“King Carey” out for one match for striking

(amended on May 4, 2001)

Hello fans:
Western Bulldogs defender Todd Curley has been suspended for four matches by the AFL tribunal for colliding with an umpire (reduced to two after an appeal hearing), while a guilty plea and a clean record for the past seven years were not enough to save North Melbourne captain Wayne Carey from a rare AFL suspension on Wednesday night.
Curley received the biggest penalty imposed so far by the tribunal this year after he was found to have “recklessly” made contact with field umpire Kieron Nicholls during last Saturday’s match against Hawthorn at Colonial Stadium. Curley told the tribunal he had not seen Nicholls when he collided with him, because he had been watching the ball. “I thought he (Nicholls) stepped into my path,” Curley said.
Nicholls made the report after being asked to view video evidence by umpires’ chief Jeff Gieschen on Monday. Nicholls told the tribunal that Curley’s movement was reckless and close to intentional, adding he suffered a corked arm and “tingling” in his fingers as a result of the collision.
However, this (Friday) morning the appeals board found Curley’s collision with Nicholls was negligent rather than reckless. The Bulldogs called on two specialists – ophthalmologist Dr Justin O’Day and a professor in health science – to argue Curley did not see the umpire before colliding with him.
Bulldogs football manager said the club was happy with the outcome. “We were pleased that in the end they changed it from reckless to negligent, which essentially means it was accidental,” he said.
On Thursday, Dr O’Day told Channel Ten that Curley should not have been found guilty of colliding with the umpire because the player’s entire eye apparatus was solely concentratin on the flight of the ball.
It was only the second suspension in Curley’s 107-game career.
Carey, last suspended in 1994, pleaded guilty to striking Adelaide’s Kane Johnson at Football Park last Saturday night. Carey said he decided to plead guilty after viewing a video of the incident after his citing on Monday. But he denied deliberately punching Johnson in the face after the pair went to the ground following a tackle, which also involved Carey’s teammate, Byron Pickett. Carey said he was just trying to punch the ball which was in Johnson’s possession at the time of the incident, and did not mean to hurt anyone.
Carey’s solicitor pleaded for a suspended sentence, but tribunal chairman Brian Collis said the suspension had to be imposed for “an unnecessary punch to the head”.
In other tribunal results from Wednesday, Curley’s teammate Luke Darcy was found guilty of tripping Hawk Jonathan Hay and suspended for one match; Brisbane defender Matthew Kennedy was suspended for two matches for kicking Fremantle’s Paul Hasleby; while wrestling charges against Geelong’s Brenton Sanderson and Port Adelaide’s Josh Carr were withdrawn due to a technicality.
On Tuesday night, Geelong defender Matthew Scarlett was suspended for two weeks after he was found of striking Port Adelaide’s Cane Ackland, Bulldogs defender was fined A$3000 and Hawk opponent John Barker A$1500 after both failed to convince the tribunal that they were not wrestling in last Saturday’s match.

AFL’s lost cash mystery
Police may be called in the next few days to investigate the disapperance of as much as A$450,000 from AFL headquarters at Colonial Stadium, which led to the sacking of a female manager from the membership department.
The employee was dismissed on the spot before the start of the home-and-away season in March after a preliminary AFL audit revealed the alarming financial irregularities in the league’s membership department. She was only praised by her superiors only months earlier.
It is understood the AFL initiated the audit in January when several thousands of dollars were removed from the league’s safe. It is understood false invoices, claiming large amounts of money, were presented to the league for payment. Unsuspecting league officials, in the commercial operations department and finance department, approved payment of the invoices.
Although a small amount of the money is believed to have been returned at the start of this year, the vast majority of the money has not been returned to the league and the AFL will have to pursue its insurers to make up the shortfall.
Only senior AFL staff were aware of the reasons for the dismissal.
Several clubs were late receiving their membership tickets this year and were told the delay was caused by the dismissal of the employee who had worked for the league for only a couple of years.
AFL corporate and communications manager Tony Peek told the Herald Sun in a prepared statement: “All we can say at the present time is that we referred the matter to our auditors some time ago for investigation. We are anticipating their final report and are unable to comment further.”
The case has caused grave concerns within the league and its senior managers. Staff members at the league’s headquarters were called together on Thursday for a briefing on the sensitive issue.
All 16 AFL clubs have been informed of the lost money and assured they will not be out of pocket.
Channel Seven reported on Thursday night that the fraud squad of the Victoria Police had been called in to investigate the missing cash, however a police spokesman said the police are yet to receive an official complaint from the AFL and there has been no formal investigation launched. He said the police would need an official complaint to launch a fraud investigation.

