Sunday, February 22, 2015

Tales of expectations unmet

No comments:
Two reports in recent days lead AussieRulesBlog to reflect on sportspeople and the expectations that seem to automatically attach to them.

We were a strong supporter of Karmichael Hunt in his code-crossing venture to the Gold Coast Suns in the AFL. On-field, you couldn't have asked more of a man whose body was clearly not suited to a 360-degree running game. There can be no doubt that he gave his stint in the AFL a real shot at success. Had the youngsters on the Suns' list not come on — and that was never going to happen — it's not too far-fetched to believe that Hunt would still be contracted. And time will tell whether AFL has dodged a bullet there.

So, reports that "Special K", as he was beautifully nicknamed, has been charged with offences related to cocaine saddened AussieRulesBlog. We couldn't avoid thinking that he was now not-so-special-K.

But, on reflection, we realised we knew next-to-nothing about the man. He was a high-profile rugby (both) player enticed by the AFL to join the fledgling Suns as a marketing headline. We were impressed with what we saw of his determination to achieve — so much more than the seemingly half-hearted efforts of the other big cross-code signing, Israel "The Promised Land" Folau. And Hunt seemed to bring to the young Suns a sense of the level of commitment required to succeed athletically. That after-the-siren goal Hunt kicked to win a game and the obvious joy — directed at him — of his teammates remains a golden football memory for us.

There's no reason for us to have assumed, from what we'd seen, that Hunt was anything more than a superb athlete and athletic role model, and a good interviewee. But we did make assumptions. And cocaine is hardly a hanging offence in 2015, but it doesn't fit the squeaky clean image we create for our sports icons.

Fast-forward a few days and images appear of cricket legend Glenn McGrath posing before an African elephant he'd shot. AussieRulesBlog wasn't as taken aback by this as some, but it was clearly not a great look.

Expectations of McGrath changed with the very public dying of his wife, Jane, and his championing of the search for solutions to breast cancer through the foundation established in his wife's name. Really, after embracing all that pink, anything that couldn't pass the white glove test was going to be a PR difficulty for McGrath.

The background is that McGrath is a Wagga boy and it's pretty hard to imagine there'd be too many young blokes up that way who haven't indulged in a bit of pig shooting. It's not too big a stretch to imagine them enthusiastically shooting something bigger.

Somehow though, having become an ambassador for breast cancer has transformed expectations of McGrath so that the community is disappointed when it emerges he's not as pure as the driven snow.

It would, of course, be better for everyone if the community, AussieRulesBlog included, confined our expectations of our sporting heroes to what we know. But that's not likely to happen any time soon.
Read More

Friday, February 13, 2015

Reality makes mockery of Wilson

No comments:
Sorry, couldn't resist after seeing this fairytale — touted by The Age on it's site as an enticement to readEssendon makes mockery of pre-season comp .

The only mockery is of The Age's Chief Football Fantasist.
Read More

More 'fact' turns out to be speculation

No comments:
Once again, the Queen of Speculation has been proved to have put her delicate hoof into her mouth.


Essendon's ongoing refusal to make itself available for the AFL's pre-season challenge . . .

Essendon Chairman Paul Little issued a statement today. In part, he said,

At no stage has the Club refused to take part in the NAB Challenge competition. We needed to carefully consider the ramifications on all stakeholders involved.

That would be yet another blatantly wrong statement from The Age's 'chief football writer'. We think she needs a new title. Chief Football Fantasist fits her track record beautifully.
Read More

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

The Tony Abbott of the AFL

No comments:
The Age's 'chief football writer' has much in common with the nation's Prime Minister — she fudges, forgets and misrepresents to fit whatever point she decides is appropriate. Facts are, for these two, a mildly inconvenient irrelevancy.

Today's story in The Age (Essendon's refusal to play is making a mockery of the pre-season competition) amply serves to demonstrate.

Essendon's ongoing refusal to make itself available for the AFL's pre-season challenge is starting to make a mockery of the competition with just two weeks remaining to the first bounce.

