Conflict of Interest

Round One:
First up, Simon asked you to deal with the conflict of interest isssue.
All we've heard about is Collingwood. Your job for this week was to expose the other conflicts of interest that doubtless abound at other clubs.

The conflict of interest at Collingwood is that Eddie McGuire is the president of the club, and yet amazingly he also is a journalist, broadcaster and has interests in companies involved in internet companies with ties to other clubs, and betting on AFL games.

I know this may come as a shock to you in Melbourne, but we've only just heard this breaking news here in Sydney and are stunned. Surely when this news breaks in Melbourne Eddie will have to stand down from one or more of these high profile positions.

Regards
Footy Banter Team
Sydney, Australia
listening each Saturday over the internet...

G'day coodabeens, glad to hear football is here again, because i have had a skinfull of cricket, especially after losing a grand final not long ago. Hopefully the SAINTS can go one better than what my cricket side did. They have laid the foundation and are in the 8, and Aaron Hamill has the brownlow in the bag.

If it was true that spider everitt was riding a skateboard to injure himself, which i don't believe he was, he has the 'Conflict of Interest' in that he was trying to devote equal, if not more time in training, to his participation in the upcoming "Vans Warped 02 Tour".

Unfortunately times have caught up with footballers, now, they can't have hobbies or occupations outside of football, as it would be a 'conflict of interest'.

Therefore, Spider can't show his skill at skateboarding, Matthew lloyd can't devote more time to his acting, than he does on the field. Michael Long wasn't able to kickbox as much as he would like, he only got the chance to do so when trying to take a mark, would he stick the boots into an opponent whilst in flight. Kevin Sheedy, can't make full use of his brainwashing of players as he would like. How he gives inspiration to mecuri and misiti, telling them no one wanted them, flabbergasts me, especially as it was 6 months ago that his club put them out for trade, he obviously didn't want them either. Sheedy would make a good cult leader with his brainwashing ability....

Hi guys,
Ahh, the evolution of..... "potential" conflicts of interest, to..... "actual" conflicts of interest. Would have loved to hear some of your off air discussions, reflecting on your departure from ABC Sunday nights.

The "trust is the ethical core of this issue" action faction believe now is the time for the Government to reverse the current trend of selling off utilities etc. and purchase full ownership of the AFL. Of course Mr.J.Madden would not have to relinquish his Minister of Sport portfolio as this must be a Federal acquisition. But I digress from the task at hand. Each and every club must be exposed. These are but a few of the many glaring contrasts found when comparing the guidelines within "The Responsible Public Servant Hand Book" and "The Official Guide To Football Administration". All clubs must have a GHL at themselves, from volunteer training night spies, up.
Self Dealing:
The Responsible Public Servant: You should not use your Government position to secure a summer position for a sibling.
Official Guide to Football Administration: Should a son of a past player show any ability. Draft, using the father/son rule.
Accepting Benefits:
PS: Should you be the departments purchasing officer never accept gifts eg. (acase of liquor) from a major supplier.
FA: Contra, Contra, Contra. Always request freebies from all club sponsors and associates.
Influence Peddling:
PS: You shall not solicit benefits in exchange for using their influence to unfairly advance the interests of a particular party.
FA: Always offer the title of # 1 ticket holder to the most prominent and respected public identity.
Using Employers Property For Private Advantage:
PS: The removal of office supplies for home use shall be deemed theft.
FA: Must check roadworthiness of all club owned vehicles whilst the players are on the training track.
The Use Of Confidential Information:
PS: Should a private client advise they intend to purchase land, don't rush out and purchase the said land in your wife's name.
FA: The wining and dining of player managers is highly encouraged.(refer: to accepting benefits. contra, contra, contra.)
Post-Employment:
PS: A former public servant should never set up a practice then lobby their former department of employment.
FA: Always consider the cheap drafting of "last chance" or multiple club players as their knowledge forwarded regarding team plans etc is widely acknowledged as the games "two % ers".

