Mega Thread Matt Rendell situation thread #2

[Syd Crow]

Nah.. it is dying out. Albeit slowly.

Between midnight & 2:45pm yesterday there were 126 posts in this thread. Today we've had just 111 posts in the same period. Most of today's posts have been stirred up by the news of Mifsud's interview, I'd say the count would have been less than 50 if he had opted to remain silent. While I haven't bothered counting them, I'd also guess that there have been considerably fewer people posting in this thread in the same period.

Remember some of us have to work during the day! If Vlad crossed the road in front of me I am not sure my foot would touch the brake in time.......

 

[Syd Crow]

unfortunately i have to agree with you here vader, there no doubt something offensive was said in my mind.
the answers im looking for is why has this been dealt in such an unproffessional manner?
how an informal conversation can lead to a man being branded a rascist in such a public way?


some of the ppl tweeting mifsud have to ask themselves are they helping the matter or making it worse? He is not gonna answer questions over twitter. Seems to me it could be doing MR more hurt than good. wait till the mangrook interview is aired. Then you can fire away.

This is the bit that annoys me the most........

 

[Syd Crow]

I think he was given fair process as far as being found guilty.

I still disagree with this. Yes he may have been guilty in the AFL's eyes - but it was hardly a fair process. Slightly better than Blackadder's trial for eating General Melchard's pigeon.

 

[Deaneus!]

... Waiting for the Marngrook interview, any ideas on the hard hitting questions that will be asked?

How many Weetbix do you do?

Whoops, nearly wrote "what's you're favorite colour?" but I'm going for the soft interview angle not the racist angle!

 

[Syd Crow]

Found the quote at last. It's in an article from yesterday's The Age, written by Michael Gleeson:

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/rendells-fate-sends-right-message-20120320-1vi0z.html?rand=1332247284552

Of course it was an "official" meeting because they held it in AFC offices and discussed AFL business. That does not make how it was handled afterwards by the AFL any better in my eyes.

 

[ruscy002]

... Waiting for the Marngrook interview, any ideas on the hard hitting questions that will be asked?

How many Weetbix do you do?

Whoops, nearly wrote "what's you're favorite colour?" but I'm going for the soft interview angle not the racist angle!

I don't expect the hard-hitting questions, but I do think that the AFL want this to go away. As such, the tone of this interview will be firm and heavily in favour of the AFL's position, while trying to wind back a bit of the damage that has been done to Rendell's image or at least not damage it further.

The absolute last thing that Vlad will want is to put Rendell in a position where he has to defend his integrity again, not right before the season launch.

 

[RocknRoll]

I'm a bit bored before the Marngrook show.
Not sure if this has been mentioned (too many pages!) but there are a few fundamental differences between the various AFL Indigenous Academy programs and the proposed Rendell Academy.

eg
http://aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=777

There are 5 schools spread around Australia. They have the following goals:

Improved school attendance
Improved academic performance
Increased employment opportunities
Increased participation in AFL
Talent identification

So the main difference as I see it is encouragement in education as #1 priority. I don't think there would be many who would discourage this. Also the schools are spread around Australia, not focussed in Melbourne. I havent looked for numbers but I imagine there would be perhaps hundreds (maybe even thousands) of kids involved in this program and other similar ones. The AFL component would encourage kids who are maybe otherwise disinterested in school to attend. I think this is a great idea.

In comparison with the Rendell Academy the aim of which seems to be
- identify 30 supremely talented youngsters
- pack them off to Melbourne so they can learn white man's ways prior to being drafted
- give them more football skills
- education is a distant third place
- too bad if you are not selected for this as you probably wont get drafted

The priorities are completely wrong and focussed on helping the AFL rather than the many disadvantaged indigenous kids out there. It might be possible to spin this in a different way but you would need to be careful about it.

 

[The Sloane Ranger]

As more information comes to light the more you can't help but feel that the handling of this matter by both the AFL and AFC has been nothing more than a ass covering exercise based on a total risk adverse position knowing that Matty's comments would be taken out of context and be jumped on by the minority politically correct groups in the community.....

Yes Matty R comments were clumsy however IMO not racist and If the AFC does actually stand by its recruitment and player management record of indigenous players than why not stand proud by this and support Matty by explaining the comments in the context of the total discussion.

Not the clubs proudest moment and unfortunately the racist perception drove the clubs behavior to act, I would have preferred that the appropriative action should be driven by the facts

 

[King Elvis]

The AFL spin machine is rewriting history here and they are most fortunate that their victim is such a nice guy and so magnanimous.

Spot on.

 

[glengowan]

I'm a bit bored before the Marngrook show.
Not sure if this has been mentioned (too many pages!) but there are a few fundamental differences between the various AFL Indigenous Academy programs and the proposed Rendell Academy.

eg
http://aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=777

There are 5 schools spread around Australia. They have the following goals:

Improved school attendance
Improved academic performance
Increased employment opportunities
Increased participation in AFL
Talent identification

So the main difference as I see it is encouragement in education as #1 priority. I don't think there would be many who would discourage this. Also the schools are spread around Australia, not focussed in Melbourne. I havent looked for numbers but I imagine there would be perhaps hundreds (maybe even thousands) of kids involved in this program and other similar ones. The AFL component would encourage kids who are maybe otherwise disinterested in school to attend. I think this is a great idea.

In comparison with the Rendell Academy the aim of which seems to be
- identify 30 supremely talented youngsters
- pack them off to Melbourne so they can learn white man's ways prior to being drafted
- give them more football skills
- education is a distant third place
- too bad if you are not selected for this as you probably wont get drafted

The priorities are completely wrong and focussed on helping the AFL rather than the many disadvantaged indigenous kids out there. It might be possible to spin this in a different way but you would need to be careful about it.

I think your analogy is pretty close to the mark.

However, Rendell's job is (was) a recruiter of an AFL club so he has every right to put forward a suggestion from his point of view. It is then up to the Misfud's and AFL to discuss and see if it is something that could be implemented. Rendell's idea was trying to make a positive for both the AFL and talented young Indigenous footballers. His "white parent" comment was nothing more than "silly" in the context of the conversation.

The whole thing has turned rotten. The way the AFL and the AFC have treated a person who has served them well for so long is nothing short of disgusting and disgraceful and Demetriou and Trigg in particular should be ashamed of themselves.

Hopefully Rendell and Misfud get through this ok and can be bigger people than what their "bosses" have displayed.

I look forward to seeing what Misfud has to say. After listening to Rendell on Triple M yesterday I can only expect the AFL have already had an influence and we'll never hear the real truth. The AFL will be padding this as much as possible I'm afraid.

 

[aneale]

... Waiting for the Marngrook interview, any ideas on the hard hitting questions that will be asked?

How many Weetbix do you do?

Whoops, nearly wrote "what's you're favorite colour?" but I'm going for the soft interview angle not the racist angle!

What part of Malta do you come from?

 

[SydCrow]

Jason wants to have tough conversations and wants people to be part of the solution

Just not Matty.

Gilbert McAdam - Rendell isn't a racist he is just ignorant.

Chris Johnson - well done AD. CJ is one of 70 employees in the AFL's indigenous program.

Ronnie Burns - there is a choice, if you don't want to be part of it, don't nominate for the draft.

 

[ltdamn]

Jason Mifsud - 'We need a solution. We need to have difficult conversations. We need to focus on cultural education and re-education. This will give the issue momentum like the Nicky Winmar incident. This will move the agenda forward.'

 

[Vader]

This thread's getting close to 1000 posts and is likely to explode when the Mifsud interview is finally broadcast.

Time for part 3.