I confess, I wanted to keep my club allegiance off limits here for no other reason than once it’s known who you support a raft of stereotypes and clichéd banter follows. It’s part and parcel of the AFL.
Inter-club rivalries are just one of the things that makes the game of Aussie Rules so great, especially between fans of the established Melbourne clubs.
So much history, so much banter, so much hate. And while most of it is pretty harmless and good natured, if you stop and think about it rationally it’s all pretty pointless stuff and by any reasonable measure not really based on any solid foundation.
Read the comments section after this article is published, you’ll see what I mean.
So here it is. I am Carlton!
Now, for all the non-Carlton fans I want you to think of the first three words that come to mind when you think of the Old Dark Navy Blues.
Okay, those of you who thought “salary cap cheats” put your hand up.
I’ll assume the rest of you thought “brown paper bags.”
We were guilty and we got our right whack. I was pissed off.
Pissed off at the AFL and pissed off at my club. I was pissed off at everyone.
But I was also part of the membership that mobilised to oust the board responsible for our self-inflicted wounds. I’m still quite proud of the way the Carlton members took a stand against those who sent us to the brink of collapse.
Make no mistake, we were almost gone. By any rational business measure we had no right to survive.
Deep down, I knew the AFL was right to punish us harshly, although I still think they went too far. But I would say that and I’m over it now.
It’s almost 11 years since Carlton was punished for its wrongdoings. Closing in on 4000 days. Alas, a conversation can barely go by today without non-Carlton fans referring to our previous sins.
We’ve paid the fine, sat out the draft for a couple of years and done our time. But everyone still says we’re salary cap cheats.
Never mind that almost every other club in the AFL has been sanctioned to some degree over the same offence. Big fines, draft penalties, yep, we’re not alone.
Never mind the reactions of the other clubs at the end of 2002 who were offloading players at the trade table like a closing down sale or asking their players to take pay cuts in fear of Ken Wood knocking on their door.
Chris Judd and the Visy deal? Yeah, I know, you think it was dodgy.
Never mind your own club probably had one or two players on a similarly structured agreement that had also been signed off by the AFL. Judd was at Carlton, so it just had to be salary cap cheating and no player from any other club could possibly have been benefiting from a similar deal.
Moreover, you’d never believe it if it wasn’t true, but one club has even been penalised for cheating the salary cap in a year they won a premiership. It wasn’t even us! You know who you are.
Actually, come to think of it, you probably don’t, which is why I’m here to let you know what the next ten years and beyond are going to be like.
Oh, that reminds me, I never could get the websites matthewlloyd.com or jameshird.com to load. I remember they were worth a lot of money back in the day. Maybe it was just me, you know how it was, dial-up was a bit unreliable in those days.
So, if the words most associated with Carlton are “Salary cap cheats” then Essendon fans had better prepare themselves for what is to come: allegations of ”drug cheats”.
It doesn’t actually matter what the real outcome is. It doesn’t matter what ASADA or the AFL finds when their painstaking investigation comes to a conclusion. It doesn’t matter what the penalties will be.
And there will be some. They will hurt and be salt into the wounds, for sure, but as far the average fan goes judgment day was back in February when Sir James was shocked to be sitting there.
The damage is done. The broader AFL fan-base will label your club as drug cheats for at least the next generation.
It doesn’t matter if you think Hirdy is a great bloke and it’s not fair. It doesn’t matter what you say in defence. It doesn’t matter what your club does to right its wrongs. It is now set in stone.
You should know, you and most everyone else have been slagging Carlton off since 2002.
As the days drew closer to what we Carlton fans refer to as “Black Friday” – when the AFL began to cruelly seal our fate just hours before the national draft – there were numerous stories in the media all with one purpose.
To shame our club into oblivion.
I couldn’t see it at the time of course, but we deserved it.
Caroline Wilson was the prime target of our rage. One of them anyway, there were quite a few if I recall. Every day there was a new article sending the club deeper into the mire. It wasn’t just Caro, of course, everyone was at it.
Grab a ticket, join the queue and give Carlton a whack. Even if you don’t want to, just do it because everyone else is!
Hell, this must be fun, they must have thought.
It wasn’t. It sucked. I hated it. And I wasn’t alone. We were a laughing stock. It was embarrassing.
Only Tony Shaw and Gerard Healy showed any sympathy of what was to come: years of ineptitude and failure.
The thing is, we had nobody else to blame. It was all the club’s doing.
Plus, for all of the talk from AFL house about not discussing probable penalties Caro’s infamous sources were bang on the money.
A massive fine and stripping of draft picks. She knew it all. Well before the AFL made it official.
Right about now I’m guessing the more reasonably minded Essendon fans out there – and despite some evidence to contrary in the current climate I do believe there are a few – will be thinking they have a lot more in common with the average Carlton fan than they ever knew.