Gutnick’s board plan hits a snag
Joseph Gutnick’s plan to cut the size of the Melbourne board by almost half appears doomed, but he will still move at the end of the year on the directors he believes are undermining his presidency.
Gutnick, the club’s president said on Sunday that if his enemies on the board did not resign he would spill the board at the end of the season and cut it back from 11 to six or seven members.
Most of Melbourne’s 10 other directors said they would support a reduction of between one and three positions, but all dismissed Gutnick’s radical proposal.
Any alteration to the size of the Demons’ board would require the agreement of three-quarters of present directors.
Some board members cited the constitutional requirement to have two directors appointed by the Melbourne Cricket Club as a reason to limit the reduction to a maximum of three. A board of six would leave only Gutnick and three other representatives elected by the football club members.
Four directors - Peter Hayes, Beverley O’Connor, Gabriel Szondy and Stephen Bickford - face re-election at the end of this season, with a fifth, to be determined randomly, to join them.
Gutnick did concede that a problem had existed for some time between himself and some of his directors, mostly over his leadership style.
Over the five years of Gutnick’s presidency, three chief executives and 20 directors have served the club.

Magpies to promote road safety
Ten years after one of its star players was killed in a tragic car clash, Collingwood has formed a three-year community partnership with Victorian Transport Accident Commission (TAC) to promote road safety.
The deal is believed to be in excess of A$1.5 million over three years. As the new TAC partners, the Collingwood players will promote the message that “10 km/h less saves lives”. The new sponsorship will see team captain Nathan Buckley and other star players urging Victorians to drive responsibly and reduce the number of unnecessary deaths and injuries caused by speeding.
The campaign will focus on the 50km/h speed limit in residential streets across Victoria, which was imposed on 22 January, following the deaths of 29 people and almost 2,500 injuries in crashes during 1999.
Richmond and Essendon have had TAC sponsorship for several years. The latter replaced TAC as its major sponsor with communications company Orange at the end of last season.
“It’s 10 years this year since a bloke – who we all believed was 10 foot tall and bullet-proof – Darren Millane, killed himself in a road accident,” Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said.
Darren Millane was the hero of the Magpies’ 1990 premiership side, which ended the club’s 32-year drought. He played through the 1990 finals series with a broken thumb. He was killed when his car slammed into the back of a truck in Melbourne in 1991. He was driving home from a nightclub with a blood-alcohol reading well above the legal limit.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says many of the younger club players will promote the subject of road safety in schools because teenagers are more likely to listen to the message from people closer to their own age.
Magpies coach Mick Malthouse said he knew the importance of road safety when he worked in the Motor Accidents Board, the predecessor to the TAC.
The TAC campaign will be a focus of the Collingwood-Carlton game on Sunday. The deal does not interfere with the Pies’ existing major sponsorships with Emirates Airlines and Primus Telecom.