'Conflict of Interest'; a seemingly innocuous term used daily now throughout the modern world and definately a term closely associated with Aussie Rules. It appears there is no limits to the depths of despair that this statement can send clubs spiralling into.
Take of example: Matthew Richardson, enigmatic goal kicker of the Tigers. His conflict: 15m out-To think or not to think, that IS the question!
or
Jason Akermanis: Brownlow medallist of the all conquering Brisbane Lions. His conflict: After TV appearances-Do I have the facial peel or live up to my nickname forever; Akkers!
Gary Ablett: Geelong God and legend
Conflict: Sex, drugs and rock n roll-Tried 2 but do I have the talent for the third?!!
And the absolute, number one of the year so far..........
Wayne Carey: King of the Kangaroos Conflict......One man, two women.....so little time!!!!!!

Hi Simon,
Loved last year's convention. Clearly the rise in Richmond's form has meant a new breed of articulate supporter has supplanted their traditional followers. Surely this is a major conflict of interest for a club with an image to uphold.
Carlton of course has an even more rampant conflict. John Elliott no longer owns Carlton & United Breweries, yet he has clearly engendered a conflict in the behaviour of his players, especially Matthew Lappin, Brendan Fevola, Michael Mansfield and Ryan Houlihan. They seem intent on raising the share price of C&UB even at the expence of some alleged breaches of team discipline (not to mention the common law).
Carlton's continued ownership of 10% of the AAAs has also cause big Jack some conflict. He has seemingly taken the former AAA captain's approach to marital relations in recent months.
At the risk of raising old wounds with Tony, the dogs are barking for Big Jack and he might for the first time be looking over his shoulder.
PS I don't remember seeing Stuart Macarthur at your wedding either.

After a contraversy free pre season my team the AAA Kangaroos have now been embroiled in a Conflict of Interest Spat of monumnetal porportions which threatens the stability of the Team and the Club. This conflict of interest has erupted between our AA Farm Club the Fremantle Dockers and our major Shareholder the Carlton Football Club. The contraversy is in the centre of the ground and is being referred to as the Muck in the Ruck.

Fremantle knowing the value in sponsorships and memberships brought to their club via the local interest in former players now playing in the Big League such as Jess Sinclair, the Motlop Boys, and Winston Abraham, as well as the interest in AFL Veterans returning to the club to play a few games with the boys like Peter Bell, want last year's Number 1 Ruckman and former Docker Spider Burton to be the 1st Ruck at the Roos. They are counting on his notaraity and profile as a marketing tool to boost memberships.

Carlton on the other hand have insisted that M. Porter be the 1st Ruck at the Roos this year. They are adament and require this to prove to the Carlton supporters that the trade for Cory Mckernnan was forced on them because they had two great ruckmen and one had to go for the sake of "team balance". This seems to be a membership issue at Carlton with several major supporters claiming that John Idiott sold Porter without telling them first "only finding out about the sale through the news media."

Well the Kangaroo management have tried hard to work out a Ruck Share Agreement between the two parties, with little success to date.

The Kangaroo members in the outer, like myself, are only concerned with wins and losses and we hope that they get this pre season's only distraction sorted out without further media attention. We don't need any conflict of interest distractions here at North Melbourne, I just hope the boys can keep their heads in the game and play hard with whoever is in the ruck.

Talk about your conflicts of interest. This story has got more conflicts of interest than Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Julius Caesar combined.

Talk about your tales of families torn apart...political intrigue...backstabbing...incest (in a team sense)...power...control...leadership. Its all there!

Look at the central figures. Look at who's now running the show. Captain Stevens (the agrieved - or is he) and Vice-Captain (Brutus) Archer (at who's house the deed became known). Ah..beware the Ides of March, O Mighty Caesar/Duck. Is there more to this story??? Stay tuned.

Conspiracy threorists where are you now! Call Oliver Stone, I'm sure there's a movie in all this.