Fans go through the following phases: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Me and every other Carlton fan have been there. All the while you were laughing at us, kicking us while we were down. We deserved much of what we got, but not that much.
Even though I’ve tried to give Essendon fans an insight into what lies ahead, like a lot of things in life, until you’ve lived through it, you have no idea.
Doug Deep
Roar Pro
Bump!
Redb
Roar Guru
Mic, You misunderstand the context of "you don't know what it's like" - it has zero to do with people calling Essendon drug cheats,etc. On the topic, so be it. You can't stop it, unlike Carlton fans who still seem hurt by the comments, Essendon will soak up the hate & drive the club harder going forward. We don't want or need your respect - especially from Carlton who we do not respect. Collingwood soak up the hate, they've copped it for decades. Side by Side.
Greg
Guest
First of all, when I think of Carlton I think of the 99 prelim. I was there with tickets from my now deceased grandfather. We went down by a single point when Dean Bailey decided that trying to take on Fraser Brown was wiser than bombing the ball as far as he freaking could. Yes I'm a bombers fan, yes, I still shake my head at that process... but hindsight is 20/20. I am no expert on performance enhancing drugs. And with everything I've read about them since this story broke, I still wouldn't say I'm an expert. Nor am I an expert on the AFL and how it runs its organisation, or do I have inside knowledge on what Essendon are planning. BUT, Carlton were allowed to ultimately survive (that is, they weren't stripped of their license, or banned from playing) for one simple unequivocal reason. Money. The AFL would stand to lose 100s of 1000s of dollars if a club like Carlton were forced to fold, or sit out a season. And the same will happen here. Essendon will play next year, and the year after and the year after that. Because as a huge club in Melbourne, the AFL can't afford for them not to. If I was to put money on the whole thing, I think the AFL will strip Essendon of all (or a good chunk) of their premiership points. And they hope they can do it so that the bombers miss the finals. As to when, the AFL will be hoping to be able to pass down a judgement right around the last week of the regular season. If it's a couple of days before, it won't matter, cause the outpouring from fans will see the gates still roll with people coming to see the bombers play. But if they can stop the bombers from playing finals, and that were to fill as a form of "punishment", they will take it. Because the flip side will be the good will felt by the team that should have just missed the finals. Imagine if it was Carlton who went in instead? Absolute gold mine for the AFL.
vicbomber
Guest
Haha, yes, that's a really well though out response. Let me guess....Carlton supporter? I know, how about ALL the other teams are wiped out then you can win every week!
Floyd Calhoun
Guest
So true Suburban Boy. Carlton should just shut up when it comes to the game's ethical standards.
Suburbn boy
Guest
Oh boo hoo, cry me a river for Carlton. It's not so much that they cheated and got caught, it's that they were the ultimate swaggering, nasty,arrogant bully boys of the 1980's and 90's. Remember this is the club that would raid poorer clubs, buy their best players, put them in Carlton jumpers and then boast about how great Carlton was. Plus the club that tried to make St.Kild bankrupt in 1984 and wanted to buy North Melb to get at North's good players. They trampled on everyone and anyone to get their own way. Well the world changed but Carlton's attitude didn't. They still thought they could just go out and buy a premiership like they had done in the past. It didn't work and they got caught and penalised. Good enough for them. They were, are and will be forever the salary cap cheats.
Strummer Jones
Guest
I think you're referring to old VFL stuff won over 50 years ago. Doesn't count in the AFL comp.
Strummer Jones
Guest
I'll use that one!
Nathan
Guest
Mate, I have said much the same thing during the whole saga. I'm a Bulldogs man, and I shudder to think what would have happened if it was us. We are expendable, and we would have been absolutely reamed out to demonstrate the AFL's credibility. I feel for the Bombers supporterd, but it's just karma coming back to bite the club on the ass. They're not sorry they went out of their way to cheat the system, and they're not even sorry they got caught, because they think they can squirm their way out of it. They gave no thought to the credibility of the league, the passion and trust of their supporters and the competition itself, and I hope they get slammed.
Nathan
Guest
You'll also have a lot of time to polish it while you sit out your ban
Nathan
Guest
A pathetic Carlton whine? I'm a Doggies supporter, and I've abused the Carltank Salary cap cheats for years and their supporters sit back and take their right whack for the most part. The Essendon supporters at this stage are clutching at straws, but whether they get off on a loophole or not, the fact remains that the Bombers were trying to get an edge over the rest of the competition by going out of their way to secure drugs that they believed would enhance their performance - hence they are cheats, not an innocent party that got caught in the crossfire. Legal or not they tried to cheat and likely did. And guilty or not they will be referred to as such for a very, very long time.