Cook poised for the CEO role at the Australian Cricket Board
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook reportedly heads a short list of candidates to take over as chief executive of the Australian Cricket Board. Cook has been sounded out by agents acting on behalf of the ACB to replace present chief executive Malcolm Speed, who last month announced his intention to resign mid-year. Speed will replace fellow Australian David Richards as chief executive of the London-based International Cricket Council (ICC), world cricket’s governing body.
Cook is not the only candidate from the AFL. It is believed several AFL administrators are either interested or being looked at by the board as potential candidates for the chief executive’s job.
Cook had confirmed that he had been approached by a head-hunting agency about taking over from Speed. He said.by July he would have a clearer understanding of what may happen next.
While Cook is not under contract at Geelong, he said he would remain at the helm at Shell Stadium until the end of the AFL season, to honor a handshake agreement with Geelong president Frank Costa to remain in the position for at least three years.
It is believed that Cook impressed cricket authorities during a recent informal interview.
Before joining West Coast as its chief executive in 1989, Cook had graduated from the Australian Sports Commission in Canberra and had been a general manager with the Western Australian Football Development Trust and the WA Football Commission. He joined Geelong at the start of 1999.

Cats want no more home games at Colonial
Meanwhile, Geelong has joined the likes of Collingwood, Hawthorn and Richmond, who have told the AFL they don’t want to play home games at Colonial Stadium. The Cats will continue to play four home games in Melbourne with the MCG now their preferred venue.
After four home games at Colonial last year, the Cats reduced that to two this year with two at the MCG.
Cats chief executive Brian Cook said the club is leaned towards the MCG from a commerical point of view.
While home games at Shell Stadium are financially the best option -- worth up to A$150,000 more than Docklands -- the Cats are determined to continue playing home fixtures in Melbourne as part of their membership push.
Cook said the four home games were initially played at Colonial Stadium because of the anticipated revenues from the venue. “There was probably too much optimism in the figures (regarding income) and we all believed that was going to be the case and unfortunately it hasn’t been.”
From the Cats’ Round 1 clash against West Coast at Shell Stadium with a crowd of 20,149, the club received a net return -- which includes reserve seating, signage and catering -- of A$403,000.
In contrast, the forecast net return for the Cats’ first home game of the season at Colonial in Round 11 against Hawthorn, is just A$237,000 from an anticipated crowd of 35,000.
A budgeted crowd of 45,000 at the Cats’ first home game at the MCG, in Round 7 against Carlton, comes with an expected return of A$341,000.

Roos’ dire financial straits deepen
The perilous financial situation facing North Melbourne has significantly worsened with the Kangaroos Social Club, located in northern Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows, receiving a statutory demand from the Hume City Council for unpaid rents totalling between A$100,000 and A$200,000 - a demand according to North president Andrew Carter that could force the club to fight the council in the Victorian Supreme Court. However, he did not believe that court action would be necessary.
While the club has managed to negotiate deals with most of its creditors at venues such as Colonial Stadium and among its staff, the Hume Council has refused repeated attempts by the club to renegotiate its 20-year-lease and has now handed the social club a deadline to meet its debts.
Carter emphasised that the club’s cash flow had not been affected by the latest crisis in what has become a six-year disaster for North. The club’s 2000 balance sheet includes the social club debt of A$1.6 million that has been recorded as an asset. Only with the establishment of a profitable gaming venue at the old Broadmeadows Town Hall - which the council looks certain to block - would that debt appear recoverable.
The Kangaroos Social Club obtained a lease for the Broadmeadows Town Hall from the City of Hume in December 1996 and has faced a series of obstacles since then in setting up a licensed venue.
Hume chief executive Darrell Treloar said that his council had refused the social club’s attempts to renegotiate the lease and wipe out the rental arrears, and he expects the rent to be paid.
*The Roos have declared it was a waste of time for the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) to keep pushing for AFL clubs to play on Adelaide Oval. Roos chief executive Greg Miller said he had not spoken to SACA for two years, and the club’s aim is to improve its supporter base, but not in Adelaide.
SACA president Ian McLachlan, in an ABC Radio interview on Thursday, declared the cricket association is lobbying AFL clubs to play “home” games at Adelaide Oval, preferably on Friday nights, despite the AFL declaring Friday night football will be restricted to Colonial Stadium and the MCG next year.

