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Jason Mifsud's position at the AFL is untenable

Is Jason Mifsud now a liability for the AFL? (Slattery Images)
Expert
4th April, 2012
14
2234 Reads

When former recruiting manager Matt Rendell asked Adelaide for the chance to explain his side of the story, he was asked instead to resign. “The mud would stick,” was the club’s argument.

Jason Mifsud had his fingerprints all over that saga and now, ironically, he’s found himself in a situation where the mud is going to stick because of his own actions.

Mifsud, the AFL multicultural boss, admitted on Tuesday to discussing false accusations that Melbourne coach Mark Neeld dealt with Indigenous players differently to other players. These claims ended up published by Grant Thomas in a ninemsn blog.

On the back of the Rendell saga, where comments made in a private conversation ended up as headline news via Mifsud, questions need to be asked.

For someone in such an important position tackling such an important issue, one would think trust would be an essential personal attribute.

But that isn’t the case with Mifsud, at least according to 100-game AFL player Dean Rioli.

“Everyone I speak to (say) he’s very untrustworthy,” Rioli told SEN this week. “If you’ve got someone that’s untrustworthy, you can’t resolve anything privately and then you’ve got a serious issue.”

“If he’s going to run to the media every single time that someone comes to him with a question … I wouldn’t go and speak with him because I would be afraid that it would go straight to the headlines.”

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Today, his communication was also brought into question with some damning revelations in the Herald Sun.

“Aaron Davey hasn’t been able to talk to […] Mifsud for two days despite being revealed as the alleged source of a lie that linked his coach Mark Neeld to racist behaviour,” reported Mark Robinson.

“The Demons would not comment last night, but Davey is said to be angry he cannot contact Mifsud about the disputed comments. Mifsud did not name Davey, but it is known he has been identified as the source at AFL headquarters. Davey sought to speak to Mifsud on Tuesday night and again last night, but failed. […]

“Davey’s inability to raise Mifsud follows Mifsud’s failure for three weeks to return calls to Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab after the club was advised by AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson that an issue had emerged and Schwab should speak to Mifsud.

“The Demons say Mifsud did not return calls and tweets.

“Mifsud received a formal warning from AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou for leaking the allegations, which he had not verified, against Neeld to friend Grant Thomas, who then repeated them in a column.

“Demetriou also said on Tuesday: ‘It’d be fair to say Jason should have probably returned a couple of calls.’”

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It’s just not good enough. Not returning calls that could have defused the issue, and instead going to the media without any form of confirmation, is a poor way to handle an issue that’s both sensitive and damaging to the game’s reputation.

Obviously, there’s a reason Demetriou refused to accept his offer to resign this week. That is a testament to all the good work he would’ve done within the AFL up until this point.

But when there are several very public examples which paint Mifsud as untrustworthy (leaking private conversations) and unprofessional (not returning phone calls, even to a key stakeholder), then the mud is going to stick.

Harsh, maybe, but just like with Rendell, it seems the only option.

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