approaches just don’t work the way they’re supposed to. Zero tolerance will always mean that some unwarranted penalties will be applied. Zero tolerance flies in the face of a long-standing legal principle: "better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" — Blackstone’s Formulation.

 

AussieRulesBlog began a new job in June, severely curtailing our blogging output. We did however pay tribute to Barry Cable, among the best players we have seen. And Brock McLean’s tweet suggested he wears his IQ on his back.

 

By the time July rolled around, the Barcodes’ away and clash strips had excited us (again), the AFL judicial system broke even further and Karmichael Hunt announced himself as a genuine AFL footballer.

 

It was clear in early August that our beloved Bombers would get an early start to pre-season and the Giesch’s mob decided to rewrite the deliberate out of bounds rule. Will Minson showed he is a salesman extraordinaire when he claimed not to have stepped on Kieran Jack and the good burghers of Rock Ridge believed him.

 

Finals time and September delivered some pearlers. James Kelly thought it was hard to know whether a shirtfront delivered thirty metres off the ball was legal — muppet! Mick Malthouse crossed his fingers and told us he hadn’t spoken to Carlton, but he was appointed coach before Brett Ratten’s car parking space had cooled down.

 

Oh, and there were more video cock-ups!

 

October was Draft Month. We thought it would never end. It began with a bang — newly-minted St Kilda life member Brendon Goddard to the Dons — and then exploded into the Kurt Tippett KatasTrophY, but our story of the month was Cale Morton’s drop of eighty-four places in the Draft in five years.

 

The AFL decided November was the right month to correct a five-year-old mistake and told the Blues to count Chris Judd’s  $200k “ambassadorial” salary in their salary cap. We’re told you could hear the anguished cries from Princes Park twenty kilometers away. And despite Canadian Mike Pyke hanging an unlikely (and well-earned) Premiership medallion around his neck a few days earlier, Israel “the Promised Land” Folau packed up his little red wagon and went home — sort of.

 

We said goodbye in December. Tony Charlton was, it seems, universally liked and admired and AussieRulesBlog was pleased to join the chorus of accolades. Another goodbye caught us on the hop, but was much more welcome — Adrian Anderson, the architect of the video referral system and the Match review panel system, left the AFL.

 

So, on the cusp of 2013, we look back. A good start for the Dons, but then an achingly slow decline to eventual mediocrity. A video referral system that, frankly, sucked. A judicial system that was bafflingly inconsistent. On a positive note, we did mention the Giesch fewer times, and that’s a trend we hope continues.

 

There’s much to look forward to. The Suns should be through their ‘second year blues’, though the Giants will suffer theirs and be poorer than expected. So many players moved clubs through the trade period that there’s sure to be some big wins and bigger losses. Ruck contests will be about football, rather than wrestling!

 

So, forty-five days to go! Bring it on!

 

We wish our readers a happy, safe and prosperous new year.