AFL on the borderline of disaster

Better than them drugs your heroes are on.

Spumante might be more appropriate for you. Cheap, fizzy, nasty, and lacking in character. Available everywhere.

too bad you don't think any AFL posters go on other articles hey? thought i'd catch your name on one of these confirming what i thought.

Yeah because Patrick Smith said they did this as a throw-away line, so it must be true

Some people in all sports see human beings as machines. Many have not got to that point - yet. A line does need to be drawn if the rot is not to spread. But how, when so many of us are all but addicted to the sensationalist spectacle?

Swampy, your words reminded me of the relatively lenient penalties that are given for white collar crime, ie, rich folks crime.

You've got nothing to celebrate. The AFL aren't affected at all by bad publicity. People will still turn up to the games and they will still watch it on tv.

Makes me feel like popping a botte of champagne. AFL administrators did it every time the Socceroos failed to qualify for the World Cup so I'm enjoying this.

What?

Swampy, I hope your last comment is incorrect. The penalties have to be applied as a deterrent for any other club even thinking of a systematic drug program. This is an embarrassment to the AFL administration as they have been too lenient with their 3 strikes policy and now places the whole season in a compromised position. Hird last night looking for sympathy because it is affecting his family and by extension player's families has to realise he caused all of this. This wasn't thrust upon him. Footy people are angry and the player's families should be angry for placing their son's health at risk. The stench of drug use is something every footy supporter will find abhorrent. As a Hawthorn member, and for us this is hard to do, i begrudgingly respected and admired James Hird as a player, fair, brave and skilful. He has let me down badly and my respect for him has gone. We didn't realise what lengths they would go to to put in to action their "Whatever it takes" declaration. We now know and it stinks. Seeing them in action last night they are well off the pace anyway and stripping the club of premiership points if it happens will not affect their premiership aspirations one iota.

Essendon did give players banned substances. Granted it was not on the banned list but as you mentioned it was not approved for human consumption therefore under the S-O rule it is banned how long will it take for people to get this into their head

good luck with your chances of achieving your requests in your last paragraph

These issues are no different than the PED's & tanking issues in MLB, NBA and NFL and College sports in the states. Add international swimming, cycling, athletics, tennis and a myriad of other sports. The AFL is not isolated in these same issues. As sport has become business the acceptable behaviours have blurred in pursuit of success (& thus money). Look at the match-fixing issues that cricket & football face. Our media look at this as an AFL or NRL only issue. A few bad eggs bringing the game 'into disrepute' whatever that actually means? We are stupid, naive or just plain ignorant if we don't realise there are whole industries working at pushing the limits for competitive edges. Pharma companies, gambling agencies, brand marketeers etc who are as big as or bigger than the games themselves. A free market system just proves time and time again that not everyone can be trusted to self regulate. Ruling bodies have to take more control. More regulation. The response must be severe. A line in the sand must be drawn. Those found guilty of crossing the lines must be banished. For what has occurred on their watch, the boards, commissioners, chairmen and CEO's must be held accountable and must either fall on their collective swords or be sacked and prevented from taking on similar roles in other organisations. It is the lack of such definitive measures that result in worse and worse standards of ethics. We keep setting lighter and lighter precedence. I support Essendon and fear the worst for my club. I'm not sure what the outcome will be but you can almost be assured it won't be enough to discourage others to continue to push the limits to achieve success. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

Sadly, Demetriou and his lunatic cohorts have messed-up the game for good. As far as Tippett etc. goes, if ever anything dodgy happens in the AFL you can be sure the Sydney Swans will be somehow connected ( big name players given to Sydney for a song, tunnelling, too many players on the ground, game strangling tactics, it goes on and on)

Surely hawthorne are breaching the salary cap?

In professional sport, clubs, players and officials are always going to be seeking a competitive advantage. The AFL is certainly not unique in having to deal with these types of issues. Take cycling as a timely example. Athletes and officials are always looking to push the boundaries of cheating and this would continue even in the presence of "a set of legal an ethical standards." It is the job of the AFL, working closely with the likes of ASADA and WADA, to implement appropriate strategies and sanctions, that will act as both general and specific deterrents to those looking for this unfair advantage. This involves the establishment of integrity panels', increasing investigators and audits and improving drug testing programs. It is up to the sporting organisation to continue to try and stay one step ahead of those who are pushing the envelope and when they are caught out, appropriate penalties must be enforced. The AFL have done a fair job in that respect. The Melbourne Demons were fined $500,000 for their tanking but not officially tanking episode, a significant penalty for a club in poor financial shape. Similarly, the Adelaide crows penalty was severe, given the nature of the Salary cap breach was relatively minor. Still, the AFL needs to ensure its sanctions are penalising the right people. In the Kurt Tippett example, Tippett was suspended for 11 matches for his role in the breach. Yet this sanction did not penalise Kurt Tippett or the Adelaide Crows. Rather, it penalised the Sydney Swans who were an independent third party, who had no involvement whatsoever in the Salary Cap rorting. The Swans were still paying Tippett in accordance with his contract, which undoubtedly would have made the money hungry Kurt quite happy, yet the Swans did not have his services of playing football for half a season. As for the Essendon debacle, one can only hope that appropriate penalties are handed out. As James Hird said last night, "it will never happen again." Hopefully he is right.

Boring!

Please don't tar the AFL with the Crows behaviour! A club formed out of hatred for Port Adelaide, living in a bubble & worshipped by the Adelaide media.

The Roar i would imagine, to get all the posters who dont like Australian Football and the AFL to comment, probably should have mentioned GWS in the headline as well. i think it is a decent article, written from the right angle, but lets hope common sense prevails.

You're probably right, and I wouldn't be surprised if the AFL's next big ticket item (after dealing with ASADA's final report) will be to review the manner in which they keep the clubs in check. That being said, I do think that the headline of your article is a bit alarmist, although clearly it's done the intended job.