Speakers, not trying to be a hero or anything but I sent several emails to the fukcsticks at AFL House in the week following the penalties predicting this type of demise and accusing them of being grossly incompetent with the penalties. I felt that given the shocking nature of our list at that time, prohibiting us from the first 2 rounds of the draft for 2 years was pretty much the equivalent to a death sentence.
My view on this is pretty much based on the premise that whilst off field management is vital to the financial viability of a club, and we have been hopeless in this area for a decade now, on field matters are absolutely paramount to a club's success and vitality. A club may be able to ride out 2 or 3 years of mediocrity, but not 5, 6 or even 7 years like we are enduring at present. Sooner or later, the wheels start to fall off because supporters and all those associated with the club (sponsors and the like) become disenfranchised and lose interest. As a sporting team you want to see a competitive unit, one that has a chance to succeed. Not a rabble, year after year after year...
I suggested to them that whilst a penalty might be appropriate (even though the AFL's rules would not stand up in a court of law), it should perhaps be in the form of a deduction of premiership points for the following year or perhaps even two years. At least the penalty would only hurt us for those years instead of a decade and perhaps even indefinitely. Players are a clubs most important asset. It is already ridiculously difficult to manage a list by the drip fed method of the draft but when it is essentially your most important resource for player talent it is absolutely critical to have full access to it.
I already know the response to this last paragraph - who did we miss out on? This is not the issue. Removing access to the draft is a brutal and negligent decision to impose on a club. Especially when a club was in the position that we were in in 2002.
I sent emails to the AFL and even to the club, especially following the scums feather duster penalties for blatant TPP breaches when paying Lloyd and Hird for internet rights outside the TPP. I pleaded to them to make a stand, not so much to pressure the AFL to increase the penalties to the scum but to perhaps plead our case and to consider some sort of compensation.
No response, no answers
However, now that were almost 5 years down the track and the situation has reached crisis point, I believe it is now dawning on those fools at the AFL that they and Carlton have a gigantic problem on their hands. A club that was capable of generating the type of support and crowds that the AFL are proud of is a shadow of what it once was. And if something drastic doesn't happen in the next 12 months, it is only going to get worse.
Obviously foresight is not a quality that is required by the powers that be at the AFL!
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- guilty of the same thing myself. 