Oh really? Refusal? It's not possible that half the senior playing list are provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the AFL Doping Tribunal hearing? And ASADA haven't been beating their collective chest to browbeat the AFL into refusing to suspend the provisional suspensions?

And the players . . .

the players, who have continued to resist all manner of AFL compromise . . .

The players who have steadfastly maintained the position that they did nothing wrong? Well, of course they should roll over and play dead and cop to a plea when they believe they're unwitting 'victims' of an offence that has not yet even been proven to have occurred.

And a lack of proof hasn't stopped —

Most football people believ[ing] those charged were doped and duped

Why bother about inconveniences like evidence and proof when most people have made up their minds?

What a sorry and pathetic excuse for a sports journalist.
Read More

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Queen strikes again!

No comments:
"McLachlan yesterday said reports he was considering a change from day to twilight [for the Grand Final] were incorrect." (see http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-chief-executive-gillon-mclachlan-says-league-not-looking-at-possibility-of-twilight-or-night-grand-final-timeslot/story-fnelctok-1227213813347)

So much for the drivel written by the Queen of Speculation a few days ago . . .
Read More

Monday, February 09, 2015

2015 Brownlow promises to be a dull affair

No comments:
What will the AFL glitterati do at the 2015 Brownlow Medal presentation without Geoff Edelsten and his latest trophy girlfriend to titter at?

Edelsten, one-time owner of the Sydney Swans back in the 1980s, has found himself the subject of a bankruptcy arrangement (see http://www.theage.com.au/business/geoffrey-edelsten-settles-his-bankruptcy-creditors-get-a-few-cents-in-the-dollar-20150209-139phu.html).

The amounts of other people's cash Edelsten appears to fling around would give most of us a nose bleed, but he appears to be oblivious. The report mentions a $45,000 engagement ring — did she return it? — and a $48,000 per month bill for travel, hotels and jewelry a few months before declaring bankruptcy. Normal people have their lives turned upside down over a few thousand, but the Edelstens of the world always seem to have plenty of loose change while owing the equivalent of a small country's GDP.

We wonder how the man keeping the makers of Grecian 2000 in champagne and caviar will manage an invitation to the 2015 Brownlow.
Read More

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Digital MCG

No comments:
This week the MCG has announced additional facilities to be implemented progressively through 2015.

It all looks very grandiose and colourful — unless you're a Barcodes, Tiggers or Bombers fan, and Saints fans will get 66% of their colours.

A wifi solution is certainly useful as it's been difficult to view on a smartphone the information that is displayed on the gigantic HD scoreboards. Despite our facaecious comment, we do applaud this development.

The club-themed lighting we're not too sure about, although modern LED lighting does lend itself to these customisations. We'll wait and see how the G looks decked out in red and darkness . . .

And the IPTV screens? There are certainly plenty of locations without access to the HD scoreboards, so screens are (almost) essential to the modern fan — for those times when it's too much trouble to actually watch the game.

It's to be hoped that Mark Evens has had a think about the goal line video review process and it'll be a rarity to need an HD picture to tell whether the goal umpire hasn't had the courage to do what they're paid to do.

And no mention of repeaters for radio broadcasts. Radio reception, on AussieRulesBlog's experience, is pretty patchy and inconsistent. Digital radio can be a little clearer, but the delay is disconcerting at best — oh, hang on, the Hawks are just scoring a goal in the 2014 Grand Final on my digital radio. I wonder who'll win . . .

Still, we can be reasonably sure of some things. Food and drink will almost certainly still require a bank loan each week. Yeah, the clamour for free (?) wifi must have drowned out the tiny amount of discontent over catering price gouging.
Read More

Grand Final start speculation

No comments:
The Queen of Speculation is at it again (see AFL to consider twilight Grand Final), ‘reporting’ that “club and broadcast bosses threw their overwhelming support behind a later start to football's biggest occasion.”

We’d assume from this line that there’s widespread, if not unanimous, support for changing the timing of the Grand Final.

Reading the piece reveals a somewhat different story. Two club Presidents attended the recent NFL Superbowl and made comments about the spectacle and Eddie Everywhere has always had an eye to what generates more ad revenue for the game’s broadcasters. Other club "bosses" might well support a change, but Her Majesty presumably hasn't troubled them by asking.