Fitzroy’s Team of the Century
The Brisbane Lions held a gala function in Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on Thursday night to honour the Fitzroy Team of the Century. More than 1400 people (including many diehard Fitzroy fans) attended. The Lions said in its website that the dinner was in fact sold out twice – the 800-seat Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt was filled so quickly that the adjacent room was booked to allow an additional 400 people to watch the festivities on a big screen while being part of the pre-dinner and post-dinner celebrations.
More than 70 players (out of 1156 who played between 1897 and 1996) had been nominated for the team, but only 24 made the final list. 1969 Brownlow medallist Kevin Murray was named captain of the team, while Len Smith, in charge from 1958-62, was named coach. The only current player in the team was Brisbane’s Alastair Lynch, who played 120 games between 1988 and 1993.
Coates said criteria used in selecting the side included games for the club, club and AFL awards, state representation, leadership roles and qualities, skill and versatility.
The 24-man team included two players from the 1900s, one from the 1920s, four players who began in the 1930s, four from the 1940s, two from the 1950s, three from the 1960s, and four each from the 1970s and 1980s.
The line-up is:
Backs: Billy Stephen, Fred Hughson, Frank Curcio
Half-backs: Kevin Murray (captain), Paul Roos, Gary Pert
Centre: Wilfred “Chicken” Smallhorn, John Murphy, Warwick Irwin
Half-forwards: Owen Abrahams, Bernie Quinlan, Garry Wilson (vice-captain)
Forwards: Allan Ruthven, Jack Moriarty, Norm Brown
Followers: Alan “Butch” Gale, Norman Johnstone, Haydn Bunton Senior
Interchange: Michael Conlan, Alastair Lynch, Harvey Merrigan, Richard Osborne, Percy Parratt, Percy Trotter
Coach: Len Smith

(One personal note about Warwick Irwin. When I was studying high school in eastern Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley, I often saw a male teacher in his 30s or 40s with a moustache. Although I was never taught by him in any subject, my school friends told me he was Mr Irwin, and that his wife was also teaching at the same school. Some of my friends, who were in their classes, said the couple were friendly and helpful, but no one knew when they came to school. It was not until months before graduation that I knew the male teacher was none other than Warwick Irwin, who played 213 games for Fitzroy from 1970 to 1980, and also in 1983 before he retired and started his teaching career. I think he is still teaching in the same school, so here I would like to congratulate him on being nominated in the Team of the Century.)

Centenary of Australian Federation celebrations
This Sunday’s Collingwood-Carlton clash at the MCG will be a special occasion, for the two clubs will compete for the Federation Cup, to celebrate the 100 years of Australian Federation, when in 1901, six colonies (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia) voted to join together to form the Commonwealth of Australia.
The traditional clash between the two cross-town rivals, and the match between Brisbane (merged with Fitzroy) and Geelong at the Gabba this Saturday night, correspond to matches played in May 9, 1901 as part of the celebrations to mark the opening of Australian Federal Parliament in Melbourne. (The Federal Parliament met in Melbourne for 26 years before moving to Canberra in 1927.) For the record, the two other matches played on that day, which formed round two of the 1901 VFL season, were Melbourne v South Melbourne (now Sydney) and St Kilda v Essendon.
The day will commence with a huge parade in Swanston Street, Our Nation on Parade, which concludes in time for footy fans to make it to the MCG or Colonial Stadium for the Essendon-West Coast clash.
All senior players participating in Pies-Blues clash will receive a commemorative medal, with the best-on-ground player being awarded the Alfred Deakin Medal in honor of one of the fathers of Australian Federation. Players in Lions-Cats game will also receive commemorative medals, to mark not only the centenary of Federation, but also Brisbane’s 100th game since the 1997 merger, and its 100th game at the Gabba.
All AFL grounds will carry the Centenary of Federation logo this weekend alongside the AFL logo.
The AFL says in its press release that a number of politicians and other dignitaries will also be attending the Collingwood-Carlton match including Prime Minister John Howard, Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, Victorian Minister of Sport & Recreation Justin Madden, Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane (and the chairman of the Council for the Centenary of Federation, and also Governor-General designate) Peter Hollingworth, Sir Gustav Nossal and Melbourne Lord Mayor Peter Costigan.
To know more about the activities celebrating Centenary of Federation (which occur throughout the year), and the Federation process, visit the official website at: www.centenary.gov.au
Join us to celebrate a great occasion in world history.

