Australian football – AFL
MELBOURNE, Australia—Richmond Football Club has given self-confessed recovering drug addict Ben Cousins a second chance to play Australian Football League by selecting the highly decorated mid-fielder in the Pre-season Draft on Tuesday December 16.After the Collingwood, St Kilda and Brisbane Football Clubs had shown interest, but declined to draft Cousins, the decision by Richmond on the 30-year-old 2005 Brownlow Medal (umpires’ choice) award winner and six-time All Australian is hugely popular among both Tigers’ supporters and AFL fans—many of whom consider that the AFL has a responsibility to support him in his rehabilitation.
Dumped by the West Coast Eagles (where he played 238 games, won four Best and Fairest awards, and captained the club from 2001–2005) terminated his contract in October 2007. While the AFL suspended him for 12 months in November 2007 for bringing the game into disrepute, they cleared him to nominate for the 2008 National and Pre-season Drafts.
Although Cousins has never tested positive to performance-enhancing or illicit drug use, the AFL Commission imposed strict conditions, including that he submit to urine tests up to three times per week, and hair tests up to four times per year.
There is speculation that Cousins may have three years of football left in him at the elite level despite concerns over recurring hamstring injuries.
Rushed Behinds
A free kick near goals will be awarded in the 2009 Pre-Season Cup, the AFL Laws Committee decided on Monday December 15, to quell deliberate rushed behinds.Umpires will use their discretion in deciding which ones are deliberate or were due to direct pressure on defenders, or whose aim it is to spoil or touch the ball before it goes through for a goal. Many suspect that this penalty will be too severe, including Carlton champion and “full-back of the 2008 century”, Stephen Silvagni.
The league has reserved the right to introduce the controversial rule in the 2009 Premiership Season.
AFL Expansion
In the 150th year of Australian football, the Tasmanian government’s bid to obtain a club license was knocked back by the Victorian-based AFL Commission last Friday December 12 despite presenting a convincing case that they are financially ready.Curiously, considering the southern Australian island state of Tasmania is the least financial risk in expansion, the comprehensively researched and backed proposal was refused.
A breeding-ground for champions ever since the birth of the Australian indigenous football style, the Apple Isle has ready-made grounds and stadia, a national sponsor in MARS, a near 500,000-strong supporter base, coupled with national expats who would readily follow them, and a possible-future market for an elite team, AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou was grinning admiringly after the “first-class proposal” when he said “not yet” to reporters.
Meanwhile, on Monday December 16, after originally meant to be dealt with in October, a decision for GC17’s bid to obtain the 17th AFL license has again been deferred until February 2009.
Despite meeting the criteria that the 111-year-old league required of the Queensland Gold Coast-based consortiums’ bid, the cash-rich yet wary heads of the AFL declared that they are continuing to analyze the bid in light of the downturn in world financial markets—welcome news to some fans that caution is heeded instead of pouring money into what could result in a reluctant marketplace.
The Australian football code (as opposed to the rugby codes) in the northern east coast states was slow to catch on where Rugby union and Rugby league are the dominant football-styled sports followed here. While the game has had rapid growth in the last 20 to 30 years along with population, with a less than ideal stadium deal involving the Gold Coast City Council’s Carrara Stadium, the bid is still without a major sponsor.
On Tuesday December 16 and on the day when the Richmond Tigers had a Pre-Season Draft coup by giving fallen-star Ben Cousins a second chance, the AFL also announced that the pre-season 2009 NAB Cup Collingwood–West Coast match, scheduled to be played in South Africa next year, will be postponed 12 months.
The delayed South African match, the deferred GC17and the declined yet positive Tasmanian government proposal outcomes showed that the AFL is weighing their timing carefully in their expansion aspirations.
Historically, though, the AFL Commission makes controversial decisions, rarely changes their minds and remains steadfast to this point that new clubs will be in QLD’s Gold Coast and NSW’s west Sydney.