In an additional surprise revelation — not — the boss of Channel Seven would like a later start and a bigger half-time space to put on a show. It seriously sounds like a line from a 1940s Mickey Rooney flick

Of course, we also assume that Her Majesty didn’t write her own headline — though she may have for all we know — but the notion that Gillon McLachlan’s AFL administration will consider a later Grand Final start appears to be nothing more than idle speculation. And that’s what Her Majesty excells at!
Read More

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

My principles, someone else’s ‘ego’

No comments:
Like most of us, former Swan Tadhg Kenelly (see Ego-driven Hird is 'hurting the AFL') is tired of the seemingly endless Essendon supplements affair. Like most observers, Kennelly is missing the motivation that is driving Essendon coach James Hird on his quest to have the ASADA/AFL investigation ruled outside of ASADA’s operating conditions.

If Kennelly were accused of some act that brought the game into disrepute — let’s say, match fixing — and he knew he was innocent of the charge, would he just roll over and say, “OK, everyone's tired of this. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks I'm a scumbag cheat. I'll drop the legal action.”? Damned right he wouldn’t.

Anyone else who’d put their hand up and stop defending their principles? Caroline Wilson? Patrick Smith? Tim Lane?

No, we didn’t think so.

It’s unfortunate, in this case, that Australian Rules evokes such passionate responses. A dispassionate observer — and there is at least one in the mainsteam media, Mick Ellis — could bypass the hate-filled opinion and understand that Hird didn't embark on a campaign to break the rules. What coach would endanger their players and their careers? Like seventeen other coaches in the AFL competition, Hird was seeking an edge to make his players more competitive. Like seventeen other AFL coaches, he was prepared to fly close to the boundaries, but he clearly instructed his staff not to cross those boundaries. Like seventeen other coaches, he didn’t micro-manage the day-to-day activities of every one of his staff.

So, back to Tadhg Kennelly. It probably doesn't matter that every time anyone mentions your name for the rest of your life it'll be forever as a cheat, does it? Everyone else has had a gutful, so you'd be happy to roll over and have your reputation trashed?

We thought not.
Read More

Tales of expectations unmet

Two reports in recent days lead AussieRulesBlog to reflect on sportspeople and the expectations that seem to automatically attach to them.

We were a strong supporter of Karmichael Hunt in his code-crossing venture to the Gold Coast Suns in the AFL. On-field, you couldn't have asked more of a man whose body was clearly not suited to a 360-degree running game. There can be no doubt that he gave his stint in the AFL a real shot at success. Had the youngsters on the Suns' list not come on — and that was never going to happen — it's not too far-fetched to believe that Hunt would still be contracted. And time will tell whether AFL has dodged a bullet there.

So, reports that "Special K", as he was beautifully nicknamed, has been charged with offences related to cocaine saddened AussieRulesBlog. We couldn't avoid thinking that he was now not-so-special-K.

But, on reflection, we realised we knew next-to-nothing about the man. He was a high-profile rugby (both) player enticed by the AFL to join the fledgling Suns as a marketing headline. We were impressed with what we saw of his determination to achieve — so much more than the seemingly half-hearted efforts of the other big cross-code signing, Israel "The Promised Land" Folau. And Hunt seemed to bring to the young Suns a sense of the level of commitment required to succeed athletically. That after-the-siren goal Hunt kicked to win a game and the obvious joy — directed at him — of his teammates remains a golden football memory for us.

There's no reason for us to have assumed, from what we'd seen, that Hunt was anything more than a superb athlete and athletic role model, and a good interviewee. But we did make assumptions. And cocaine is hardly a hanging offence in 2015, but it doesn't fit the squeaky clean image we create for our sports icons.

Fast-forward a few days and images appear of cricket legend Glenn McGrath posing before an African elephant he'd shot. AussieRulesBlog wasn't as taken aback by this as some, but it was clearly not a great look.

