Clubs fined for breach of Covid protocols

[LukeParkerno1]

Fielding an ineligible player forfeits the points scored after they took the field. It's entirely consistent.

Submitting multiple false tests = multiple positive tests inferred which is consistent with worldwide sports practices
If positive test means ineligible = multiple ineligible players took the field

Hence, those games points are wiped. But just those games.

It would be easy to determine which games didn't have players that featured after submitting a false test or being a close contact of a player who did.

Meh not really fussed, I'm happy enough. LOL wiping the games, come off it. The AFL have made a sensible decision, who honestly will care about it in a week lol

 

[fnerd]

No surprise Sydney supporters are the loudest in here thinking “who cares”and no surprise their club was the chief culprit - they didn’t think COLA or their academy was a competitive advantage so why would they think handing in a few fake covid tests for players during the year would matter?

 

[BloodySwan]

Lololol

Yes of course the AFL would never play down/manipulate a scenario in which it would reflect badly on the integrity of their competiton!!

Likewise I’m sure all the betting agencies wouldnt be interested in certain teams potentially gaining an advantage over others by not adhering to clear rules put in place for all clubs

Bombers kicked out of finals, fined $2m and stripped of draft picks

AFL hands Bombers huge penalties for bringing the game into disrepute

www.afl.com.au

 

[Taylor]

Meh not really fussed, I'm happy enough. LOL wiping the games, come off it. The AFL have made a sensible decision, who honestly will care about it in a week lol

If Sydney had four games worth of wins removed from their total then nobody would care about it in a week, would they.

 

[Taylor]

Bombers kicked out of finals, fined $2m and stripped of draft picks

AFL hands Bombers huge penalties for bringing the game into disrepute

www.afl.com.au

This same case, when deciding on the players, found that even though an unknown substance was injected into the players and a banned substances was ordered, shipped and claimed to be delivered - because there wasn't a clear chain of custody of the banned substance into the player they couldn't be sure the player was injected with that banned substance. So they threw it out.

It's an example of the AFL running with whatever snakes and ladders style escape clause they can massage into use so they get the desired outcome.

 

[fnerd]

Those will be the rules worldwide next year just that AFL is slow.

So their not the rules now?
But as in who cares hey ?, so why did they even fine your club 100 k?, for something that doesn’t really matter?

Some A grade ignorance going on here.

Bombers kicked out of finals, fined $2m and stripped of draft picks

AFL hands Bombers huge penalties for bringing the game into disrepute

www.afl.com.au

Your kidding right?.

That was perhaps the biggest example of the AFL trying to sweep it under the rug!

Did you totally forget about the AFL finding them NOT guilty originally ??

Or vlad ringing the bombers CEO the night BEFORE the ASADA raids?

 

[Syd]

Nice to not have the Crows as the bad news club for a change. How refreshing.

Here

 

[LukeParkerno1]

So their not the rules now?
But as in who cares hey ?, so why did they even fine your club 100 k?, for something that doesn’t really matter?

Some A grade ignorance going on here.

Already said the fine is OTT, but for a soft cap fine it isn't the end of the world. Won't even be a thing next year anyway as no one is caring about this past this year and honestly most were past caring about it 9 months ago!

 

[KnaveyBlue]

"While the audit found there were five clubs with varying levels of non-compliance, it did not find that any club had obtained a competitive advantage through failure to comply."



If there was no competitive advantage to be gained by dodging the system then clubs wouldn't bother to do it.

 

[Ricketz]

Genius move, AFL - hit them in the soft cap.

Who are the dickheads coming up with this s**t?

 

[BarneyBent]

Do we actually know what these breaches were?

Reuploading an old test could be as simple as accidentally selecting the wrong photo. Or it could be a player forgot to take their test in time and tried to cover their arse with an old photo, which is bad, but not "cheating for competitive advantage" bad.

Administrative errors and player ill-discipline does not mean cheating. Clubs would, and should, have the book thrown at them if there's any hint of systematic dodging to avoid players missing footy. But there's zero evidence of this (at least not yet).

It will be interesting to see if more details come out, but this does read more like the fines levelled at salary cap admin errors, rather than an actual rort.

 

[Ricketz]

Already said the fine is OTT, but for a soft cap fine it isn't the end of the world. Won't even be a thing next year anyway as no one is caring about this past this year and honestly most were past caring about it 9 months ago!

It shouldn't be the soft cap - they are the people meant to enforce the AFL restrictions. They were run down during Covid so you will thank them by hurting their funding even more?

You did s**t, now do a better job with less resources.

It's *ed.

 

[maskmcgee]

Apart from all the deaths.

