Adrian Fletcher becomes the third player to be suspended for the offence.

Hello fans:

The AFL’s controversial stance on contact with the man in white claimed its latest claim on Wednesday, when Fremantle co-captain Adrian Fletcher was suspended for one match for making contact with an umpire.
Fletcher could consider himself very fortunate to be suspended for only a week, given that Western Bulldogs defender Todd Curley has just finished his two-week suspension for the same offence in Round 5 against Hawthorn, while North Melbourne on-baller Brent Harvey was given a two-match ban for an incident in the pre-season.
The Dockers’ appeal against the verdict and the penalty was dismissed on Friday. The appeals board confirmed that Fletcher negligently clashed with field umpire Matthew Head in the game against Adelaide at Football Park on Saturday night. The board had considered a heavier penalty against Fletcher but decided to uphold the one-match suspension.
Fletcher was charged on video with making contact with umpire Head. A free kick was paid against Fletcher when he stumbled into the back of field umpire Head during actual play.
Fletcher pleaded not guilty on the grounds the umpire had moved just before the collision took place and contact was unavoidable. Although the Dockers called on a human movement expert to prove Fletcher had done everything he could to avoid contact, the tribunal found him guilty of negligently making contact with umpire Head.
In handling down the sentence, the tribunal formalised the AFL’s first no-go zone – the path an umpire uses to exit a bouncedown.
AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said on Wednesday that the current controversy over players making contact with umpires was not as bad as some people thought and would be sorted out in the weeks ahead. He said in the National Press Club address in Canberra that the AFL Commission was in contact with the Players Association and the umpires on the issue and had empathy with the umpires’ views.
Port Adelaide midfielder Nick Stevens said on Sunday an AFL club will soon lose a game because of havoc being created by umpire and player contact. He said West Coast captain Ben Cousins also made contact with field umpire Bryan Sheehan during Port’s 71-point drubbing of the Eagles in Perth last Sunday.
Stevens says no players deliberately runs into an umpire and hopes the AFL will address the issue this week. He urged the AFL to find a solution acceptable to both players and umpires.
While AFL player and umpire representatives prepare to meet this week to discuss the mounting problem, players and coaches have urged the rules be re-examined.
AFL general manager for football operations, Andrew Demetriou, said umpires were often underestimated but clubs had been warned about the possibility of action at the beginning of the year. “That’s very clear and unfortunately this season we have had a couple of incidents, but the fact of the matter is we are going through the proper process to deal with them,” Demetriou said.
Jackson also said senior players had the ability to keep out of the way of umpires, particularly when they had shown themselves adept at making split-second judgements in passing to teammates. He believed that umpires “want to be out there absolutely certain that when they back into a bounce they are not going to be run into by a super-fit guy who’s moving pretty quickly”.
Hawthorn coach and former AFL director of umpiring Peter Schwab said players should only be charged in extreme cases with making contact with an umpire. He said throwing the ball up, instead of bouncing it down, might be a solution to the whole controversy. Demetriou said the AFL would tackle the bouncedown issue after this season.

All about the Roos (1)
AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said on Wednesday that the AFL Commission had not offered any financial help to the struggling North Melbourne Football Club, nor had it been approached on the matter. However, he would not rule out short-term help to the Roos or any other AFL club under the right circumstances.
Jackson, speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, was responding to a newspaper article in which it was reported the AFL could hand the Roos an annual $500,000 lifeline to enable the club to recruit a new team of off-field personnel to rebuild and save it from folding.
The report said that, rather than give the struggling club a larger dividend than the richer clubs - a suggestion that met with a lukewarm response from most clubs - the AFL this week floated the idea of forwarding the Kangaroos a fixed sum annually on the proviso that they used the money to head-hunt key personnel to the positions of chief executive (earning an estimated A$350,000), a marketing chief (A$200,000) and a finance director (A$100,000). Such a plan could be put in place before the start of next season and run for a minimum of three years, said the report.
The AFL has also looked at relocation for the Roos, but at this stage has ruled out private ownership, despite mounting speculation that News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch could take over the club.
A consultant’s report has recommended that the Roos should relocate from its Arden Street base. The independent report, written by financial consultants and accountants Pitcher Partners, said in the report that the cost of repairing and renovating outdated training facilities at its current base would be prohibitive without funding input from the Melbourne City Council, who owns the land. The report has suggested three alternative locations for the Roos’ new supporter and training base: La Trobe University in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburb of Bundoora, Broadmeadows in the north, and Keilor in the north-west.
Jackson said there had been no recommendation from Pitcher Partners. He said now the report was completed, the league would work with the Roos on their planning. “The AFL and the Kangaroos are working together to help the club form a definitive view as to exactly where it is in its financial arrangements,” Jackson said.
Jackson said the AFL commission was committed to there being 16 teams in the competition and it would like that to be the same 16 teams that currently existed. He stressed the league would not act as a banker to any club.

