Scandal The 2016 finals series was rigged

Dubai Quacker

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I’ll take that as you erring on the side of not wanting to talk about it.

In closing, the article regarding the 2016 grand final states: “The Sydney coaches’ own review of the Grand Final largely attributed the loss to not having enough contributors from their 22 in comparison with the more evenly-performed Bulldogs.”
Yep, the Bulldogs 25 were pretty evenly performed on the day.

Stevic was in the running for the Norm Smith.
 

brmi

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images-53.jpeg
 

Hawksboy72

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I'm kind of surprised no one talks about Kurt Tippett's stellar performance that day.
 
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No doubt it was rigged.
Was the only Vic V non Vic GF since the royal commission that didnt feature a real strong Vic team so the AFL's mechanisms kicked into gear.
 

Westerndog11

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Fresh news the 2022 Grand Final was rigged too. Swans players were paid to play dead except no one told Chad Warner. Same thing happened in the Dogs final, with dogs players playing dead after quarter time.
 

RichLeMonde

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I’m pretty open to considering various conspiracy theories, given that there have been historically verified conspiracies.

But the conspiracy of rigging in a sport by a major organising body - other than when that body is solely a front for organised crime and associated gambling - always makes me laugh. Not because I think the AFL (or NBA) have too much integrity for that, but because it just doesn’t stand up to any risk-reward analysis (unless the league supremos directly run gambling rackets).

The idea that the AFL would rig a GF and risk the entire credibility of the whole sport is preposterous enough. That they would do it to ensure that one of the league’s smallest market teams would beat the team that is probably the single most important to the AFL’s overall market strategy is cretinous
 
Mar 4, 2015
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I’m pretty open to considering various conspiracy theories, given that there have been historically verified conspiracies.

But the conspiracy of rigging in a sport by a major organising body - other than when that body is solely a front for organised crime and associated gambling - always makes me laugh. Not because I think the AFL (or NBA) have too much integrity for that, but because it just doesn’t stand up to any risk-reward analysis (unless the league supremos directly run gambling rackets).

The idea that the AFL would rig a GF and risk the entire credibility of the whole sport is preposterous enough. That they would do it to ensure that one of the league’s smallest market teams would beat the team that is probably the single most important to the AFL’s overall market strategy is cretinous
Its not a professional sport its a business and they'll do anything to increase revenue.
In 2017 off the back of a GF win WB, that small club, grew by 9k members or ~30% growth.
Hawthorn picked up 15k members between 2013 and 2016, ~25% growth.
Richmond went from 75k members in 2017 to 105k in 2021, ~40% growth.
By comparison,
In 2013, the Swans, off the back of a GF win, only enticed another 6k members, ~20% growth.
West coast went from 80k in 2018 to 90k in 2019 after the GF win, ~12% growth, half the growth of the successful Vic sides post GF win.
Arguably the biggest and most important supporter bases outside of Victoria yielded very little from winning flags.
Non vic clubs are virtually saturated with the exception of GC and GWS and if the AFL's attitude towards them keeping their players is any guide, id say their success isnt a priority.

Its hardly surprising with the close ties between AFL HQ and the Vic Government, who just spent millions on increasing capacity at GMHBA, that the Cats will attract new fans next season off the back of a GF to help fill it.
Return on investment.
 

RichLeMonde

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Its not a professional sport its a business and they'll do anything to increase revenue.
In 2017 off the back of a GF win WB, that small club, grew by 9k members or ~30% growth.
Hawthorn picked up 15k members between 2013 and 2016, ~25% growth.
Richmond went from 75k members in 2017 to 105k in 2021, ~40% growth.
By comparison,
In 2013, the Swans, off the back of a GF win, only enticed another 6k members, ~20% growth.
West coast went from 80k in 2018 to 90k in 2019 after the GF win, ~12% growth, half the growth of the successful Vic sides post GF win.
Arguably the biggest and most important supporter bases outside of Victoria yielded very little from winning flags.
Non vic clubs are virtually saturated with the exception of GC and GWS and if the AFL's attitude towards them keeping their players is any guide, id say their success isnt a priority.

Its hardly surprising with the close ties between AFL HQ and the Vic Government, who just spent millions on increasing capacity at GMHBA, that the Cats will attract new fans next season off the back of a GF to help fill it.
Return on investment.
Sorry, that just doesn’t stand up to any sort of risk-reward analysis. If the league bribed or otherwise instructed umps to rig the 2016 GF, all it would take would be one whistleblower to basically kill the entire AFL. It would never recover as a business. Even from the point of view of sociopathic self-interest and greed, it just doesn’t make good sense.

The idea that they would do that to get a few extra members for the Bulldogs is honestly laughable.

Most of the $$ in AFL comes from TV deals. The AFL’s overall strategic vision, including expanding into western sydney and the Gold Coast, is all about TV. Member numbers mean very little to the overall business model. And that’s where they would attach much more value to a city or state based market like sydney or nsw than to a club like the bulldogs.
 
Mar 4, 2015
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Sorry, that just doesn’t stand up to any sort of risk-reward analysis. If the league bribed or otherwise instructed umps to rig the 2016 GF, all it would take would be one whistleblower to basically kill the entire AFL. It would never recover as a business. Even from the point of view of sociopathic self-interest and greed, it just doesn’t make good sense.

The idea that they would do that to get a few extra members for the Bulldogs is honestly laughable.

Most of the $$ in AFL comes from TV deals. The AFL’s overall strategic vision, including expanding into western sydney and the Gold Coast, is all about TV. Member numbers mean very little to the overall business model. And that’s where they would attach much more value to a city or state based market like sydney or nsw than to a club like the bulldogs.
More memberships equals less reliance on league handouts.

Bulldogs current memberships are between $35 and $550 so lets average it and say $300.
$300x9000=$2.7m additional revenue moving forward year on year.
If the Dogs current base of almost 40k members, or conservatively worth $10m per year adds nothing, why charge for memberships at all?
 
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RichLeMonde

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More memberships equals less reliance on league handouts.

Bulldogs current memberships are between $35 and $550 so lets average it and say $300.
$300x9000=$2.7m additional revenue moving forward year on year.
If the Dogs current base of almost 40k members, or conservatively worth $10m per year adds nothing, why charge for memberships at all?
How could 10 mil / year in membership sales for the Dogs possibly be worth, for Gil, risking the entire AFL, not to mention, at a minimum, being personally bankrupted by the biggest fines the world’s ever seen, or even jailed for criminal conspiracy, if he got caught? Why would someone on millions a year take that risk?

As I said, I’m genuinely open to entertaining the possibility of conspiracies, but this is some moon-landing s**t.
 
Mar 4, 2015
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How could 10 mil / year in membership sales for the Dogs possibly be worth, for Gil, risking the entire AFL, not to mention, at a minimum, being personally bankrupted by the biggest fines the world’s ever seen, or even jailed for criminal conspiracy, if he got caught? Why would someone on millions a year take that risk?

As I said, I’m genuinely open to entertaining the possibility of conspiracies, but this is some moon-landing s**t.
C'mon man, Gil is a figure head, he doesn't pull the strings.
Its not like they have to send out a memo, all they have to do is sit around a table and say you know what, there's a lot of extra money in Vic clubs winning and hey presto, an umpiring display like 2016.
It doesn't have to be a directive, all it needs is a mindset.

As I said, WB are easily the weakest Vic team in the past 15yrs to win the GF and they just happened to be the team that got an enormous rub of the green on that day.
Coincidence, me thinks not.
 
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