Yea like how there were 20,000 more deaths in Australia 2019 than there were in 2020

 

[Chief]

Yea like how there were 20,000 more deaths in Australia 2019 than there were in 2020

Measuring Australia's excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic

Provisional deaths data for measuring changes in patterns of mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period.

www.abs.gov.au

 

[StevenwellerHFC]

My tinfoil hat fits quite snug.

 

[Chief]

In any case we're off topic. I don't want to make this another Covid response thread and give the whackos somewhere to flood in.

 

[Ricketz]

Yea like how there were 20,000 more deaths in Australia 2019 than there were in 2020

How is that relevant? It's just uncorrelated numbers.

How many more deaths related to Covid in 2020, 2021 and 2022 compared to 2019?

My sister was one of them. She wasn't dead in 2019. I find your comment a disgraceful disrespect to those people who did die.

 

[VicBased]

In any case we're off topic. I don't want to make this another Covid response thread and give the whackos somewhere to flood in.

Agreed, the lack of empathy and compassion is is startling

 

[VicBased]

My sister was one of them. She wasn't dead in 2019. I find your comment a disgraceful disrespect to those people who did die.

I don't want to use the like button as it would not convey the right reaction.
Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Muddiemoose]

A lot of assumptions that it was players that messed up when the statement clearly says “Players and Football Program Staff at AFL Clubs”

Could be just the case of Coaches, Fitness staff or runners are the ones who messed up

 

[Ricketz]

I don't want to use the like button as it would not convey the right reaction.
Very sorry for your loss.

Thanks mate. It's a year ago and one day. Kind of on my mind.

 

[MrKK]

Do you think the AFL would just fine the clubs if they felt the clubs lied like that?

If the alternative was impacting the ladder position of 4 finals-bound clubs a week out from the end of the season? Absolutely.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Do we actually know what these breaches were?

Reuploading an old test could be as simple as accidentally selecting the wrong photo. Or it could be a player forgot to take their test in time and tried to cover their arse with an old photo, which is bad, but not "cheating for competitive advantage" bad.

Administrative errors and player ill-discipline does not mean cheating. Clubs would, and should, have the book thrown at them if there's any hint of systematic dodging to avoid players missing footy. But there's zero evidence of this (at least not yet).

It will be interesting to see if more details come out, but this does read more like the fines levelled at salary cap admin errors, rather than an actual rort.

You know what else there's zero evidence of? Whether or not some players tested positive and played when they shouldn't have.
If the AFL turned around to these clubs and said we need you to prove that this was just an administration error and not an attempt to circumvent the rules, none of them could.

These are multi-million dollar, professional sporting organisations. There would have been systems in place for testing and submitting.

It also brings into question whether a club was playing a player(s) who was positive, who then passed it on to an opposition player, who then missed games due to HS protocols.
This is much bigger than the AFL would like to have people believe.

 

[BarneyBent]

You know what else there's zero evidence of? Whether or not some players tested positive and played when they shouldn't have.
If the AFL turned around to these clubs and said we need you to prove that this was just an administration error and not an attempt to circumvent the rules, none of them could.

These are multi-million dollar, professional sporting organisations. There would have been systems in place for testing and submitting.

It also brings into question whether a club was playing a player(s) who was positive, who then passed it on to an opposition player, who then missed games due to HS protocols.
This is much bigger than the AFL would like to have people believe.

I mean it depends. If the test missed was on a Wednesday, but the Tuesday and Thursday tests were fine, then there's no issue.

If the players who missed their tests were injured, or played ressies, again no competitive advantage (at least not at senior level).

It's only a competitive advantage issue if a player played a senior game under a COVID test that was fraudulent. Given the nature of the audit, you would think that would be the first thing they'd check when looking at the timings of these tests. And given that they have ruled out competitive advantage, you can presume that none of the compliance issues affected game day availability.

 

[JyeDye]

I mean it depends. If the test missed was on a Wednesday, but the Tuesday and Thursday tests were fine, then there's no issue.

If the players who missed their tests were injured, or played ressies, again no competitive advantage (at least not at senior level).

It's only a competitive advantage issue if a player played a senior game under a COVID test that was fraudulent. Given the nature of the audit, you would think that would be the first thing they'd check when looking at the timings of these tests. And given that they have ruled out competitive advantage, you can presume that none of the compliance issues affected game day availability.

I highly doubt the Swans have copped a $100 000 fine for a few of their reserves missing a Wednesday RAT test. It's obvious that a competitive advantage has been gained, to what extent, who knows. The AFL simply have no way of determining how much of an advantage and therefore just go for a blanket nothing to see here statement about it.