As a side benefit to the AAA's a return to traditional footy values an traditional nicknames, the North Melbourne Football Club (not AAA Kanagaroos) now have blokes with old-fashioned nicknames like 'Stevo' and 'Arch' and not a 'Duck' or a numeral (No 18) leading the team.

Having already won this weekís comp (thanks Tim Goddard - great idea!) I have to skip this week and submit instead my entry for next weekís comp -

(because irregardless of the topic, competition statistics compiled over the last 5 years show that, from this position in the week, the probability of success of entries which contain the words ìMatty Lappinî is 94%.)

Eddie McGuire:
"There were three possible outcomes. Either I stop calling games for the station, or I leave Collingwood, or Tim goes.î

There were three possible outcomes. Either I stop playing games for the team, or I leave my partner, or Wayne goes.î

Frawley has clearly allowed the interests of the first position to compromise those of the second, as his abysmal Round 1 performance shows:

The Tigers belted the Old Enemy; Richo kicked 6 and Ottens had the commentators talking him up as "the early Brownlow Favourite" before a ball had even been bounced.

This should have been a dream start to the season for Richmond the ultimate 'March Premiers team. Fickle supporters should have already been starting to queue at Tigerland for Grand Final tickets and swamping the talkback airwaves and Monday morning workplaces declaring THIS IS THE YEAR!

Instead, Frawley allowed himself to be compromised by his own selfish interests. Instead of hyping up the win and further inflating the hopes of the deluded masses of Tiger fans, he expressed his disappointment with the team for easing up in the second half and declared its only early days yet.

This is intolerable. As decades of tradition teach us, the solemn and inviolate responsibilities of a Coach of Richmond should be to:

Recklessly feed and inflate the wildly unrealistic expectations of its fickle fans and board members at the start of a season; and

Set himself up for an unsavoury public sacking by a heartless board as the C.S. (convenient scapegoat) when these high hopes fail to materialize later in the year.

Francis Bourke, Tony Jewell, KB, Yabbie Jeans, Swooper, Robert Walls and The Giesch had all succeeded brilliantly in this role in past years. Frawleys conflict of interest has clearly seen him put The Interests of the Institution of Richmond Coach a distant and disgraceful second to his own selfish ends.

A conflict of interest has been brewing at Adelaide for the last couple of years with coach Gary Ayres. He won two Norm Smith Medals, played in a million finals winning premiership after premiership all wearing that famous MULLET hair style. So what happens when he gets the job as coach of Adelaide, the home of the Mullet........he chops it off. His major interest appears now to be in Bryle Cream which really does conflict with true South Australian values. Bring back the Weed and Greg Anderson to coach the boys!!!
Matty Laing Yarra Valley Old Boys. (D2 Amatuers, looking for a big year)

It is obvious that there is a conflict of interest at Essendon. Kevin Sheedy is a successful coach Now he is a successful racing horse owner with Bel Esprit. Being the innovative and wacky coach he is,it will only be a matter of time before Kevin incorporates some of the horse training methods into the training of his players. We will then have the following occurring
1/ Training changes from 5.00pm at Windy Hill to 5.00am at Moonie Valley
2/ Mark Harvey and the rest of the coaching staff must dress to look like Des Gleeson .
3/ When a player does something good he is rewarded with a pat on the nose and a sugar cube.
4/ If a player does something wrong he gets the electronic prod
5/ Matthew Lloyd will be made to wear blinkers.
6/ No oranges at three quarter time. Instead they will break open a bale of hay.
7/ If anyone does a knee they will be immediately put down.
8/ If the team has suffered some poor umpiring decisions , James Hird can lodge a protest at which time a third siren will sound
9/ After the game , all players warm down with a swim and a roll in the sand at South Melbourne beach. We can't have these ridiculous things occur so Kevin must sell his share in the horse at once.
cheers
David Bean
Parkdale

Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 11:53:59 +1000
From: Gregory J HAMILTON <2250577@students.ballarat.edu.au>

Although I barrack for the Bombers, I must admit to not feeling all that comfortable with Sheeds and his horse racing interests.

