Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Crunch time, site ready, site co available at Bunnings Warehouse. Four games with Anzac Day falling on a Saturday. Launceston is the early start. Hawthorne and Gold Coast to the MCG for Essendon and Collingwood. Adelaide for Port Adelaide and Geelong. We finish in the west with Fremantle and Perth. We'll get Adam Simpson to turn his eye there in a few moments time.
We're a quarter of an hour away from heading up the broadcast in Launceston. the first hour on the podcast. Listen to the discussions on Thursday Night Footy, Friday Night Footy, and the situation at Carlton. So let's just ping off the last of the news topics, Tom Morris. The AFL Appeals Board...
There's always great discussion around adjudications that come out of the tribunal and the appeals board and fundamental to the way football operates. I can't remember a finding as genuinely shocking as what came in the Lance Collard case on Thursday night. galling not just to you, Gerard, not just to me and other people in the industry, but also to the very most senior people at the AFL.
I'll read out the quote from the Appeals Board Chair, William Horton, KC. "'We observe that football is a hard game. It is highly competitive, particularly at its high levels. It is commonplace that players can employ language from time to time, which is racist, sexist, or homophobic whilst on the field.'"
I can't understand how such intelligent people in a room could conceive that line and then commit it to the public domain. First of all, it's wrong. It would have been jarring 30 years ago to write that line. But in the modern context, it's wrong. And how do you miss ā it falsely normalises and legitimises ā what we have tried to eradicate from the game. That is such a damaging line.
And I don't know how William Horton KC, who I tried to contact yesterday, but I've never met, can remain in that role. Now I've spoken to the AFL and they were unable to guarantee that he would stay in that role. The way the process works is the AFL appoints the chair, But the tribunal that sits below the chair, that's just a rotating cast of people.
So they could easily just move one of those to the side. But they would have to either ask him to resign or sack him if they didn't want him to be there for an appeals board hearing next week. And they should. So there's a fundamental practice in law. You cannot sack a judge because you don't like a decision. This is different to that. So this is the high court of the AFL.
that the league has no capacity to either shape or manoeuvre thereafter. So what comes from the appeals board holds. And if your values of the league are so far removed from the value of the chair of that panel... You should remove him.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of Lance Collard's penalty reduction?
He serves at the AFL's pleasure. He serves really as a favour to the AFL. So the state, to back up the words that Andrew Dillon committed, and they're as strong as he's had in his tenure as chief executive, you have to have action in behind that. They should thank him for his service and remove him from there. Because what happens if... What happens if the next case reaches that chair?
So you've disavowed it, but it still sits there. If your values are so far apart, I don't see how, essentially in a voluntary capacity, you can continue with that person in such a position. And that position is shared by senior people in club land, and I'm sure it's shared by people at the AFL as well. It just, as far as I can ascertain, hasn't happened yet.
And the AFL's looking at its broader disciplinary processes as well, the tribunal, the MRO. In a year of some really embarrassing moments for the league on this level, this is probably number one.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of the AFL Appeals Board's decisions?
Which is... That's a bullet. Yeah, it says something about what's happened. There was a misappropriation of that one of the witnesses or the victim as per se wasn't offended by the statement. And that was to zero in on one phrase. But that witness also said... I've got family members who are homosexual. I've got friends who are homosexual.
I recognize that it can't be said and shouldn't be done in our game. That's right. So the idea, which is reprehensible anyway, because the vice in the slur. It does not matter what level of offence it causes to the actual person. We've established that over a long period of time, but it was also a misreading of the evidence.
It isolated a single moment at the exclusion of the rest of what that witness said, which was that it can't and shouldn't be said in the game. That's right. So the fact the victim wasn't personally offended, the relatively lesser seriousness compared to Collard's previous use of the slur, and the context of the game in which the incident occurred...
It was galling because I just can't believe that anybody, let alone anybody connected with the AFL, who has tried to champion these causes for a fair while now, despite... making Tanya Hosh redundant and no longer having someone on the executive in that role can hold these views.
It's a big week because you just cannot see a situation where if we go to appeals board on Wednesday, William Horton is running that process. So how does it play out? How do they either ask him to resign? Does he just move away? He doesn't need it. He spent decades in the legal game. This is the league's... This is the league's convening. So he serves at their pleasure. It can't serve anymore.