All about the Roos (2)
Police had interviewed Roos utility David King about an alleged assault on a kebab seller last Sunday night.
The incident occurred at a kebab fast food van on the corner of Wreckyn Street and Flemington Road, North Melbourne. The owner of the van, Bulent Coskun, claimed that three men, appeared drunk, started punching him after he confronted them for stealing hot dogs and swearing at customers. He was informed by a stranger that one of the men was King. Coskun confirmed King’s identity after seeing him on TV on Monday night.
The second man was believed to be King’s ex-teammate Mark Roberts, who is now Roos’ marketing manager. The third man’s identity was not known.
Kangaroos football manager Geoff Walsh said on Monday afternoon King was buying take-away food in Flemington Road, North Melbourne, around 11pm when the alleged assault took place. “David was certainly in attendance there buying some food, but he was not involved in any assault,” Walsh said. He said King had told club officials of the incident before training in the morning, and the club had “accepted his version of events”.
Det-Sgt Ugo Fanizza from Carlton police said witnesses had spotted King not far away after the fight.
A police spokesman said that no charges have yet been laid.

All about the Roos (3)
AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson said the crowd size at this Saturday’s match between North Melbourne and St Kilda would provide a good barometer of the strength of Australian Football in the national capital.
However, the AFL game will have to face stiff competition. The ACT Brumbies finished on top of the Super 12 competition ladder and earned a home semi-final against the Queensland Reds, which will be played at Bruce Stadium at night, and is expected to draw a sell-out attendance of about 28,000. (Tickets to that match were snapped up within two hours after they went for sale on Thursday morning.) Kangaroos chairman Andrew Carter said the clash of the two codes was disappointing for the club.
The Roos is set to submit its “wish list” for next year’s fixture to the AFL and they had planned to use Saturday’s match against the Saints as a guide to their popularity.
Roos chief executive Greg Miller said: “If fans from Canberra and southern New South Wales vote with their feet for live AFL action, we would press on for a bigger presence next year.”
This year the Roos have two home games at the SCG and two at Manuka Oval, but Miller is keen to request one game less in Sydney and an additional game in Canberra from 2002. The Roos are committed to playing at least two premiership matches in Canberra in each season from 2001 to 2003.
Jackson said the Roos could play up to eight games in Canberra.
The cost of the Roos’ two Canberra games this season has been partially met by the ACT Government, which will underwrite about a third of the funding needed.
The Roos suffered a huge setback before the game, with captain Wayne Carey ruled out after a scan revealed swelling in his calf muscle. Carey, who has been plagued by calf injury, could miss up to three weeks.
*Jackson has also outlined the AFL’s three-year strategic plan to be released next month. A central plank will be the AFL’s expansion into the potential markets of NSW, QLD, ACT and the Northern Territory, he told the National Press Club in Canberra.
To counter other sports such as rugby league, rugby union and soccer, the AFL needed to continue its expansion program into the northern states, he said.
Jackson also warned that a possible fourth Australian team in the Super 12 rugby union competition would face stiff competition if based in Melbourne. And although rugby had made some “good progress” in Victoria he said it would take at least 15 years for a rugby team based in Melbourne to become a viable financial operation. He stated such a team would struggle to co-exist with the Melbourne Storm rugby league team.
Western Australia, Victoria and Western Sydney are vying for a possible fourth spot, if New Zealand agrees to expand the Super 12 competition, which also involve teams from Australia and South Africa.

