“What the hell were your blokes doing on a booze cruise in the middle of pre-season?” One hopes the start of Adrian Anderson’s conversation with Greg Swann and Stephen Kernahan carried some of this tone.

It is reported that the AFL will not impose further sanction on the Blues over the events of and surrounding the booze cruise.

Indeed, it’s difficult to see what more the AFL could have done. Despite the stupidity of the cruise in the first place, despite the club captain’s participation raising questions about his leadership, despite a young rookie being cajoled into a drinking “game” and despite Carlton’s somewhat equivocal response, this has mostly been a PR issue for the League. Notwithstanding the negative aspects of the publicity, League HQ will be secretly quite pleased that the whole issue of alcohol abuse at the elite level has had such an extensive public hearing.

It’s all but inconceivable that anyone even remotely interested in elite Aussie rules will not have heard the furore and formed the opinion that the Carlton guys shouldn’t have been on the cruise, shouldn’t have drunk so much and shouldn’t have abused the trust Levi Casboult’s parents placed in the club. That’s a pretty powerful message that has now had a good couple of months’ airing, importantly, through the generally ‘boozy’ summer and festive seasons.

Only time will tell if the Blues are able to generate some significant change to their inner culture. About the only person who might be pleased would be one B. Fevola — grateful, for once, to be out of the spotlight!

Is it only here at Aussierulesblog-Central or is this off-season dragging interminably?

Each day we turn to the sports pages, hoping they’ll be filled with all of the panoply of footy, but we’re forced to wade through page after page of horse racing (yawn), yachting (falling asleep) and tennis (fast asleep), not to mention ‘fudball’ (comatose). Only occasionally is there a contribution to the footy landscape, and even more occasionally, it is meaningful. Such, however, is the case today.

Emma Quayle’s piece on the AFLPA draftee induction program provides a longer than usual glimpse into the week-long effort to appropriately equip the stars of tomorrow to meet expectations.

One can imagine there are many, many massively unmemorable moments through this induction program, and it’s asking a lot of young men chosen for athletic qualities rather than academic to have them all take it all in. Nevertheless, Quayle picks out some seminal moments to highlight.

Bachar Houli relates how teenaged teammates were unexpectedly considerate and interested when he asked for quiet for his prayers. Harry O’Brien counsels these young men to find out why they’re doing a clinic and who and how they’ll be helping. All good stuff.

We’re also told that AFL players drink far more alcohol than their general public equivalents — a surprise to the innocence of these brand new draftees. “When an AFL player gets into trouble, [Steve] Alessio [AFLPA general manager of player development] reminds them, alcohol is usually a factor.” It’s not mentioned whether Carlton rookie Levi Casboult was called upon to provide first-hand corroboration of Alessio’s claim.

Quayle ends her report with quotes from a couple of draftees:

''It shows that you can't be ignorant, that you have to think about every little thing that you do,'' said Adelaide ruckman James Craig, and Andrew Hooper, a Western Bulldogs rookie, agreed.
''It's not good enough to say, 'I didn't know', because now we do,'' he said. ''We've been told how it is and we're the ones who have to put it in place and make the most of the chance we have.''

It’s not news that the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA) provide a primer for all recruits to AFL clubs each year.

In this report, AFLPA general manager of player development, former Bombers big man Steve Alessio, says,

“ ‘We want to make sure they're fully aware of their off-field responsibilities and obligations [and] don't jeopardise their career by making bad judgments when they're newcomers to the game.’ ''

“Up to 90 per cent of the players will join a year-long program over 22 sessions that deal with budgeting, finance, nutrition, public speaking, defensive driving and more.”

The Brad Scott Mantra

With the pre-season competition only forty-four days away — yes, that’s right, 44 days till the Bombers shape up against the Weagles on Feb 12 — the aussierulesblog editorial staff felt it was important to take the opportunity to research a video decision-assistance system. So, we rounded up our sibling and headed off to day three of the Boxing Day test. We were rewarded with three video referrals.

Cricket is a fascinating game and we much prefer the multi-day version to the one day or, heaven forfend, multi-hour versions. There is a subtlety and majesty about first-class cricket that we think no other team game captures. Of course, there are good days and not-so-good days.

Last year, we sat through Dale Steyn and JP Duminy humiliating what was allegedly the Australian attack. This year, we saw nine wickets fall, two excellent 50s scored by Pakistani batsmen and the emergence of a young Pakistani fast bowler with a real future at Test level. Nevertheless, it felt like quite a slow day.

On three occasions however, our attention was galvanised by a team referring the umpire’s decision to the so-called fourth umpire.

Now, as explained earlier, we were feeling that the day was plodding along at a relatively unexciting pace — probably not helped by getting to bed at 2:30AM after watching a replay of the 2009 Grand Final on Foxtel.

When a team asks for a referral, cricket’s natural rhythm is upset. For the TV and radio audiences, there’s banter to listen to or replays to cast an eye over. For the poor old paying customer sitting in the grandstand, there’s nothing but the seemingly interminable wait ‘til the fourth umpire’s decision is relayed to the field umpire.

This is not a value-add for Test cricket.

The further point to make with regard to these three referrals was the the umpire’s decision was supported in each case. The common case for a referral system is that we should be using all available resources to make sure we get the right decision every time. Great! And there are how many wrong decisions made? Not many, clearly.

