Molly wrote:
Guys,
in all honesty he is trying to stick it up the AFL more than us. The subtext to all of these articles (and the part that worries me) is that the other AFL Clubs are worried that the AFL is looking to bail us out. Of course, such views overlook the historical precedent of the AFL having a back-up venue (surely required for an emergency in melbourne given that nine teams still play there).
Of course, the problem for us is that if the other clubs scupper this (a la Brisbane and Sydney's salary cap concessions) then where does it leave us?
We'll wait and see. However, I do have a gut feeling that the AFL knows it played the man rather than the ball in 2002, and it now realises it has a problem on its hands. I've said it before in these forums, but I had the opportunity to show Ben Buckley around Hobart for a day in Hobart 2003 when he had some speaking presentations to deliver. Naturally, I asked about the salary cap fines, etc. His comment was that they had fined Carlton as much as they believed the club was able to handle without it going bankrupt (he specifically said that the punsihment would have been of a lesser nature for Sydney and the Dogs - the two clubs to which I enquired as to how they would have handled salary cap indiscretions). In short, they wanted to bring the club to its knees, but to have it go under was not desirable. Maybe they have now determined that the measures went too far and they need to be able to help us without the assistance appearing to be overt? Just a suggestion...
Agree 100% There's no doubt in my mind this is the course of events. Only 3-5 clubs could handle the size of the penalties. I'm starting to think we weren't one of them.
They hit us hard to make a point - and the point was taken seriously by Essendon* who coincidently dismissed 4 premiership players and Melbourne who traded a brownlow medalist while he was on a beach in the Bahamas. They were so convinced he was no good they decided to pay half his salary

. All this with-in days of black friday.
Where's the fat fart and his conspiracy theories with these issues?
When he takes a piss, it's like a kid looking for a treat in a lucky dip - 'I know it's down there somewhere!!'