Expectations of McGrath changed with the very public dying of his wife, Jane, and his championing of the search for solutions to breast cancer through the foundation established in his wife's name. Really, after embracing all that pink, anything that couldn't pass the white glove test was going to be a PR difficulty for McGrath.

The background is that McGrath is a Wagga boy and it's pretty hard to imagine there'd be too many young blokes up that way who haven't indulged in a bit of pig shooting. It's not too big a stretch to imagine them enthusiastically shooting something bigger.

Somehow though, having become an ambassador for breast cancer has transformed expectations of McGrath so that the community is disappointed when it emerges he's not as pure as the driven snow.

It would, of course, be better for everyone if the community, AussieRulesBlog included, confined our expectations of our sporting heroes to what we know. But that's not likely to happen any time soon.

Reality makes mockery of Wilson

Sorry, couldn't resist after seeing this fairytale — touted by The Age on it's site as an enticement to readEssendon makes mockery of pre-season comp .

The only mockery is of The Age's Chief Football Fantasist.

More 'fact' turns out to be speculation

Once again, the Queen of Speculation has been proved to have put her delicate hoof into her mouth.


Essendon's ongoing refusal to make itself available for the AFL's pre-season challenge . . .

Essendon Chairman Paul Little issued a statement today. In part, he said,

At no stage has the Club refused to take part in the NAB Challenge competition. We needed to carefully consider the ramifications on all stakeholders involved.

That would be yet another blatantly wrong statement from The Age's 'chief football writer'. We think she needs a new title. Chief Football Fantasist fits her track record beautifully.

The Tony Abbott of the AFL

The Age's 'chief football writer' has much in common with the nation's Prime Minister — she fudges, forgets and misrepresents to fit whatever point she decides is appropriate. Facts are, for these two, a mildly inconvenient irrelevancy.

Today's story in The Age (Essendon's refusal to play is making a mockery of the pre-season competition) amply serves to demonstrate.

Essendon's ongoing refusal to make itself available for the AFL's pre-season challenge is starting to make a mockery of the competition with just two weeks remaining to the first bounce.

Oh really? Refusal? It's not possible that half the senior playing list are provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the AFL Doping Tribunal hearing? And ASADA haven't been beating their collective chest to browbeat the AFL into refusing to suspend the provisional suspensions?

And the players . . .

the players, who have continued to resist all manner of AFL compromise . . .

The players who have steadfastly maintained the position that they did nothing wrong? Well, of course they should roll over and play dead and cop to a plea when they believe they're unwitting 'victims' of an offence that has not yet even been proven to have occurred.

And a lack of proof hasn't stopped —

Most football people believ[ing] those charged were doped and duped

Why bother about inconveniences like evidence and proof when most people have made up their minds?

What a sorry and pathetic excuse for a sports journalist.

The Queen strikes again!

"McLachlan yesterday said reports he was considering a change from day to twilight [for the Grand Final] were incorrect." (see http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-chief-executive-gillon-mclachlan-says-league-not-looking-at-possibility-of-twilight-or-night-grand-final-timeslot/story-fnelctok-1227213813347)

So much for the drivel written by the Queen of Speculation a few days ago . . .

2015 Brownlow promises to be a dull affair

What will the AFL glitterati do at the 2015 Brownlow Medal presentation without Geoff Edelsten and his latest trophy girlfriend to titter at?

Edelsten, one-time owner of the Sydney Swans back in the 1980s, has found himself the subject of a bankruptcy arrangement (see http://www.theage.com.au/business/geoffrey-edelsten-settles-his-bankruptcy-creditors-get-a-few-cents-in-the-dollar-20150209-139phu.html).

The amounts of other people's cash Edelsten appears to fling around would give most of us a nose bleed, but he appears to be oblivious. The report mentions a $45,000 engagement ring — did she return it? — and a $48,000 per month bill for travel, hotels and jewelry a few months before declaring bankruptcy. Normal people have their lives turned upside down over a few thousand, but the Edelstens of the world always seem to have plenty of loose change while owing the equivalent of a small country's GDP.

We wonder how the man keeping the makers of Grecian 2000 in champagne and caviar will manage an invitation to the 2015 Brownlow.