After all that talk about Mecuri and Misiti not arousing one ounce of interest from other clubs in pre-season tradings.....how much credibility does that hold for Sheeds in horse racing? Has Sheeds had a few too many cuppa's with Robbie Waterhouse?

It wont be long before we start seeing jockeys attired in black shirts with a red sash, with the word "orange" sprawled across a saddle cloth. His horses will soon be seen donning "Grasscats".

As for his unconventional strategies when positioning players, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Sheeds instruct the jockey to ride the horse clockwise around Melbourne tracks in order to get to the post first.

Soon we'll see the runners go out to bomber players with whips, particularly towards the end of the last quarter. Players will begin training at 4am by running laps around Flemington.

* There'll be ambulances diving around the boundary line slightly behind the play.

* Grand final day will be moved from the last Saturday in September to the first Tuesday in November.

* The traditional Grand Final sprint will return........players will be brought out in floats, led into the gates and then released in a mad dash for the line.

* Programs on match day will come to be known as Form Guides; late changes to playing line ups as Scratchings.

* Rex Hunt's phantom race callings will suddenly have some relevance to the match he's commentating.

As a passionate MEMBER of the North Melbourne Football Club I can report to Simon and fellow Coodabeens that we do not have Conflict of interest at our club. No, we deal with the situation the moment it arises.

1. Denis Pagan _s son Ryan. First the Chairman of Selectors resigned over the issue, then he came back so we did the next action, we delisted Ryan Pagan who was last seen on the Rookie list at the Doggies.2. 3. Wayne Carey (to use the explanation we are telling our youngsters) took something that belonged to Stevo, so he does the honorable thing and resigns from the club.4.

It beats me how the football world is yet to uncover this blatant conflict of interest which is bringing the game into serious disrepute, dare I say it at my own club.

You may be aware that Richmond president, Clinton Casey, heads Retirement Services Australia. I think it is more than a mere coincidence that soon after Clint took over as head honcho, poor old Benny Gale and Paul Broderick were swiftly pensioned off - no doubt into one of RSA's expensive new retirement homes. Craig Bradley can thank his lucky stars Crazy Clint doesn't barrack for Carlton!

(Speaking of young Benny, who has about 48 university degrees and the professor glasses to match, he managed to carve out a successful AFL career despite his own obvious conflict - having a 100 plus IQ when the football world average is lucky to make it into double figures. A marvellous achievement.)

One other quickie, down at St Kilda with president Rod Butterssssssss. How can someone from the Dannii Minogue and Siimon Reynolds school of spelling expect to be taken seriously by ANYONE?

Ever since September last year when Clint Bizzell signed up with Melbourne he has been subject to one of the biggest conflicts of interest in footy history.

In his contract with Melbourne it states that he must never be patted on his head.

You see when he was at Geelong and would kick a goal, players would run from everywhere and mess up his hair leaving him panicked about his shabby appearance and also about his ability to advertise his local hair dresser and get free weekly hair cuts.

Melbourne have gotten around this by playing him down in the backline, where he will not be able to kick a "Special goal" and as such will not have his hair messed up.

This kind of conflict is everywhere in footy these days. Just look at Hawthorn. Obviously tied to Edward Bele Studios. Notice on Monday they only kicked goals in a flurry close to 3/4 time. Obviously when one of the players kicked a goal, they immediately started to sprint around to avoid the head pats, thus creating utter confusion amongst opposition players. There run on stopped at 3/4 time when brushes and combs were distributed.

Who else but the Mighty Tiges would have the TAC 'Drink drive, bloody idiot' as their main sponsor followed at the next level by Nissan & CUB?

In line with Malcolm Blight's theory that "the first person out of the stadium doesn't win the marathon" we will start slowly this season and reach peak form about round 16. Jac (my beloved football hating wife) reckons I have a conflict of interest each week of the season - to go and watch the Dees, or stay home for some "quality time" with her. I'm not sure what she's getting at !