joe b
Guest
I don't recall WCE blaming the media, or the system for that matter....some fans might have. WCE administration, and coaching staff (incl. Woosha) had failed the playing group. Almost everyman and his dog (in Perth) knew Benny was on drugs, and his influence as a senior player and captain on those in the playing group was clear given kerr and a couple of others were also found to be partaking. As an eagles fan I was most disappointed the illicit drug culture existed for so long before the board decided to act....still think Mark Barnaba should have been cleared out with some of the other board members, and to be fair it also revealed a lack of leadership by woosha as well. Having said this, the ensuing internal (WCE) and external (AFL) penalties against cousins did demonstrate a willingness to reprimand his off field behaviour...and the fact they sought to assist him in rehabilitation was also positive. The AFL enforced investigation of WCE has in the long run been a blessing for the club, it's players (and their families), and fans.
GazzaW
Guest
When your focus is 100% about on field success it's very easy to forget that there are rules that need to be followed. When a club feels that anything goes that's when you stuff up, and the fans are just one of the groups that suffer. With something like drugs in sport well it something if you stuff it up then the fallout will around for years maybe decades depending on how bad it really is. Yep as a fan of a club (west coast) that stuffed up big time..I know that first you blame the system, the media, everyone else but the club. Then on reflection if your honest with yourself you realize it's the club who's stuffed up and let you down.
joe
Guest
+1 hate the constant boys club crap
Franko
Guest
Dympba – You are spot on 100% I couldn’t agree more. Fans being taken for a financial bath – correct Nepotism of the highest order both at AFL house and media – correct, the McLachlans a prime example but there are so many more (you know Gillons father in-law runs the company that provides the catering at AFL matches) Ridiculous stance on drugs – correct, dare to say anything and you’ll be cast a loonie i.e Dale Lewis Money the primary object of those at AFL house – correct I just want to watch good games of footy without all the BS these days!
Dympba
Guest
dont understand! are u suggesting that a multi million head of Bike industry Lance Tour de Farce, father of 7 children last count is a fall guy for a alleged crooked sport? dont follow or I am completely missing the point..it doesnt matter if you have a powerful media train behind you, you can get away with anything, just read 7 Deadly Sins, by David Walsh ( a great insight on how the media/bicycle industry shouted down, abused, isolated, bullied anybody who dare question Armstrongs physical abilities and suggested maybe not all was what it seemed in the tour de Farce, it took 10yrs or more to bring this to light)...Caro Wilson may not have all the facts, may not even be near the truth but we cant afford to silence dissenters such as she! melbourne did cheat (yep we did too in Kruezer Cup) but the difference there is the AFL is paying its fine, weird isnt it you fine a club then say no worries we will pay it for you in disguise of a bail out!! as Ive said many times the AFL and its industry needs a good clean up, we await its verdit on the drugs in sport investigation, as it will tell us if we should have faith in those who administer our game,
Dympba
Guest
point taken re Hird, its the arrogance that folks hate about Carlton...we cant help ourselvesLOL! my point is its win at all costs, the TV/sponsorship that is all the AFL is worried about!its laughable when you think about it, 3 strikes your out, other codes stand down players if they misbehave (yep Carlton guilty again, soft eg Scotland)the AFLPA is far too strong in opposing any penalties...it comes back to the reporting of the game, the commentary of the game we the fans are being let down by the incestuous nature of the footy media...they keep stories out of the headlines, they know a lot more re drugs in sport on and off the field, players want the publicity when it suits them and bemoan/abuse the public when we want answers....it is a sad sad sad environment...then of course the cost of going to games, I am a member have been for years but honestly that doesnt give me any say on any subject re AFL! we are all been taken for a ride....l
Franko
Guest
This is why the AFL will want to work very closely with WADA/CAS with regard to their punishment. Any fines / suspensions / deductions of point Essendon can probably cope with, well about as much as Carlton have. However, if other clubs are found to be involved, it could wipe them out. Can you imagine Melbourne taking another walloping? They'd be finished. That's not to say I wouldn't mind seeing Essendon in the VFL next year, replaced by NT Thunder or Tassie state side...
joe blackswan
Guest
Carlton's salary cap cheats tag has been partly superceded by the lesser crime, in the eyes of Demetriou, of tanking.....2007 kruezer cup. I agree with roarer above who said the AFL will dish out a limp penalty to protect the brand...what a lot of people find mind boggling is how Hird has not been stood down, and probably won't be sacked. It is this type of arrogance by essendon that will fuel peoples desire to refer to them as drug cheats for the next few years.
Stu
Guest
Carlton came forward the instant Ian Collins was brought in to replace Elliott, with full disclosure (with the exception of Fraser Brown) and nothing left out. Compare that to the ever-changing story and search for a new technicality to hide behind we're now seeing form the Essendon Football Club, after using their players as human guinea pigs. I think it's pretty clear who's acted with more integrity here.