Digital MCG

This week the MCG has announced additional facilities to be implemented progressively through 2015.

It all looks very grandiose and colourful — unless you're a Barcodes, Tiggers or Bombers fan, and Saints fans will get 66% of their colours.

A wifi solution is certainly useful as it's been difficult to view on a smartphone the information that is displayed on the gigantic HD scoreboards. Despite our facaecious comment, we do applaud this development.

The club-themed lighting we're not too sure about, although modern LED lighting does lend itself to these customisations. We'll wait and see how the G looks decked out in red and darkness . . .

And the IPTV screens? There are certainly plenty of locations without access to the HD scoreboards, so screens are (almost) essential to the modern fan — for those times when it's too much trouble to actually watch the game.

It's to be hoped that Mark Evens has had a think about the goal line video review process and it'll be a rarity to need an HD picture to tell whether the goal umpire hasn't had the courage to do what they're paid to do.

And no mention of repeaters for radio broadcasts. Radio reception, on AussieRulesBlog's experience, is pretty patchy and inconsistent. Digital radio can be a little clearer, but the delay is disconcerting at best — oh, hang on, the Hawks are just scoring a goal in the 2014 Grand Final on my digital radio. I wonder who'll win . . .

Still, we can be reasonably sure of some things. Food and drink will almost certainly still require a bank loan each week. Yeah, the clamour for free (?) wifi must have drowned out the tiny amount of discontent over catering price gouging.

Grand Final start speculation

The Queen of Speculation is at it again (see AFL to consider twilight Grand Final), ‘reporting’ that “club and broadcast bosses threw their overwhelming support behind a later start to football's biggest occasion.”

We’d assume from this line that there’s widespread, if not unanimous, support for changing the timing of the Grand Final.

Reading the piece reveals a somewhat different story. Two club Presidents attended the recent NFL Superbowl and made comments about the spectacle and Eddie Everywhere has always had an eye to what generates more ad revenue for the game’s broadcasters. Other club "bosses" might well support a change, but Her Majesty presumably hasn't troubled them by asking.

In an additional surprise revelation — not — the boss of Channel Seven would like a later start and a bigger half-time space to put on a show. It seriously sounds like a line from a 1940s Mickey Rooney flick

Of course, we also assume that Her Majesty didn’t write her own headline — though she may have for all we know — but the notion that Gillon McLachlan’s AFL administration will consider a later Grand Final start appears to be nothing more than idle speculation. And that’s what Her Majesty excells at!

My principles, someone else’s ‘ego’

Like most of us, former Swan Tadhg Kenelly (see Ego-driven Hird is 'hurting the AFL') is tired of the seemingly endless Essendon supplements affair. Like most observers, Kennelly is missing the motivation that is driving Essendon coach James Hird on his quest to have the ASADA/AFL investigation ruled outside of ASADA’s operating conditions.

If Kennelly were accused of some act that brought the game into disrepute — let’s say, match fixing — and he knew he was innocent of the charge, would he just roll over and say, “OK, everyone's tired of this. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks I'm a scumbag cheat. I'll drop the legal action.”? Damned right he wouldn’t.

Anyone else who’d put their hand up and stop defending their principles? Caroline Wilson? Patrick Smith? Tim Lane?

No, we didn’t think so.

It’s unfortunate, in this case, that Australian Rules evokes such passionate responses. A dispassionate observer — and there is at least one in the mainsteam media, Mick Ellis — could bypass the hate-filled opinion and understand that Hird didn't embark on a campaign to break the rules. What coach would endanger their players and their careers? Like seventeen other coaches in the AFL competition, Hird was seeking an edge to make his players more competitive. Like seventeen other AFL coaches, he was prepared to fly close to the boundaries, but he clearly instructed his staff not to cross those boundaries. Like seventeen other coaches, he didn’t micro-manage the day-to-day activities of every one of his staff.

So, back to Tadhg Kennelly. It probably doesn't matter that every time anyone mentions your name for the rest of your life it'll be forever as a cheat, does it? Everyone else has had a gutful, so you'd be happy to roll over and have your reputation trashed?

We thought not.