All about the Roos (4)
The Kangaroos Social Club has applied to the Victorian Supreme Court for an order that the statutory demand for rent allegedly owing under a lease of the Broadmeadows Town Hall be set aside. The council has demanded the social club to pay more than A$100,000 in overdue rent.
An affidavit filed with the court by social club general manager Robert Smith claims he was “effectively tricked into signing” a letter by the Hume City Council in October 1997. The letter included an agreement to start the lease of the town hall from December 23, 1996.
*The Roos will renew their controversial push for the AFL to break with tradition and schedule a match on Good Friday next year. The club believe a favourable fixture is paramount to the club remaining financially viable.
Church leaders have led the opposition to a match on Good Friday, forcing the AFL repeatedly to reject the club’s request. There was also concern an AFL match will affect the annual Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal (televised on Seven). However, with Nine getting the rights to Friday night matches from next year, the Roos believed there would be change of heart.
Roos chairman Andrew Carter said last night his club wanted to turn Good Friday into the club’s annual blockbuster. He said rivalry could be built if the Kangaroos played an annual Good Friday match against the same opponent.

Drum abused by fans from corporate box
The AFL will investigate an incident in which Fremantle coach Damian Drum was abused by people sitting in an adjacent corporate box, during the Dockers’ gallant 20-point loss to Adelaide at Football Park last Saturday night. Fans from a corporate box, leased by Buttercup Bakeries, banged on the glass walls of Drum’s coaching room next door, forcing additional police and security guards to increase his protection.
Buttercup public relations manager Jennifer Tear said a letter of apology had been sent to Fremantle and the SANFL, and the bakery had started an internal investigation. She said appropriate action would be taken if there has been a breach of her company’s code of conduct.
Fremantle media manager David Tasker said Drum complained to security staff about the abuse he copped from the corporate box. However Tasker has dismissed reports that Fremantle had lodged an official complaint to the AFL.
A SANFL spokesman confirmed the league had a letter of apology from Buttercup management.
The spokesman said guests in the Buttercup box had twice been warned by SANFL staff to “refrain” from abusing Drum or hitting the glass walls of his box. A third warning would have brought an eviction.
The Buttercup box was voluntarily cleared shortly after three-quarter time.

Tarrant suspended for wayward driving
Collingwood forward Chris Tarrant has pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday to careless driving and driving while suspended.
Prosecutor Senior Constable Anne Mullay told the court police were watching when the P-plater did a burn-out while making a U-turn across Beaconsfield Parade, Albert Park, on January 13 this year. After making the turn, his car’s back tyres spun and flipped from side to side. When he regained control of the car, Tarrant planted the accelerator, creating a cloud of smoke and a 17m skid on the road.
When asked by police why he did this, Tarrant replied: “Suppose I didn’t think about it.”
Further inquiries by police revealed Tarrant’s licence had been suspended after collecting too many demerit points, the court heard.
Defence counsel Terry Forrest said his client was unaware his licence was suspended because he had moved house and had not received the letter.
Magistrate Clive Allsop convicted Tarrant on both charges, fined him A$600 and suspended his driving licence for one month.

Geelong’s woes continue on and off the field
Geelong’s early-season slump has been compounded by lower-than-expected gate revenue and a 25% drop in its Melbourne-based membership. The club’s push into Melbourne began promisingly last year in which its Melbourne-based membership exceeded the Geelong-based membership for the first time.
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook revealed that the club’s match-receipt revenue was approximately A$100,000 short of expectations already, with three of its four home games coming in under budget.
The club is still to quantify the shortfall from Sunday’s home match against Carlton, which drew only 29,150 to the MCG. The Cats had been working on drawing a crowd of 45,000, which would have delivered a net return of approximately A$340,000. Cook said that match-receipt revenue from the Carlton game could be as much as A$50,000 down, on top of a A$10,000 shortfall in corporate box revenue.
With the rain-marred Kangaroos match at Shell Stadium in round four coming in A$30,000-A$40,000 under budget and the Port Adelaide match at the same venue in round five A$20,000 below expectation, Cook said the trend was clearly going to have an impact and was in danger of becoming more grave.
Cook said the club has budgeted for a loss between $200,000-$300,000 on match receipts this year, “but it might be more than that”.
He said last Sunday’s poor turnout could not be used to assess the club’s long-term plan to infiltrate Melbourne. He was concerned that there was a feeling among supporters that the club would be saved by a “white knight”.

