AFL presser at 10am - Demetriou gone. Keep in all in here people.

[Colonial]

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying luck and external forces have more of a role to play than we think.

Any one of a number of people - even people we don't know about - could have done it. Some better, some worse.

Luck always plays a part in anything we do.
You say allot of people "could" have done it. You may be right. But the ones in charge "did" do it. So for that they should be applauded.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk

 

[Damon_3388]

The Demetriou haters must really not remember the Ross Oakley years...

 

[mediumsizered]

Or were they just the people in the drivers seat during those events? The assumption nobody else could have achieved as good a result is hard to support.

We can't really know how much damage the attempt to move North Melbourne set the game back, and whether anyone else would have tried it.

It's interesting during this discussion that there is a tendency to sheet the blame for anything bad which occurred during AD's tenure directly to AD, whilst any positives apparently happened in spite of AD's presence at the helm of the good ship AFL.

As for the ill-fated attempt to relocate North Melbourne, this seems to have turned into a win-win. North would seem to be in a stronger position off field than they were prior to this relocation attempt & the Gold Coast Suns have made some good inroads on the Coast, seeing off Gold Coast United & outdrawing the Titans. A fortunate outcome perhaps, but something that would not have happened if the AFL had done nothing.

 

[augie]

Do you think if AD had been in charge at the NRL he would have had the same success in the same period of time?

Would not have had the same level of success, but the NRL would certainly be in a better position than it currently is. There is no doubt the job of the NRL is tougher due to the absence of high level corporate engagement in the game, the disjointed administration structure and a fairly out dated view of the sport from a large number of key stakeholders. But AD has shown himself as prepared to take on difficult issues and pursue unpopular agendas for the long term good of the game, and may well have been able to drag the NRL kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

 

[Forward Press]

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying luck and external forces have more of a role to play than we think.

Any one of a number of people - even people we don't know about - could have done it. Some better, some worse.

Of course there could be people that could've done better during the last 11 years. We'd never know, though, because it's in the hypothetical realm. Luck and external forces play a part in everything anyway, so I think it's a bit of a moot point. The objective things that we can go on however are things like revenue generated, viewership numbers, the creation of the expansion clubs etc which tend to point to the AFL brand growing and being successful - and this success is definitely at least partly attributable to AD.

 

[Dr Tigris]

Surely this Is related to the the Assad investigation wrapping up

I couldn't go past this - sorry.

I didn't know Vlad was doing an investigation into Assad on the side. Maybe he finds the AFL too easy and is going onto something bigger - peace in the Middle East!! Good to hear a home grown product is such a formidable negotiator and manager of long run sectarian stife (Club versus club, and now onto country versus country, people versus people, rock throwers versus machine guns) .

 

[greennick]

That's 17 years ago but even still I remember back then the NRL/ARL were getting 14k per game and AFL was getting 35k per game. Not sure how accurate those stats are?

That is unique spectators, not total spectators.

 

[My North]

Come back Andrew,Come back

 

[Damp Squarie]

Don't go, love the Vlad

I wish he'd take Trigg with him Jumbo

 

[Nostradumbass]

Lake Como here we come!!!!!!

 

[xflamedancer]

Eddie it is then. At least it would balance out the force a little in the AFL, given the last 10 years have been spent so far to the left that another step that direction was into the abyss. Perhaps a few years right of centre would balance the mojo.

#voteeddie

Not only NO!! Not only HELL NO!!! But ****ING HELL NO!!!! For the same reason you wouldn't give the gig to Kennett or Kochie - the perceived bias towards their own clubs would be far too great to for them to be effective in that position no matter what.

 

[Ketchup]

Best administrator the game has ever had.

 

[FootyJunkie]

Lake Como here we come!!!!!!

 

[Nostradumbass]

We need a photo shopper to handle this.

 

[Pedro59]

I think people are selling him short a bit. Under his stewardship the game has become the strongest sporting competition in the country and one of the best sporting administrations in the world.

True
A lot of sheep on here
What did Vlad do wrong?

 

[ep2018]

He poorly handled the Essendon saga but other than that he has been a wonderful ambassador and CEO of the sport. Seeing some of the hate in this thread is mind boggling. We could have ended up with a Gallop who would have wrecked this sport and ran it into the ground.

 

[Pedro59]

It looks as though Demetriou won the Battle but Hird won the war.

Pfft
What has Hird won ?
Jeesh a reputation ? A flag?

If any one resigns from AFL HQ in the next ten years
Some wan#er on here will say
Oh Hirdy won

 

[SSSSSS]

Now smack Essendon and we're golden.

 

[Richo83]

Without evidence to support the counter proposition, though - that a baboon could run the AFL and we'd still be in the same position - you surely have to apportion much of the credit to Demetriou, even if not all of it.

This. It's impossible to do alternative histories, what we do know is that Vlad made the moves when he needed to and made smart decisions. Would Australia have been better off with someone other than Hawke, Keating and Howard? I don't know, but they did a good job IMO. Vlad made many smart moves.

My criticisms of him would be:

- His handling of the tanking issue in general, the denials and the subsequent weak punishment of Melbourne
- His handling of the supplements saga, it was always going to be messy, but I think he could have managed the leaks better
- The AFL website is still bloody rubbish
- No effort to make the fixture balanced
- Too many concessions to the expansion clubs
- Not realising that Western Sydney would be as big of a struggle

And on a personal issue, I thought he had a thin skin. But most people in power did, I know Keating had skin made of tissue paper even though he had a razors sharp tongue. We saw Vlad's ability to cut with his "I didn't inject anybody" quip.

Apart from that, he's done a good job IMO. And it seems like he's going to defeat Hird which I'm glad to see happen. Hird may have been a gun player but he's an idiot who took way too many risks. Hird is the AFL's Icarus and I hope he never works in the AFL industry again.

 

[Hoops]

that's unique spectators across all levels of the game

 

[The_Wookie]

On the money.

Running football in Victoria, SA and WA is like running a meth lab outside a rehab clinic. You can't turn a profit, you're just not a salesman.

Which is why the WAFL didnt require state intervention in the 80s just to survive and the SANFL isnt now 27 million in debt and reliant on the AFL to get any credit. Its why Fremantle never struggled, IPL never needed a bailout, Port Adelaide have been a financial power house for the last 15 years and Adelaide havent needed annual million dollar AFL cash injections. Its why all ten victorian clubs make crap loads of money every year. I mean football is basically a license to print money.

 

[The_Reaper]

I couldn't go past this - sorry.

I didn't know Vlad was doing an investigation into Assad on the side. Maybe he finds the AFL too easy and is going onto something bigger - peace in the Middle East!! Good to hear a home grown product is such a formidable negotiator and manager of long run sectarian stife (Club versus club, and now onto country versus country, people versus people, rock throwers versus machine guns) .

He's going to Moscow right now to sort out Putin.

 

[quickstraw]

That is unique spectators, not total spectators.

But given those stats it's hard to believe there would a huge difference in unique spectators. And then I'm not even sure why we are talking about unique spectators? It's not really the suitable stat.

 

[Engimal]

surprised you say that considering he wanted to kill off your club.

And I can't blame him. We were well in the shit and if anyone other than Brayshaw was at the helm, I'm certain we'd be up in QLD right now.

 

[Engimal]

Best administrator the game has ever had.

I think so too. I really hope McLachlan doesn't take his spot but I bet he will.