Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board

slangman wrote:

Jezza wrote:

think positive wrote:10 weeks is overs, it’s pure and simple Collingwood loading.

Disagree. He's lucky he's only missing 10 games.

Spot on. He’s a very very lucky young man that he is even eligible to play again this year.

Yes, maybe hed be better off smashing a opposition player in the face, breaking his jaw, the other guy loses four teeth, misses many games, and Stevo gets 8 weeks, like Gaff, and plays in a Premiership team.

But what would Gaff get if he did it 3 times?

eddiesmith wrote:But what would Gaff get if he did it 3 times?

ASK Gary Ablett, the three time elbow to head, golden boy of the League.

If Gaff had three air swings, he would get zero weeks.

As it was, he got 3 weeks for each jaw broken and 1 week for each tooth killed.

Punishment is too harsh.

Where is the incentive for other AFL players in the future to self report and come forward... you’re going to lose half the season.

Seems like the AFL have added a 50% loading because Jaidyn is a Collingwood player.

We are halfway through the season and the suspension is exactly the number of weeks to take it to the end of the home & away. What happens in the future if someone self reports near the end of the season, or early in the season?

stoliboy wrote:Punishment is too harsh.

Where is the incentive for other AFL players in the future to self report and come forward... you’re going to lose half the season.

The fact that he self-reported means he only misses 10 matches (half a season) compared to a whole season.

If he didn't self report and the AFL became aware of his activities, he wouldn't have received a reduction in his punishment today.

RudeBoy wrote:Whenever Kim Jong Gil and the AFL hierarchy take the high moral ground on anything, they absolutely stink of hypocrisy. This is but one of the more blatant of such occasions.

The AFL has, more than any other organisation in the country, paved the way for the normalisation of betting so much, such that many people can't distinguish the game from gambling. Young people are now growing up only ever seeing gambling ads for footy when they watch the game. They have never know it to be any different. This has long been the case with horse racing, but now footy is fast becoming a similar sport, where gambling is integral to its very fabric. It sickens me, and the leaders of the AFL should collectively resign in disgrace. They have done much, much, much more damage, bringing disrepute to our game, than Stevo has done. Shame AFL, shame.

This. I get the drink-driving analogy and that it not being the pub’s fault, but the AFL have to understand that they’ve absolutely normalised this (and probably helped foster a number of addictions along the way).

I don’t get it: is the AFL really struggling for money so badly that they desperately need these sponsorships? Is there a danger that McLachlan might not be able to maintain his millionaire CEO lifestyle if they have one less funding source? Or do they really not give a shit about anything?

According to Foxtel tonight, Stephenson has made other bets throughout the season. He has outlaid $36,000 in bets and won nothing. Now he is suspended for 10 weeks, so there goes a packet of money, and he's been fined $20,000 (by the Club?) Silly young boy. He will be badly missed up forward, and his team mates have every right to be angry with him -- as I am.

taff wa wrote:Yes Jaidyn Stephenson has been very foolish doing what he has done, he has copped his whack justifiably so but more importantly my concern is how is going to cope psychologically even if it is his own fault. Too many footballers already have some mental issues, don’t need anymore. He’s still a very young man at the beginning of hopefully a long career in front of him playing for the mighty Collingwood football club. Side by side.

I too am concerned about the psychological effect of all this on Jaidyn. Guess we have to trust in the club's ability to support him and avert any mental demons that may arise.

Laughter is good medicine too - just watched the Front Bar with Craig Kelly as the special guest. It was very entertaining.

His biggest mistake is to not to take into account getting caught and getting a massive suspension. Now us fans and the players miss him for 10 weeks. That is the real consequences and there is precedent for the punishment so no players have any excuses for not wising up.

PyreneesPie wrote:

Piesnchess wrote:
this penalty is just insane, madness, an meanwhile the League promotes gambling heavily, and makes millions out of it, blatant hypocrisy.

This double standards hypocrisy by the AFL was put forward by Mike Sheahan on AFL 360 tonight. Gerard showed little interest in giving it any air time. A very disappointing response by him.

...but a totally predictable one. He defends the powers that be down the line, including their hypocricy.

Piesnchess wrote:

slangman wrote:

Jezza wrote: Disagree. He's lucky he's only missing 10 games.

Spot on. He’s a very very lucky young man that he is even eligible to play again this year.

Yes, maybe hed be better off smashing a opposition player in the face, breaking his jaw, the other guy loses four teeth, misses many games, and Stevo gets 8 weeks, like Gaff, and plays in a Premiership team.

Take the blinkers off

Baum:

AFL's betting problem is black and white

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl ... 51zcq.html

"But one unintended consequence of the gravity of his suspension is that it has turned the spotlight 180 degrees back onto the AFL and its problematic gambling nexus.