Media Update
*AFL chief executive Wayne Jackson, general manager of football operations Andrew Demetriou, and corporate and communications manager Tony Peek met with executives from Channel Ten in the network’s Sydney HQ on Wednesday, to discuss the network’s AFL coverage from 2002 to 2006. After the meeting, Jackson told Ten’s Sports Tonight program that the four objectives of the new TV deal (which also involves Channel Nine and News Corp) are:
# to promote Australian Rules in New South Wales and Queensland;
# to reward players financially;
# to improve facilities of AFL clubs, some of which need urgent repairs; and
# to deliver value-for-money to AFL fans.
Geoff McClure of The Age reports that, despite rumblings from inside Nine that it won’t televise any of the finals for the five years of the consortium’s agreement with the AFL, Ten’s agreement cannot and will not be changed. So the weekly telecast arragement works like this:
# Friday nights: one “match of the week” on Nine;
# Saturday afternoon: two matches – Ten gets first pick and Foxtel gets the other;
# Saturday night: two matches – Ten gets first pick and Foxtel gets the other;
# Sunday afternoon: three matches – Nine gets first two picks and Foxtel gets the other.
*Channel Seven has confirmed that the network and its chief sports commentator, Bruce McAvaney, had reconfirmed their commitment to each other until at least 2004 and according to Seven, “hopefully beyond that”. According to Geoff McClure of The Age, rumors about McAvaney’s future had been growing since Seven decided in January not to outbid against the Nine-Ten-News Corp consortium for the AFL TV rights from 2002 to 2006, and climaxed when a Sydney newspaper reported during the Easter break that he was “offered” to Nine during a meeting that took place a week earlier. That report alleged that Nine knocked him back because he was “too Channel Seven”, all of which had been rebutted by Seven spokesman Simon Francis.
Francis said McAvaney would be a component of the network’s Australian coverage of next year’s Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Francis told The Age the first person to be briefed about Seven’s relinquishment of the AFL TV rights was McAvaney, who was in Melbourne covering the Australian Open tennis championships. “On that day, Bruce expressed his disappointment but also expressed his commitment to the Seven Network and our future sports plans,” said Francis.
*The AFL would have been overjoyed at Seven’s ratings for the Collingwood-Essendon epic on Anzac Day. The live telecast was watched by an average of 650,000 people in Melbourne (748,000 peak), making it easily the most watched game this season. The match also won its timeslot in Adelaide (200,000 viewers), Perth (194,000) and Brisbane (135,000), and was the most-watched program in the second-half, when the audience peaked at 181,000. (A rugby league match was supposed to be held in Sydney on Anzac Day, which was on a Wednesday, but was shifted to the previous Friday – Johnson)
AFL corporate and communications manager Tony Peek told The Age that because Nine has the rights to the match of the round (to be shown on Fridays) it will maintain the rights to the Bombers-Magpies clash even if Anzac Day falls on another day. However, it is still not clear which network will broadcast matches on Easter Thursday, Easter Monday and Queen’s Birthday Monday (in June).