The roof question lingers on
The roof at Colonial Stadium appears destined to stay shut (although not completely), despite several players revealing their preference to play under open sunny skies.
AFL football operations manager Andrew Demetriou said on Monday that the league would consider the roof be opened during day matches. Demetriou told Channel Seven that the league would explore the option of opening parts of the roof so that the glare of the sun would not affect on players. Between now and the Collingwood-Sydney match in round 10, the AFL and Colonial will test the roof in different positions to check the impact of shadows on the ground.
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse and his Kangaroo counterpart Denis Pagan supported the decision to close the Colonial Stadium roof last Sunday afternoon in bright sunshine, but both expressed dissatisfaction with the confusion that surrounded the closure.
Demetriou, said on radio on Tuesday night that having contacted a number of league clubs to seek their view on whether the roof should be shut on both sunny and rainy days, nine had said it should be closed. Demetriou said he was still contacting the remaining clubs to seek out their preference.
Several players have expressed concern at the roof closure policy. St Kilda forward Stewart Loewe said that even though the sun at Colonial did get in players’ eyes, the sun sat in the troublesome spot for less than half a game, but his teammate Nathan Burke, due to play his 300th game this week, said he believed that, given a choice, most players would prefer to play under a closed roof than contend with the blinding light.
Richmond defender Leon Cameron said the problem with half closing the roof was that it left the shaded part of the ground more moist than the other end.
The AFL had spoken to nine of the 16 clubs about the roof by Friday, and a league spokesman said they were “pretty much unanimous” it should stay closed for all games.
Colonial Stadium chief executive Ian Collins wants the AFL to keep the stadium’s roof closed for games.
*The AFL is adamant the Round 9 match between Essendon and Hawthorn will stay at Colonial Stadium, despite the Hawks writing to the league to reverse its decision. The AFL alone had negotiated with the Bombers to move the match to a vacant MCG the following day, but Essendon and Colonial Stadium boss Ian Collins pushed to keep the Saturday night fixture - which shapes as one of the clashes of the season - at Docklands. The match has been pushed back to the “normal” staring time of 7.40pm to cater for the arrival of a large number of fans.
Essendon said a big factor in not moving the game was its obligation to play seven home games at Colonial Stadium this season. If the game was to have been shifted, the Bombers’ round 16 game against North Melbourne would have to be moved from the MCG to Colonial Stadium.
The decision took into account past crowds between the clubs, disruption to supporters’ plans and possible bad weather.
Hawks’ chief executive Michael Brown said the decision and the high number of tickets reserved for Essendon members meant that many Hawks’ fans, who will this week help the club pass the 30,000-member barrier, would miss out.
In a related move, fans will be allowed onto the ground for kick-to-kick after the Bombers-Hawks match.
*Colonial Stadium management is reportedly considering banning all its tenants, including AFL teams Essendon, St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs, plus the Melbourne Storm rugby league team, from training at the ground for two months, in an attempt to protect the re-turfed surface. However stadium chief executive Ian Collins had denied such a ban.

Tribunal
Besides Adrian Fletcher’s one-match suspension for colliding with an umpire, the AFL tribunal was fairly quiet this week. Dazzling Geelong forward Ronnie Burns was banned for two matches for striking Carlton’s Anthony Franchina, despite reporting umpire Hayden Kennedy admitting the punch to Franchina’s stomach was “soft”.
Brisbane defender Darryl White was fined A$2500 for abusing a goal umpire. White received a A$1000 fine for abusing an umpire six seasons ago.

