Opinion Commentary & Media VII

[Devington]

It’s interesting, the narrative was very different around here when she first got the job.

People were very complimentary.

Yeah, I think there's a disconnect between the perceptions of the person versus that of the role. The role is a mouthpiece of those above her, and it serves almost purely to satisfy major stakeholders and protect the interests of the AFL. If that means pissing down fans' backs and telling them it's raining, then so be it, that's what she'll do. The league wants to protect themslves going forward on concussion issues. The league wants to protect umpires because of severe recruiting issues. Those two things account for a full half of the actual bullshit she says.

 

[desie]

I have no idea why quite frankly, I had no idea who she was and where she came from and it’s pointless to get overly excited about appointments before the work begins.

At this point I find her entire career extremely suspect and she’s shown zero examples of her being qualified for the job she’s in now.

I suspect it had more to do with arguing with a former poster and his take on female appointments than it did on anything else.

 

[Marstermind]

It’s pretty amazing but Gil looks so much better by comparison. Gil made plenty of knee jerk decisions and had bad judgements, but at least he was a charismatic leader. At least he had the capability of communicating his plans and vision and of explaining the rationale behind his decisions.

As for Laura Kane, it’s going to take a lot for her to change my perception of her that she doesn’t actually know the rules of football. That Scott fifty explanation had me choosing between a Kim Jong Un “record grain harvest” situation vs she doesn’t know the rules and I landed on the latter

Gil also knew how to answer/deflect a difficult question.

Both Kane & Dillon just straight up lie and say something that defies what is plainly obvious for anyone to see, hence treating people like idiots. And then, like crying wolf, when they do try to make sense they come off with zero credibility. They're really quite hopeless.

 

[Sphynx]

Gil also knew how to answer/deflect a difficult question.

Both Kane & Dillon just straight up lie and say something that defies what is plainly obvious for anyone to see, hence treating people like idiots. And then, like crying wolf, when they do try to make sense they come off with zero credibility. They're really quite hopeless.

They're ****ing lawyers, what do you expect.

 

[big_e]

Has she though? Her credentials from start up until her current position at just 33 is dubious at best, and I can’t point to anything she did at her time at North that was a net positive, we completely plummeted as a club in 2017, the year she was appointed and nothing was done to remediate things and somehow she ends up in the biggest chair on AFL land.

Makes no sense at all.

Adrian Anderson was 32 when he got the Footy Operations job. Andrew Dillon was 33 when appointed as general manager of legal and business operations. Ben Buckley was 32 when he joined the AFL as GM of broadcasting. Gil was 30 when appointed GM of commercial operations, and both he and Demetriou were early 40s when appointed CEO of the AFL. Her age isn't that unusual for senior roles at the AFL.

Most of those guys had similar profiles, as lawyers or consultants who came into contact with people inside the AFL in their working life.

 

[Billy Not Really]

Adrian Anderson was 32 when he got the Footy Operations job. Andrew Dillon was 33 when appointed as general manager of legal and business operations. Ben Buckley was 32 when he joined the AFL as GM of broadcasting. Gil was 30 when appointed GM of commercial operations, and both he and Demetriou were early 40s when appointed CEO of the AFL. Her age isn't that unusual for senior roles at the AFL.

Most of those guys had similar profiles, as lawyers or consultants who came into contact with people inside the AFL in their working life.

It’s not about her age, but the career she had up until now. It’s not that impressive and there’s no measurable improvements in her wake.

She’s unqualified, I couldn’t really care less about hangups on gender or age, because we’re way beyond the point in social historical development where that is a ceiling in this day and age, where a sitting president is 80+ with undiagnosed compromised mental faculties and many many women hold positions of power. We must return to a meritocracy.

Also the profiles of lawyers and other similar career paths infesting the AFL is the precise reason why the game is in the state it’s in, to protect itself and not the actual integrity of the league. They will act on precedence set and not roll it back but find loopholes to change and just needlessly fiddle and fidget with the open rules at play that haven’t been compromised due to some federal lawsuit hanging over or being lost to their favour.

 

[Hojuman]

 

[koshari]

Be fair to say that any reasonable appraisal of Laura Kane's first year in the job would see her meeting very few markers.