With one hand, they slap down Stephenson for his $36 betting spree. With the other, they take an estimated $10million from online bookmaker Beteasy. At $36, it is recklessness. At $10million, it is good business.

With one hand, they preach moderation in gambling. With the other, they wave through a gambling advertising blitz on TV, radio, in print media, online, all over the AFL's own website and at the grounds, unrelenting and inescapable, until your head spins like poker machine wheels. Gamble responsibly? How about advertise responsibly?

With one hand, the AFL forbid footballers to bet. With the other, they strew temptations to bet in front of young men, traditionally society’s highest risk-takers and the incidence is proportionately higher among footballers, who have time and cash to spare and whose whole existence is a continuous exercise in backing themselves. Does anyone really believe that Stephenson is the only footballer to have a wager this year?
...

Here’s a real-life announcement. "It was agreed that we would end all sponsorships with betting companies starting from the end of this season," it reads. "The decision was made following a three-month review of our approach to it as a governing body taking betting sponsorship, whilst being responsible for the regulation of sports betting with the sport's rules."

Sadly, that is not the AFL, or any Australian sports body, but the English Football Association in 2017, severing a deal worth millions of pounds to them.

Expect the AFL's end of season study tour to be to Las Vegas again."

David wrote:

RudeBoy wrote:Whenever Kim Jong Gil and the AFL hierarchy take the high moral ground on anything, they absolutely stink of hypocrisy. This is but one of the more blatant of such occasions.

The AFL has, more than any other organisation in the country, paved the way for the normalisation of betting so much, such that many people can't distinguish the game from gambling. Young people are now growing up only ever seeing gambling ads for footy when they watch the game. They have never know it to be any different. This has long been the case with horse racing, but now footy is fast becoming a similar sport, where gambling is integral to its very fabric. It sickens me, and the leaders of the AFL should collectively resign in disgrace. They have done much, much, much more damage, bringing disrepute to our game, than Stevo has done. Shame AFL, shame.

This. I get the drink-driving analogy and that it not being the pub’s fault, but the AFL have to understand that they’ve absolutely normalised this (and probably helped foster a number of addictions along the way).

I don’t get it: is the AFL really struggling for money so badly that they desperately need these sponsorships? Is there a danger that McLachlan might not be able to maintain his millionaire CEO lifestyle if they have one less funding source? Or do they really not give a shit about anything?

I love this David!

K wrote:Baum:

AFL's betting problem is black and white

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl ... 51zcq.html

"But one unintended consequence of the gravity of his suspension is that it has turned the spotlight 180 degrees back onto the AFL and its problematic gambling nexus.

With one hand, they slap down Stephenson for his $36 betting spree. With the other, they take an estimated $10million from online bookmaker Beteasy. At $36, it is recklessness. At $10million, it is good business.

With one hand, they preach moderation in gambling. With the other, they wave through a gambling advertising blitz on TV, radio, in print media, online, all over the AFL's own website and at the grounds, unrelenting and inescapable, until your head spins like poker machine wheels. Gamble responsibly? How about advertise responsibly?

With one hand, the AFL forbid footballers to bet. With the other, they strew temptations to bet in front of young men, traditionally society’s highest risk-takers and the incidence is proportionately higher among footballers, who have time and cash to spare and whose whole existence is a continuous exercise in backing themselves. Does anyone really believe that Stephenson is the only footballer to have a wager this year?
...

Here’s a real-life announcement. "It was agreed that we would end all sponsorships with betting companies starting from the end of this season," it reads. "The decision was made following a three-month review of our approach to it as a governing body taking betting sponsorship, whilst being responsible for the regulation of sports betting with the sport's rules."

Sadly, that is not the AFL, or any Australian sports body, but the English Football Association in 2017, severing a deal worth millions of pounds to them.

Expect the AFL's end of season study tour to be to Las Vegas again."

Wow, a great serve back to the AFL. Excellent!!

TP made this comment a few pages back:

10 weeks is overs, it’s pure and simple Collingwood loading.

A number of us have agreed with this.

There are several possible reasons why the AFL might use a Collingwood player as a scape-goat. However, I was just watching the club's presser on the website and in the top right hand corner is the big banner saying "We are proud to say no to sports betting sponsorship".

Could it be that the AFL is feeling just a little uncomfortable about its own activities in promoting footy gambling and wanted to bring the club down a notch for going against the AFL's position??? What better way than to hand out the heaviest penalty ever to a Pies player!

Possibly far-fetched, but I would not rule out anything this unprincipled, self-aggrandizing lot are capable of.

PS I hope the likes of Mike Sheahan and Greg Baum continue to irritate the hell out of the AFL on this issue. They have shown themselves completely out of touch with the general football supporter on the crowd control issue, so another bombardment of "bad press" would be quite disturbing for them up there in their ivory towers.