Anyway my person with the biggest conflict is Danny Frawley. His performance based contract means more money for more wins. Yet his team motivation in big games is based around the Tiges being the underdogs and still to prove themselves. So if they keep winning he earns more but he loses his motivational underdogs tag for the team, and if his theory is right he won't earn much. What a conflict!!

Every club except one has a conflict of interest with the allocation of finals tickets.

There are 15 clubs who have a conflict of interest when any club person puts their own personal glory above the glory of the club.

A dozen and a quarter clubs have a conflict of interest with trying for a quick fix versus the longer term road to success.

One score less five clubs have a conflict of interest because they have supporters who are in the media. This causes them to be torn between team loyalty and impartiality.

But one club clearly sets itself apart from the others. A quick visit to Collingwood was enough to convince me. I was told, ìIt wouldnít matter if the Pies controlled every media outlet in the world, appointed every AFL umpire, had total power over the draft, controlled the salary cap rules, determined the AFL payouts to each club or ran the tribunal. None of that would be a conflict of interest. Conflict of Interest! That is something that other clubs have!î

This explains why Collingwood has no conflict of interest. Now everything makes sense!

There is a conflict of interest at Carlton that threatens the entire fabric of football and it involves Wayne Brittain. And I quote from the Blues website ‘Brittain cuts an intense figure but his honesty and tactical nous has won him a legion of fans at a club accustomed to success‘.

His honesty? Honesty has no place in AFL football! Footy thrives on vagueness, ambiguity and good old-fashioned bullshit. Where would we be without classic quotes such as 2the board has full confidence in the coach‘, 2I don^3t know how my jaw got broken in 8 places Mr Tribunal Chairman‘, and 2I^3d swap this Brownlow medal for a premiership medal any day‘? What we fans want is complete and utter crap! It makes life interesting, adds mystique to the game and more importantly it gives us plenty of fodder for the competition every week. I think Carlton needs to get rid of Wayne ÐSimon-The-Likeable3 Brittain before he does anything stupid like telling the truth.

The Melbourne football club carpark proves to be a huge conflict of interest for melbourne coach Neil Daniher.

Poor old Neil drives to the game in the old ute that he and the boys used on the family farm in Ungarie where he is surrounded by the Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMW's of the melbourne faithful (depending on the result of course).

Adelaide - Sheltered Workshops
Brisbane - Intravenous drip suppliers
Carlton - Fast food outlets and Bottle shops
Collingwood - Cat Pelt Hat manufacturers'
Essendon - Outback tours
Fremantle - Singing Tutors
Geelong - Winning games at home
Hawthorn - The Chippendales / Manpower
Kangaroos - Marriage Guidance Counsellors
Melbourne - Any organisation associated with Yasser Arafat
Pt Adelaide - Home games
Richmond - Victorian taxidermists
St Kilda - Loan shark businesses
Sydney - Retirement Homes
West Coast - Local suppliers of the West Coast Eagles football jumper
Wes Bulldogs- Osteopathic / Chiropractic Services