• The umpiring is a mess. Very few working at the top level, the ones at the bottom level are rock bottom. They seem confused and marginalised. The pathway into the elite level isn't clear. Even the goal umpires couldn't work out what they were supposed to do at one point.
• The rules are all over the place. They change from week to week, never making things noticeably better but regardless they morph back again for no apparent reason. Players, coaches, fans, media have absolutely no idea what's going on.
• The tribunal is a inefficient, inconsistent and inept. Every week there is something that seems either out of kilter or makes no sense at all. Totally at odds with what anybody wants in the game.
• Drafting and player movement is up in the air. Potential changes are announced with no notice given to clubs and then awkwardly backtracked on.
• Communication is poor. Fans get told one thing, umpires something else. Messages delivered in gobbledygook. One minute happy to be open about explaining something, next minute avoidant on the same issue.
• Consistent whinging from clubs about fairness (academies, travel, fixturing) allowed to fester.

The only slack I'll cut her is that the AFL in its wisdom thought fit to her fill her role with an empty chair for a year so all of these things were allowed to drift.

She potentially seems to be a victim of the Peter Principle - she's done well enough in her previous positions to be consistently pushed up the chain until she's finally reached a level where she's now out of her depth.

Used to be a saying in the old SEC, promoted to incompetency.

 

[koshari]

Fair to say that the AFL has a a bit more to worry about than that Crowd number going by its performance this year.

Aye, practically speaking they would be happy to use a few games attendences as a diversion from the poor state of the game.

A la flag debate when the economy is tanking.

 

[koshari]

It’s interesting, the narrative was very different around here when she first got the job.

People were very complimentary.

Iam always happy to give credit until i see otherwise, the tipping point for me re laura was the bullshitting re the 50m penalty of bailey scott.

An old saying goes dont try to bullshit a bullshitter. And i been bullshitting for 40 years.

 

[koshari]

I suspect it had more to do with arguing with a former poster and his take on female appointments than it did on anything else.

I call bulshit on that, old mate hated sonja and she has been nothing short of trumendous.

 

[koshari]

They're ****ing lawyers, what do you expect.

Dennis denueto has more credibility

 

[danj]

I've been taking some friends to the Premiership club this year as guests. They're always impressed with our numbers and our loyalty despite the spankings we've been getting over the past few years. And when we win, we're LOUD. Always proud to be a Shinboner.

Same at the Roo Pub for away games, fair dinkum when North is having a crack the joint is a roiling cauldron

 

[nj23]

Did anyone hear SEN yesterday morning with the Jason McCartney

Jason Mccartney

Age

50

Ht

191cm

Wt

95kg

Pos.

D/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

3.5

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.8

3star

No current season stats available

D

10.0

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

4.2

4star

M

3.8

4star

T

0.6

3star

interview and Kingy was later suggesting north should offer him money that he can’t refuse as a way to secure his kids as father sons? Sounded fascinating.
(Sorry if it’s in another thread, had a look in list management and 2024 draft but didn’t jump out at me.)

 

[tales129]

Malthouse vs Kane on abc is pretty handy listening.

Laura Kane: Players can evolve, my job is to make the game safe. - ABC listen

Laura Kane, the AFL Executive General Manager, joined Corbin Middlemas, Kelli Underwood, Cameron Ling and Mick Malthouse on Friday night Footy.

www.abc.net.au

 

[shintemaster]

Malthouse vs Kane on abc is pretty handy listening.

Laura Kane: Players can evolve, my job is to make the game safe. - ABC listen

Laura Kane, the AFL Executive General Manager, joined Corbin Middlemas, Kelli Underwood, Cameron Ling and Mick Malthouse on Friday night Footy.

www.abc.net.au

She's right on both counts, lying about free kicks doesn't exactly engender trust though.

 

[Augustine]

Same at the Roo Pub for away games, fair dinkum when North is having a crack the joint is a roiling cauldron

This is a silver lining of our historically shit half decade. It’s created a siege mentality among the fans. I’ve never seen the passion levels so high.

When we finally go up the ladder and we add in the several thousand latent supporters and bandwagoners and neutrals who want to see high quality games, the atmosphere at our games is going to be amazing.