Gil Langley dies
Former Australian Test wicketkeeper Gil Langley, who also represented his state at football before becoming Speaker of the House in state parliament, died on Monday night at the age of 81. Langley had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for some time before his death.
Langley played 26 Test matches between 1951/52 and 1956/57, in which he held 83 catches and made 15 stumpings, and also scored 374 runs in Tests at an average of 14.96 per innings, with a top score of 53. In 1956 Test between England and Australia at Lord’s ground in London, he completed nine dismissals - at the time a world Test record - in Australia’s only win of the series.
Langley was also a successful footballer, who played for Sturt in the SANFL and went on to captain South Australia in interstate football competition, where he represented the state 15 times. While transferred to Melbourne in the munitions department during the Second World War, he played for Essendon in the VFL, making four first team appearances and sitting on the reserve bench in the losing grand final side of 1943. Langley achieved a rare double, equalled only by Victor Richardson, of captaining Sturt in both cricket and football.
Langley later entered politics and became the Member for Unley in the state House of Assembly, representing the Australian Labor Party. During his 20 year parliamentary career he became Speaker of the House.
Langley is survived by four children.

In Brief
*Interstate teams, including Brisbane and Port Adelaide, are busy lobbying the AFL to meet the accommodation and travel expenses of the club personnel. Non-Victorian sides spend between A$100,000 and A$150,000 a season to attend official AFL functions, meetings and tribunals which are held in Melbourne.
Port Adelaide chief executive Brian Cunningham said the Power had written half-a-dozen letters to the AFL expressing their concern.
Officials from non-Victorian clubs must pay their way each time they are called to Melbourne for events such as player drafts, president’s meetings, CEO meetings, football managers and coaches conferences, and the Brownlow Medal dinner. Interstate clubs must also foot the bill if they want reported players to attend the tribunal in person.
*Sydney captain Paul Kelly, who has missed the first seven rounds of the season, said he hoped to be back this year. He said he had never comtemplated retirement despite the frustration of a repeatedly delayed comeback from his hamstring and back injuries. Club doctor Nathan Gibbs said he was optimistic that Kelly would be back in three or four weeks.
Swans’ coach Rodney Eade said after the team’s loss to Brisbane that Kelly would be sidelined indefinitely.
*The Melbourne Cricket Club and the AFL are investigating a bottle-throwing incident in last Saturday’s Richmond-Essendon clash at the MCG. Closed-circuit TV cameras at the ground caught a man wrapped in a Richmond scarf and sitting several rows from the boundary, throwing a soft drink bottle at the players, landing just short of Bombers’ ruckman Steven Alessio.
*Bombers’ forward Mark Mercuri had an arthroscope on a knee and will miss three games.
*The AFL has ruled that Damien Peverill must return to the rookie list, when Essendon centreman Joe Misiti returns from injury, even though the rookie has done an outstanding job in his four appearances since promotion. Unless they suffer another long-term injury, 21-year-old Peverill will be replaced by Misiti when he returns in about three weeks. Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson said Peverill’s demotion was disappointing for both the club and the player, but the club could not keep him on the list and stay under the salary cap. However, Bombers football manger Matthew Drain said Peverill was likely to be promoted from the rookie list for the 2002 season.
*Brisbane’s Damian Cupido will miss a minimum of six to eight weeks after dislocating a shoulder against Sydney last Sunday. An X-ray has cleared him of complicating fractures, but medical staff have not ruled out surgery.
*West Coast ruckman Michael Prior will miss the rest of the reason after a knee reconstruction. He suffered the knee injury in the Eagles’ massive defeat to Port Adelaide last Sunday.
*Former Collingwood and Carlton star Mick McGuane, best remembered for his seven-bounce goal in 1994, wants to return to AFL coaching next year. McGuane had spent the last 16 months as coach and general manager of the Burnie Dockers on Tasmania’s north-west coast and took the team to the finals of the TFL before its off-season collapse. Under McGuane, the Dockers are unbeaten after six rounds this year and have returned a A$500,000 profit last year.
*Living members of Fitzroy’s Team of the Century will be honoured in a motorcade around Optus Oval prior to the Carlton-Brisbane clash.
*Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy has called for footballs used in games to be measured and tested.
Sheedy says some of his players have expressed concerns about the Sherrin footballs, claiming they are different from what they used to be.
He is seeking talks with the AFL’s football department to find out why the quality of the footballs has changed. “They are either smaller or a bit lighter or the fabric is a bit different, I’m not quite sure,” he said.
*Seven Network chairman Kerry Stokes has resigned as the chairman of Stadium Operations Limited (which manages the Colonial Stadium) and has also resigned from the board of SOL. Steve Wise, Seven’s new media investment director, will become the new chairman. Seven Melbourne managing director David Aspinall has also joined the board. The news comes just months before Seven’s new Melbourne studio, located next to Colonial, goes into operation, and before Seven relinquishes its rights to broadcast AFL matches.
*After completing the first year of a five-year Channel Nine contract in which it provided the broadcaster with graphics, charts and statistics for domestic and international cricket in Australia, Melbourne-based technology company Pineapplehead is close to sealing a deal for the next AFL season, Nine’s first as lead broadcaster.
Pineapplehead managing director Evan Kourambas said the technology would have a big impact on the way the game is portrayed on television and the way it is interpreted by people on television.
Kourambras said his company was able to provide sophisticated statistics that rated, for example, the percentage chance a player had of kicking a goal, by factoring in a range of influences as diverse as the weather. 3-D virtual coverage would also allow for viewing of the game at the ground level, through the eyes of a player.
*Rick McKenna, the newly-appointed director of AFL operations for Foxtel, has promised a broader and better footy coverage from next year, including match highlights, interviews with players and coaches, previews and reviews each week, similar to the ones rugby league now enjoy on the cable TV network. He would also be responsible for the development of support developing, including magazine-style footy shows and youth AFL programs.
*The proposed $400 million redevelopment of the MCG moved a step closer with the appointment of a team of architects, which will be known as MCG5.
The design team consists of two consortiums and was chosen from a list of five. It includes the architects responsible for the MCG’s Southern Stand and the recent MCG feasibility study that recommended removing the members’ pavilion.
Daryl Jackson, of Daryl Jackson and Associates, said they hoped to finalise the MCG design by the end of the year. He said demolishing the historic members’ stand was still an option.