There are primarily 3 areas involving conflict of interest which merit consideration.
They concern1 The Media 2 Sponsers 3 RIPLEYS that is Believe it or not and Urban Myths and Legends
1 THE MEDIA AND 3 RIPLEYS AND URBAN MYTHSAND LEGENDS There have been numerous beat ups in the press and public arena recently. Here are a few.
THE WEST COKE EAGLES have placed a ban on all of their players appearing on WHITE LINE FEVER. This ban ties in with the ban introduced by the board last year which vetoed the players having any say in the end of year trips after they voted overwhemingly to go to Columbia on a tour which was to be hosted by Maradonna.And the controversy did not stop at the border.
The ESSENDON board denied it had hauled Kevin Sheedy over the coals because the horse in which he has a share Bel Espirit races in the colours of the Crows rather than in the Bombers beloved red and black The well named Bel Espirit which is an anagram of BEL EIR SPIT has been knicknamed by vulgar racing types MID AIR CHUNDER is from the champion Irish sire EIR DE IRLAND from VOMIT. A spokesman for the Board rejected any suggestion of conflict of interest.Kevin Sheedy is not and never has or will have a conflict of interest . He doesnt wear two Beanies. There is no great mystery here . It is not as if we are looking for Shergar or Lord Lucan.The Board was relieved to see that Bel Espirit doesnt race in the tigers colours.
GEELONG denied reports that they had rescheduled their opening game so that it did not clash with and to enable the seniors to attend and in some cases participate in the traditional closing ceremony THE SHOWING OF THE HANDBAGS at the International Fashion Expo which concluded in Melbourne shortly prior to Easter.GEELONG also denied press reports that the approach by 1970s rock legend Al Stewart to have his biggest selling album retitled to anything else but Year of the Cat would reflect poorly on the club.They are not as Al suggested an inveterate bunch of losers. Furthermore bunch is these circumstances is an inappropriate use of a collective noun commented the spokesperson who then went onto to say that the correct collective noun in this instance was team.
MELBOURNE put out a press release today categorically denying that its purchase of a large parcel of shares in a cutlery company involved a conflict of interestA spokesman for the board said Melbourne had no interst in cutlery and the only spoon it was focusing on this season was wooden and was not metal.
2 THE SPONSORS The big sponsorship deal which FOOOTSCRAY was on the verge of securing with one of the remaining 4 accounting firms has fallen over at the last minute. We didnt want to have the real possibility of a conflict of interest at the end of the season said the head of operations in Asia Mr CRAW BACK .Mr CRAW(not claw) BACK a well regarded liquidator said the international firm of which he was a managing partner had for many years been interested in sponsoring ST KILDA as they were and had been for many seasons the best abnd most prolific receivers in the competition.
RICHMOND SOCIAL CLUB today denied that it had a conflict of interest with the clubs principal sponsor the TAC. A spokesman for the club ridiculed suggestions that the tigers were experiencing pproblems with dehydration.The boys worked very hard all summer at keeping up their fluid levels.
JOHN MAX MCCAFFREY

Simon, over the past couple of seasons St Kilda has found itself with a conflict of interest that the media appears to have not noticed yet. Surely St Kilda's recent policy of Sacking the coach midway through the season, having star players arrested in late nightclub brawls etc is in direct conflict with its public policy of attempting to win a 2nd AFL premeirship

Each week the Player Investment Portfolio Capital Loss Prevention Committee meet on Monday morning and assess the extent of player investment holdings in the shares of any listed companies that sponsor the opposition for the upcoming match. If the market capitalisation of the aggregate shareholdings in listed sponsors of the opposition exceeds 2.0% of the total market capitalisation of the combined portfolio of the playing list, then exposure to capital losses arising from market fallout over the sponsorship of a loser is considered material and the Committee must decide whether 4 premiership points is worth the potential capital erosion and player balance sheet strength, and advise the Coach accordingly.

Right-wing radical and fundamentalist supporters are willing to threaten the well-being of umpires and opposition players and supporters throughout the duration of a match. That is, until the winning margin spills out to 51 points with 2 minutes remaining, when suddenly they recall taking the $28.00 to $10.00 under 39.5, an environment which tends to foster unexpected and sudden left-wing tendencies from even the most fanatical supporter, who begins to acknowledge and extend compassion to those he had persecuted for the previous 118 minutes. They are content that the 2 late goals scored by the opposition deep into time on way back in Round 7, ultimately costing their team a finals appearance by 0.00001%, still cleared them $18.00 which was subsequently reinvested into 2 bonus rounds of Greg Dears at the Cricketers Arms to officially acknowledge the triumph.

Swans appoint Lance Armstrong as new Head of Fitness over the summer break. But Lance has a conflict of interest as was seen in the Swans first game last week - his real mission is to recruit Tony Lockett for the Tour De France this year.

P.S. We know this is a really poor entry Simon so we expect to win. How much is that Innkeepers voucher worth ?

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