So you just have to take the pragmatic step. You can do it without judgment. You can just shake your hand and say thank you, but our values are too far apart here. It also undermines... So this is... The league has had a patchy history through all of this, but its endeavours are right. The homophobic punishment, the slur... is completely arbitrary and without process.
And so it's utterly undermined by this. Is the next player, God help us, who gets either the five weeks or if the league waivers on what it should be, That player and club can't accept it. They have to demand due process now. And due process takes you through a tribunal and they would hope, they would aspire to get to the appeals board because of what happened.
So it just fundamentally undermines all the work that has been done. And as I say, a lot of it's patchy. Yeah. And arbitrary, which hasn't been very good policy. And that's why the AFL Players Association has been hot on this as well. James Gallagher released a strong statement yesterday.
They've wanted, and they were agreed to have, and I've said this to you both before, a functioning framework three years ago as part of the last CBA, within 12 months of that, and they still don't have it. So we get to a situation with Isaac Rankin last year and other cases in this this year.
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Chapter 4: How does the tribunal process work in the AFL?
Well, hey, you can't ā no. He's in the seniors now. Expectations are he complies and does his role. Yeah, I think now ā Not the honeymoon, but he's back in now and he's done his penance. So I think they'd be expecting him to really comply to what the team wants. Yeah, don't be lost. What's not lost in this situation is that Jamara's trying to get another contract.
He's got a one-year deal on low money for AFL players. So if he can play a few games and play well, he'll get another deal. And he can't afford one more stuff up. So good on him and good on the Gold Coast Suns for working... through his issues with him. Have you heard anything about his ā I know it's all been positive up there.
There's been no ripple of anything even working through ā Early days there was when he arrived. Okay. But that's pre-Christmas. So post-Christmas, all positive. Okay. Yeah. All right. So the game itself is a big one. Yeah, it is. I'm leaning towards the Suns. They've got to fix some things, Joe.
We went through some of the top four, bottom four sort of stuff during the week about where they're lacking. And they're lacking the contest. Their underbelly's a little bit soft, the Gold Coast. So their transition game's top two or three in the competition. They're forward handball. They're second behind... So that's in good health. But their contest work is where it's really vulnerable.
And clearance is their bottom four. I think the contest work, their bottom six. So they got the band back together. I'll say this a little bit, but they can't get any better in the midfield today. I don't think. They're all there, I think. And we'll find out against the ā
A Hawthorne midfield, which is probably not touted as the best in the competition, but they're collectively getting done with their two rucks and all those type of things. So I do want to this new rule around the rucks with wits. I think his impact has been a little bit diminished. He was one of the best ruckmen in the league last year. I think the debate definitely from Dimmer.
I heard him a couple of times say it. That's not happening now, is it? So they're adapting to the new rules and maybe it's just taking a little bit of time, but I would not be surprised if they went on a bit of a run, the Suns, if they're injury-free. James Cicely and Dylan Moore are hoping the Hawks don't topple over, aren't they? Wow, yeah. I wonder how Sam managed that.
Yeah, Sicily in particular. I thought he was past that stuff. Evans from the port, he must just ā finds a way. He's been hit three times this season. So, yeah, and it looks like it's really good conditions down there and it should be one of the better games of the round. Really looking forward to it. So the Suns have never won there? Eight times. They got close once in recent times.
I was lucky enough to coach at Hawthorne when they were down here, and it is a distinct advantage with the way, not just the game day, but the build-up the day before. They've all got mini buses. They go to the hot springs or whatever they do. They've got their routines perfectly down-packed. They know the hotel.
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Chapter 5: What are the key games to watch today in the AFL?
He's English plus plus, isn't he? So I'm looking forward to seeing the best play today. Port Adelaide and Geelong, where's your leaning? Well, I think Geelong just will find a way. The numbers this year are a little bit skewed because the bottom ā it must have been a fixture thing. The bottom teams have played the bottom teams, and Port were one of those clubs that have just played ā
Bottom four teams all year. But I think they'll get it done. And then Fremantle and Carlton. I'm a little bit worried about this game. Sort of a psychological study, isn't it? What sort of shape is Carlton in, in one of the hardest environments, full stop? Out of all the teams you don't want to play this week, if you can't, it's Fremantle at Optus with those three forwards playing.
Their triangle offense thing are really exposing ā The lack of height and talent in the back half. See you at the MCG this afternoon. Can't wait to see you there, mate. That's crunch time. We're bound for Launceston.