In Brief
*Former Australian swimmer Rob Woodhouse and former AFL players Craig Kelly, Scott Davidson and Ricky Jackson have sold their extensive sports marketing and management business, Elite Sports Properties, to British company Sportsworld for A$17.5 million cash and up to A$23 million in an additional profit bonus share deal over the next two years.
ESP handles more than 20 current Olympic and world champions, and some of the biggest sports identities in Australia and the world, such as Susan O’Neill, Michael Klim, Shane Gould, Mark Spitz, wheelchair racer Louise Sauvage and 80 AFL stars including Chris Grant, Peter Everitt, Shane Crawford, Nathan Buckley and Stephen Silvagni. As well, the company has the marketing rights for the AFL, the Australian Cricket Board, Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games memorabilia and the Sir Donald Bradman Foundation.
*Melbourne and Sydney have asked the AFL to schedule a regular Anzac Day match in Sydney. Swans chief executive Kelvin Templeton suggested the Demons-Swans clash could be played after the Collingwood-Essendon match as a TV double-header. He added that the clubs would ask for the first of the games to be played at the SCG and then, as it grew, it could be scheduled at Stadium Australia at Homebush Bay.
*Geelong has re-signed three of its highest-rated youngsters – David Spriggs, Joel Corey and Matthew Scarlett – to new longer-term contracts.
*The Western Bulldogs have confirmed that midfielder Andrew Wills has left the club after failing to break into the senior team so far this season. Foot problems has hampered bid to add to his 148 AFL games.
Wills played with Geelong and Fremantle before joining the Bulldogs last season, playing 10 more games. He is likely to finish his career with WAFL club Subiaco (which does have the large Subiaco Oval as its home ground).
*Hawthorn president Ian Dicker had apologized to former club legend and current Bulldogs’ coach Terry Wallace for not inviting him to the club’s team-of-the-century dinner last Friday night. Dicker said club officials had assured him Wallace, a Hawks’ centreman in the early 1980s, had been invited, but a bungle meant Wallace did not receive the invitation.
Wallace, who was not selected in the Hawks’ Team of the Century, said from his end that was the end of the story.
*Essendon will wait another two weeks before deciding whether to switch its potential top-of-the-table, round 8 clash with Hawthorn from the 52,000-seat Colonial Stadium to the 98,000-seat MCG.
Hawthorn has equalled its best ever start in a home-and-away season, winning its first five matches for the first time since 1984 (ironically, the Hawks lost to the Bombers in the Grand Final that year), while Essendon have won four matches and lost one.
However, Bombers chief executive Peter Jackson said past attendances between the clubs suggested the switch might not be necessary. He said the average attendance for Essendon-Hawthorn matches since 1993 had been 46,567, with the average attendance matches at the MCG had been 49,876.
*Two computer operators working for Adelaide were asked to leave Port Adelaide’s training section on Tuesday. However Crows communications manager Steven Trigg said the two men just rehearsing the process of their jobs during games, which is to use laptop computers to track the positioning of players and the distances they cover.
*As reported last week, the AFL has called for expressions of interest for Waverley Park. An advertisement in major newspapers last weekend by a real estate company acting for the AFL stated “Waverley Park is for sale” and that expressions of interest would close on Friday, June 29.
Andrew Sudholz of Anderson Real Estate said a short-listing of interested parties would be made by September, and a final decision on the 80-hectare site would be made by November.
A meeting last Thursday night between Waverley Park crusader and Dandenong councillor Roz Blades and Victorian Sports Minister Justin Madden revealed plans by an anonymous backer to develop a unique A$300 million sporting precinct with facilities for public participation in more than 80 sports, include indoor soccer, cricket, swimming, ice-skating and extreme sports such as rock-climbing.
Madden told state parliament on Tuesday that the Victorian Government was considering the sports theme park proposal, but organisers said they had received no feedback.
*The Adelaide Magistrates Court was told six police officers were needed to handcuff former Adelaide captain Chris McDermott as he resisted arrest after allegedly bashing a man at his nightclub on January 26 last year. McDermott has pleaded not guilty to two counts of threatening to cause harm, one of offensive behaviour and one of resisting arrest. His trial is continuing.
*Sydney captain Paul Kelly could miss up to one-third of the AFL season, with coach Rodney Eade admitting the club had to re-evaluate the initial rehabilitation period for their skipper’s hamstring injury. Eade said the best case scenario for Kelly’s return was the round 7 match with Brisbane, though it would more likely be the following week against Fremantle. However, Eade did laugh off and deny separate whispers that Kelly had a knee injury and was about to announce his retirement.
*Bulldogs defender Jose Romero has a medial ligament strain in his knee and will miss four weeks. His teammate Matthew Croft is expected to miss 2-3 weeks with an injured hamstring.
*St Kilda recruit Brett Voss has been cleared of bone damage to his ankle after X-rays this week. He will miss one to two weeks with strained ligaments.
*Richmond’s Aaron Fiora is expected to miss 3-4 weeks on an injured shoulder.
*North Melbourne utility Ricky Olarenshaw, who played his first match this season last Saturday against Adelaide, will miss abour four weeks with a damaged hamstring.
*Crows midfielder Kane Johnson will miss three to four weeks with a fractured cheekbone, while forward Peter Vardy will miss at least one match with a hamstring injury.
*The time-consuming duties of Governor-General of Australia will not stop Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, Peter Hollingworth, from barracking for the Brisbane Lions. “If it happens there is a Lions’ interstate game and I am doing something in that city on behalf of the Australian people, I will see if I can organise a stopover,” he told a Lions farewell function at the Gabba before Sunday’s Brisbane-Fremantle game. “If the Lions can put up with a clergyman as their No.1 ticket-holder then Australia can put up with a clergyman as a Governor-General.”
Archbishop Hollingworth will replace Sir William Deane as the Governor-General on June 24. As Australia is still a constitutional monarchy, its head of state is the British monarch, represented in the country by the Governor-General.
*Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley and 3AW commentator Rex Hunt are just some of the AFL personalities who will feature in Ansett Australia’s A$30 million advertising campaign to restore the airline’s battered image, after its 767 fleet was grounded after safety concerns last month. The campaign, titled “Absolutely Ansett,” feature 37 prominent Australian entertainers, sportspeople and business figures who have offered their absolute endorsement of the airline.
The 16-week campaign will feature 30-second and 60-second TV commercials (the background song is a variation of the hit song “Shine” by Melbourne-based singer Vanessa Amorosi, who sung at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics), and advertising in national press, metrolites, supersites and on buses.
Other AFL stars involved in the commercial include Sydney Swans players Paul Kelly, Matthew Nicks and Adam Goodes.
*The West Australian Symphony Orchestra has formed an alliance with West Coast and the Western Australian Cricket Association. The A$35,000 deal gives the orchestra a corporate box and hospitality at Eagles games – and West Coast players Glen Jakovich and Troy Wilson front-row seats at the Perth Concert Hall.