General silliness
*During last Saturday’s Richmond-Essendon clash, some blood was spilt on the football, and it had to be “benched” under the blood rule. But it was farcical to see an umpire holding the ball as if was a hand grenade (he had to do this because who knows what virus he might have contracted from the blood). 3AW commentator Rex Hunt was merciless, booming from the window of his commentary box: “Careful boys, it’s going to EXPLODE!”
The ball was handed delicately to the Essendon team doctors who washed the blood off the ball.
*A talk from a park ranger from South Africa’s Kruger National Park had paid off for Brisbane, who beat the Swans in Sydney last Sunday. Radio reports said the ranger spoke of the way lions work in the wild – with words bandied around such as teamwork and pride.
*Carlton players did not appear too keen to stay on the track when the weather turned nasty at Tuesday’s training for the important match againt the Lions this Saturday, especially after the thundery experience they had during their shock loss to the Crows a few weeks ago. Players vanished for an extended period to change into their wet-weather gear when rain began to fall. Their training section started 45 minutes late.
*Channel Seven reports on Wednesday night that two Richmond players are leaving their home they shared because it is jinxed. Paddy Steinfort and Marc Dragicevic have had a rotten run recently and desperately want to take to the field at the same time. They may well have done so soon had Dragicevic not suffered a serious knee injury two weeks ago. The duo have decided to move in the home of their teammate Brad Ottens.

Finally, a woman has written to the AFL expressing her “great shame” and apologising to an umpire for squirting her water bottle at him during last Sunday’s West Coast-Port Adelaide match in Perth. The note, quoted by The Age, said:
“(Sunday) was to have been a special treat for the family, especially my 10-year-old son, who is an ardent Port Adelaide supporter, and it ended up with me losing my self-respect and also the admiration and respect from my two children. My husband and I have always prided ourselves in teaching our children to have respect for any person who is in the position of refereeing their respective sports and to accept all decisions gracefully that come their way. Today, I, in a regrettable moment that I cannot explain or condone, has undid (sic) undone all of our teachings. Once again, I sincerely apologised to the umpires, AFL and the football public.”

That’s all for today. See you soon.

Regards,