It seems to aussierulesblog that this system is a variation on a mulligan in golf. Why not let’s extend it to the players so that they make the right decision every time? A bowler doesn’t like the ball that gets clobbered for a towering six, so let him have another try after annulling the score from the offending ball. A batsman realises after driving at the ball outside off stump that it was swinging away and he should have allowed it to pass. Annul the catch taken at gully and replay the ball!!!

Of course this is nonsense!

As we have previously noted, there are substantial inequities built into the loosely proposed ‘system’ for video checking of goal umpiring decisions during the 2010 pre-season competition. The ‘dead time’ during the cricket referral shows what a disaster such dead time would be in an AFL contest and the resulting inequities inherent in avoiding dead time make the proposal a nonsense — all for a mere three wrong decisions throughout the whole of the 2009 season according to Adrian Anderson.

The idiots, it seems, are running the asylum.

Update: Watching a referral on Channel Nein’s cricket coverage is just as interminable, with endless speculation over microscopic details. Do we really need a system like this in Aussie rules? On every level, we think the answer is a resounding “No!!”

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the culture of the playing group at Carlton remains heavily influenced by the Fevola years. The former Blues spearhead demonstrated his inability to consume alcohol responsibly on one of footy’s biggest stages, but that was merely the latest in a series of alcohol-related incidents over his career. As the Blues’ best player over a good part of that time, it seems his indiscretions were treated in a manner designed to minimise fallout for both player and club.

News today that 19-year-old Carlton rookie, Levi Casboult, was coerced into joining a drinking game on a so-called ‘booze cruise’, pitting himself against a senior Carlton player, aren’t a good look for the club. There will be many 19-year-olds in the community who would have given the senior player a run for his money, but that’s not the point.

Let’s get past the notion of responsible consumption of alcohol. The fact is that these men are paid as elite athletes; their clubs and their clubs’ fans expect them to perform at their elite best.

For an elite athlete, alcohol consumption to the point of being detained by police, or alcohol consumption sufficient to break down inhibitions and resulting in actions that attract the attention of the police should be an absolute no-no.

Players aren’t recruited for their raw brainpower. It’s physical capabilities and associated ‘footy smarts’ that recruiters look for. As a work colleague noted to aussierulesblog today at a Xmas luncheon, clubs must look at a player with a brain as an unexpected bonus.

Aussierulesblog has defended players in the past, arguing that some can’t handle the mantle of role model that the community is so keen to crown them with. Notwithstanding that Carlton is not our favourite club, there’s something about these latest incidents that yells a message that these men don’t consider themselves as elite athletes. That’s not good enough.

Let’s also recall that players have their ‘mad Mondays’ where much is forgiven. It’s an opportunity to let their hair down and the community — certainly the footy community — are likely to allow them a little more leeway in that context.

We have to ask what these players thought was going on. This is not the end of the year for them — that’s mad Monday! We’re six or seven weeks from the first (semi-)serious hitout of the season and the Carlton boys are playing drinking games on a booze cruise! Discipline? Leadership? Fevola?

Most readers will, we are sure, recognise the metaphor of a fish rotting from the head — that is, poor or missing leadership is eventually reflected in the rest of the entity. Carlton’s tacit acceptance of on-field scoring opportunities over leadership and team orientation continues to reap its just desserts.

As another year winds to a close, aussierulesblog would like to take the opportunity to pass on our best wishes for the festive season to our vast audience.

To our readers, regular and not-so-regular, thank you for providing the occasional hits that keep us believing that someone out there is occasionally interested in what we think and write.

Thank you to those who’ve posted comments. Your efforts have been very much appreciated.

Finally, still some days short of the New Year, we pledge a New Year’s resolution: We will strive in 2010 to avoid blaming all of footy’s ills on the Great Satan (Jeff Gieschen).

Have a great festive season and a terrific New Year! Roll on footy season!!

Forgive me! The post title is deliberately inflammatory and slightly misleading. This post is about personal preferences.

The “world game” simply leaves me gasping — for some Aussie rules!

Is it the lack of scoring or the pathetic staging and diving? Yes, they’re part of it, although I get the impression there are fewer boring 0–0 draws in the modern game. The goal that was scored from behind the centre line in the EPL this week was staggering. The top-level players are undoubtedly enormously skilful, as you’d expect, and the extent of their ball control is sometimes breathtaking. Thierry Henry showed recently just how good they could be if they could use their hands as well!!! And yet, the spectacle eludes me. If you find it enjoyable and exciting, terrific!

Aussie rules though, gets my heart pumping. Genuine physical contests with no quarter begged or given. Ball control skills with an irregular ball that, without a shadow of a doubt, rival the skills of the other code. The full involvement of the players in Aussie rules — kicking, marking, handballing, running, tackling, shepherding — seems more satisfying to me.

Were the FFA to pull off the completely fanciful and win the rights to host the FIFA World Cup, they certainly won’t have to save a seat for me. No doubt Frank Lowy and Sepp Blatter  will be tossing in their sleep wondering how they’ll survive without aussierulesblog in the stands, but I suspect they’d get by.

And there’s the nub of my attitude to the World Cup bid. Fine, go ahead if you must, but I don’t really care. Don’t spend too much taxpayers’ money along the way and don’t disturb the games that are most important to the majority of us.