General Silliness
The AFL has warned clubs that their players must wear socks that could be pulled up or risk A$5000 fine. A report in The Age says that Sydney, Fremantle and the Western Bulldogs have been cautioned that some of their players are out of line in wearing short socks or “anklets”, which these players apparently find more comfortable than traditional leggings. But the league says short socks are not part of “approved team apparel” and so are “non-regulation”. It says players must wear “knee-high” socks, even if they push them down. The league has warned the clubs that it is not about to let its socks standards fall. One advice at the end of the report: better pull up your socks.
(Now that will laugh our socks off – Johnson)

Did you know?
The 13.6 score in the final quarter by Brisbane Lions in last Sunday’s match against Fremantle is not only Brisbane’s best term, but also the fourth-best final quarter in VFL/AFL history and the sixth-highest scoring quarter overall, eclipsing the 11.1 against the Dockers at the Gabba in round 20, 1999. The six highest scoring quarters are:
17.4 (South Melbourne v St Kilda, 1919)
14.3 (Geelong v Brisbane, 1992, where the Cats also kicked the score of 37.17 (239), still the VFL/AFL record)
14.2 (Adelaide v Fitzroy, 1996)
14.1 (Carlton v Essendon, 1975)
13.7 (Sydney v Essendon, 1987)
13.6 (Brisbane v Fremantle, 2001)

Finally, a small correction in Lisa’s latest report. Appearing on the Footy Show last Thursday night, Essendon full forward Matthew Lloyd told the audience that a testimonial dinner to honor his teammate Dean Wallis has been postponed to July.

That’s all for today. See you soon.

Regards,