Talia Brothers Cleared - Kyle Cheney officially declared to be a moron

[MRB37]

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/anger-as-talia-case-nears-close-20151120-gl4bb0.html

Adelaide's Kyle Cheney faces a warning from the AFL's integrity unit after the former Hawk admitted he was joking when he said the Crows had received inside information from former Bulldog Michael Talia before one of this year's elimination finals.

While the AFL investigation into the Talia brothers and the alleged leaking of match information has cleared all parties, there is widespread disenchantment over the league's handling of the findings and its heavy-handed treatment of the Talias.

Cheney, who sparked the investigation when he told former teammate Ben Stratton that the Crows had received information regarding the Bulldogs' forward set-up, admitted under intense questioning from AFL investigators that he had not been serious.

This was despite Cheney earlier telling Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge that his comments to Stratton were accurate. Stratton later passed on that information which finished up with the Bulldogs.

Fairfax Media understands Beveridge quizzed Cheney over two conversations during which he remained reluctant to confess he had been largely exaggerating and joking, following a conversation pre-match between former Bulldog Michael Talia and his brother, the Adelaide defender Daniel.

League executive Andrew Dillon and his team were due to announce the results of the investigation on Friday but the bitterness surrounding the origins of the investigation continued to haunt the competition as the AFL produced a series of media releases which were rejected by all the parties involved. So divided were the various parties over the wording of the findings that the AFL postponed any announcement.

The Talia brothers remain disenchanted that the AFL bosses went out of their way to justify the Western Bulldogs' reporting of the incident.

None of the Bulldogs, the Crows or the AFL Players Association would comment late on Friday. Dillon did not return calls from Fairfax Media.

And the AFL has faced a backlash over the wording of its findings, which initially involved a multi-page release and involved detail which subtly incriminated the Talia brothers, even though they had been found to have no case to answer. The Crows, too, were found to have no case to answer, with the AFL satisfied that the Adelaide coach had not received any information regarding the Bulldogs' match-day plans.

However, the original AFL statements stressed that the Talias had sent each other text messages in the days leading up to the elimination final and that Michael, now a Swan, had lost his mobile phone on an end of season trip and Daniel had deleted the messages.

 

[Pugsley]

This couldn't have been solved quickly

 

[Tyls83]

Cheney... A fringe defender on his 3rd chance ffs pull ya head in. What a bloody storm in a teacup however

 

[DD#23]

so what's our penalty?

 

[Paladin]

Wtf so Cheney embellished and wouldn't own up? Can we delist him and take another pick in the draft.

 

[RUNVS]

so what's our penalty?

Cheney has to go through the trials of the paddling of the swollen ass

 

[MRB37]

Can't imagine Cheney will be the most popular guy around the club next year. Caused Michael and the Bulldogs to have a falling out and dragged Daniel into an AFL investigation.

And the Crows were completely right to reject any sort of press release that tries to imply the Talia Bro's were up to anything just because they texted each other.

 

[brucetiki]

Considering Michael left the Bulldogs pretty much as a result, Cheney is pretty lucky to only be getting a 'warning'

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

I call shenanigans.

I think it was actually pretty bad and this is the players covering their respective arses. Why would Cheney lie to Beveridge? It just doesn't make sense?

And who deletes text messages?

 

[hippyhippy]

so what's our penalty?

Wouldn't be surprised if Cheney is stuck in the 2s. Who the hell would go out of their way to do that to teammates... seems to be the scapegoat of this issue.

The talia brothers just used the essendon defence and it worked again ...lol

 

[pjcrows]

The whole thing is completely ridiculous.

 

[1970crow]

Still sounds a bit murky to me. One phone lost, the other has deleted text messages. Still, who gives a s**t.

 

[fabs33]

so what's our penalty?

Whatever it is we should give it to Melbourne for originally drafting Cheney. After all we owe them one for their "not tanking" penalty.

 

[Elite Crow]

WTF. This has to be a joke. Either Cheney has reneged because he didn't want to get the boys in trouble otherwise he is a bloody idiot. The latter explanation will make for an interesting defensive unit. Wouldn't surprise if a Talia spoil makes its way to Cheney's head.

 

[MRB37]

I call shenanigans.

I think it was actually pretty bad and this is the players covering their respective arses. Why would Cheney lie to Beveridge? It just doesn't make sense?

And who deletes text messages?

Not the first time someone would have made a joke that's taken seriously and then it just snowballs from there.

 

[Pugsley]

so what's our penalty?

Loss of next years draft picks.

 

[tinman]

Appalling. The impact that this has had on Michael Talia, in particular, who's position at the Bulldogs became "untenable" as a result of this "joke" is severe, I hope he has some recourse to legal action as a result.

The AFL, as usual, appalling. A multi million dollar business that was unable to manage this quickly and confidentially before Michael was delisted....what can anyone say?

So the punishment is handed out by the club, and now it comes out months later there was nothing in it.

The only justice in this is that Michael would have had trade value, and the Bullies got nothing for him.

 

[brucetiki]

Better not hang around Cheney at airport - could end up on a no fly list

 

[1970crow]

Not the first time someone would have made a joke that's taken seriously and then it just snowballs from there.

But if you had even the tiniest bit of intelligence, you would own up and hose it down at first opportunity. Seems as though a couple of opportunities might have been missed. Seems strange.

 

[Elite Crow]

Did Cheney name names?

 

[MRB37]

But if you had even the tiniest bit of intelligence, you would own up and hose it down at first opportunity. Seems as though a couple of opportunities might have been missed. Seems strange.

It does seem strange, but it's not out the the realm of possibility that he joked about it, AFL opened an investigation so he lied to cover his ass, figuring they wouldn't find anything anyway and it'd be over quick sticks, then just had to keep it up for fear that he'd get in even more trouble the longer it went on, before he finally buckled and told the truth because the entire situation had gotten out of control.

That does seems to be very immature behaviour though and I thought Cheney had his head on a bit tighter than that.

 

[1970crow]

It does seem strange, but it's not out the the realm of possibility that he joked about it, AFL opened an investigation so he lied to cover his ass, figuring they wouldn't find anything anyway and it'd be over quick sticks, then just had to keep it up for fear that he'd get in even more trouble the longer it went on, before he finally buckled and told the truth because the entire situation had gotten out of control.

That does seems to be very immature behaviour though and I thought Cheney had his head on a bit tighter than that.

Doesn't sound plausible to me. Would have received advice from his manager and AFLPA. no way he's not encouraged to tell the truth. Especially when maintaining the lie is highly likely to result in punitive damage to 2 other players and potentially his own club. Not really buying into the moronic, lone wolf excuse.

 

[Thetrader15]

Loss of next years draft picks.

We lose our first 2 picks for at least the next 2 years and DT and Cheney suspended for 12 games. MT has no case to answer, and dogs get our pick 9 as compo, and 13 goes to the Swans. Tex fined $50k for being captain at the time

 

[Moonwatcher]

Cheney... A fringe defender on his 3rd chance ffs pull ya head in. What a bloody storm in a teacup however

He is taking the fall.

 

[Samcro24]

Did Cheney name names?

Yep and now the Talias are both blacklisted from hop sings.