I went to Essendon vs Adelaide last night, 38k, very decent crowd size. It was a really entertaining game and the place should have been rocking but the atmosphere was no where near as good as North games. Even our crowds under 20k generate more noise.

 

[Luke72]

This is a silver lining of our historically shit half decade. It’s created a siege mentality among the fans. I’ve never seen the passion levels so high.

When we finally go up the ladder and we add in the several thousand latent supporters and bandwagoners and neutrals who want to see high quality games, the atmosphere at our games is going to be amazing.

I went to Essendon vs Adelaide last night, 38k, very decent crowd size. It was a really entertaining game and the place should have been rocking but the atmosphere was no where near as good as North games. Even our crowds under 20k generate more noise.

I’m surprised there was 38k there, it looked a bit empty on the tv

 

[Mcarcherey]

I’m surprised there was 38k there, it looked a bit empty on the tv

Probably was less, wouldn't surprise me if the AFL fluff the numbers to suit the narrative

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Mcarcherey]

Be fair to say that any reasonable appraisal of Laura Kane's first year in the job would see her meeting very few markers.

• The umpiring is a mess. Very few working at the top level, the ones at the bottom level are rock bottom. They seem confused and marginalised. The pathway into the elite level isn't clear. Even the goal umpires couldn't work out what they were supposed to do at one point.
• The rules are all over the place. They change from week to week, never making things noticeably better but regardless they morph back again for no apparent reason. Players, coaches, fans, media have absolutely no idea what's going on.
• The tribunal is a inefficient, inconsistent and inept. Every week there is something that seems either out of kilter or makes no sense at all. Totally at odds with what anybody wants in the game.
• Drafting and player movement is up in the air. Potential changes are announced with no notice given to clubs and then awkwardly backtracked on.
• Communication is poor. Fans get told one thing, umpires something else. Messages delivered in gobbledygook. One minute happy to be open about explaining something, next minute avoidant on the same issue.
• Consistent whinging from clubs about fairness (academies, travel, fixturing) allowed to fester.

The only slack I'll cut her is that the AFL in its wisdom thought fit to her fill her role with an empty chair for a year so all of these things were allowed to drift.

She potentially seems to be a victim of the Peter Principle - she's done well enough in her previous positions to be consistently pushed up the chain until she's finally reached a level where she's now out of her depth.

The thing is the game is making money hand over fist and they'll always use that as evidence to prove what they're doing works.

I think they're just putting a few politicians at the face to fluff their way through hard questions. They'll only ever really care about the state of the game when the bottom line is affected.

Unfortunately it's the tail wagging the dog.

On Pixel 6 using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Marstermind]

Laura's line about being several thousand tackles and only 7 suspensions insults everyone's intelligence.

If there were 3 million cars a day and only 10 involved in fatalities, that's not a good day.

 

[Colby Cheer Squad]

Laura's line about being several thousand tackles and only 7 suspensions insults everyone's intelligence.

If there were 3 million cars a day and only 10 involved in fatalities, that's not a good day.

It's relative though. If there were 3 million cars last year and 100 involved in fatalities, then we have improvement. That's the point she is clearly making. The only factor missing in her statistics quoted is how many concussions from one year to the next.

 

[amaz199]

You need to give full confidence to players about what they can and can't do.

Everything is grey area and that falls on Laura as well as the AFL administration.

Not good enough.

 

[Devington]

She's right on both counts, lying about free kicks doesn't exactly engender trust though.

She's also lying about the fear of lawsuits not pushing attitudes, and that they're happy with how great the standard of football is at the moment.

 

[Devington]

It's relative though. If there were 3 million cars last year and 100 involved in fatalities, then we have improvement. That's the point she is clearly making. The only factor missing in her statistics quoted is how many concussions from one year to the next.

It does validate her point that players can and will adjust to these changes.

The separate points that there is widespread confusion, and that the spectacle/fabric of the game is tattering, are also pretty valid I would have thought. Incremental changes are made each and every year on this stuff, what's the end point? Like Boomer said on raido the other day (I think the clip was in the MRP thread) if the end point is Gaelic football then can they just get us there ASAP because this process right now is horrible.