Mega Thread Matt Rendell situation thread #2

[PrideOf]

did anyone else find it interesting that rendell didnt want to continue as a recruiting manager?
He signed the 3yr contract but only really because he wanted to complete this years super draft.

Most telling. A real backhander to Trigg.

 

[Carmo]

Nice theory but...
People in football resign all the time whether on contracts or not.
Secondly, he did resign and was not fired.

I think you've misunderstood what I was trying to say.

Forget contracts or not contracts.

My comments were in relation to a psychology text I've read, not recently so cant recall what its called or the author, but it was saying that sometimes, people who are not happy in their line of work or business wont just come up and say "I resign".

What they do instead is break a policy, abuse a superior, put in really poor performance over a period of time so the company has no choice but to sack them or in this case do all but that.....

 

[Vader]

Rendell's suggestion was made in good faith IMO. The idea was to help young people who come from a totally different cultural structure to adapt to the culture that surrounds city life and AFL football to maximize their chances of success.

Whether you agree with what Rendell was suggesting is irrelevant. His motives were good. Currently there has been a large failure rate with aboriginals drafted from remote areas, because they find it so hard to adapt to the huge demands of an AFL club and the huge differences in culture. His suggestion - for those who want to on a voluntary basis - is to spread the period over some years before they are drafted so they are not overwhelmed by a massive change in life and culture in one foul swoop.

I have always maintained that his intentions/motives were good and that he doesn't have a racist bone in his body. Nowhere have I said otherwise.

I also accept that there is a problem with the retention rates for kids recruited from these remoted & isolated aboriginal communities. I'm just arguing that his proposed solution could be seen as being fundamentally racist, not by intention - but the end result is still the same.

He did not make his suggestion in a patronizing manner. He saw it as a contribution to overcoming the current high failure rate.

I agree that he didn't intend his suggestion to come across as patronising. But can you see how some people could interpret it that way?

One final thing that really gets me angry.

I can say that Italians come from a different cultural background, as do Lebanese, as do Greeks etc etc, and nobody thinks I am being racist or trying to put them down.

But if I dared to say anything recognizing that aboriginals have a different cultural background, then the racist flag is being waved right, left and centre by certain people.

And that's what I think has happened to Rendell on this occasion.

I don't think that's what's happening here at all. He's not getting in trouble for acknowledging the fact that they have a different cultural background. That's an accepted fact. I believe he's getting in trouble because his proposed solution to the problem is fundamentally racist in its underlying concept - not intentionally, but that's the reality of it.

 

[johnnypanther]

We really do have a mob of clowns running the AFL - i thought it was bad enough with Vlad and Anderson - now we have that Ali Baba twittering around unprofessionally - it seems to me that he should resign too with Vlad.

 

[Punchy Bassett]

Academies within their communities?

So one part of society gets special treatment and the rest don't? Interesting theory in a thread talking about racism!

 

[Smoooothy]

Anyone else see Ali's comment re netball on twitter? For a national multicultural manager to say that netball isn't an elite sport I find incredibly sexist. A person in that position shouldn't make comments like that, given the climate

Or is sexism and female discrimination ok from the afl?

I think you'll find a couple of hundred women playing in the trans Tasman league that would disagree

 

[crowtricolours]

Caroline Wilson on 3AW Sports Today - Tuesday 200312

[YOUTUBE]06w6wagsgC4[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Dirty Bird]

Nice to know I'm sane with 100/114 people voting for what I was tossing up.

 

[King Elvis]

The info on this Ali guy changes everything.

I still think Trigg should've fought for Rendell, but it's pretty clear there is a hell of a lot more going on here.

Aus Post are trying to usurp NAB as a major AFL sponsor - theyve failed, but the AFL has apparently come up with a new sponsorship role for them; and the Postmaster General is this Ali guys relative (brother or father)?

What a total stitch up!!

 

[jenny61_99]

Not correct, Jenny, but that's irrelevant to the Rendell situation.

Even you have acknowledged that Rendell was not intending to be racist. If Mifsud and co saw something racist in his comments, then they should have thrashed that out with Rendell at the time, not assassinate him 6 weeks later.

I absolutely agree with you on this! This has become an AFL lead, orchestrated witch hunt - I don't know what the motivation is or why the lengthy delay.

On the other topic, I just think some people assume indigenous people are being "precious" when they take offense to things that are said - even those with great intentions. Vaders example is extreme for sure, but I believe it is possibly very valid in this case. And for indigenous people the sensitivity on this particular topic is greatly heightened for obvious reasons.

 

[Hollow Knight]

I don't think this reflects poorly on the Adelaide Football Club, moreso on Stephen Trigg (and Demetriou). Brisbane Lions fans know very well what it is like to have an autocratic CEO make decisions off his own bat that are just completely contrary to the values an expectations of the club's supporter base as a whole (see Michael Bowers, his paddlepop guernsey and the complete disregard for Fitzroy).

Hopefully your club can make this right somehow. Maybe showing the CEO the door. It worked for us. Keep making noise and the board will listen. If they don't, show them the door instead.

 

[ruscy002]

It's not about choice.

The thought process behind the (alleged) Stolen Generations is that the aboriginal kids needed to be taken away from their parents and cared for by white people, in order become valued members of society.

As you have highlighted, the choice factor is a HUGE part of this "thought process". How sinister would the scenario have been if the government just waited around for indigenous Australians to assimilate themselves into white society?

Flawed analogy, yes

We agree on something...

Many have argued that these "thought processes" that you speak of are part and parcel of a failed attempt at what is now called genocide - to project this stigma onto Rendell's ideas for a football academy without proof is extreme, unnecessary, and borderline defamatory no matter how you try to explain it.

 

[cmndstab]

I think the thing is that this comment has been portrayed to mean "aboriginal parents can't raise a kid to succeed in the AFL as well as white parents". Which would be a racist comment to make.



However, I don't think that was Rendell's point. I think his point was transitioning from a remote, country environment into the glare of the limelight and the vagaries of big cities, particularly away from family, is a huge move, and one that is a big contributing factor to many kids who are lost to the game. This could be equally true of people of any skin colour, however there are far more indigenous people per capita in that situation than there are indigenous people per capita one average over Australia. In this instance, Rendell was talking to someone who's very job is to look after the welfare of indigenous players, so he made his point in that context.


His point was not that "our way of life" is somehow better than the aboriginal way of life. His point was that the way the AFL is run is inherently foreign to the way of life in these remote communities, and that if we want the kids to have any kind of chance to make that transition, we need to expose them to it early. So we give them the opportunity to make it early, with scholarships, with AFL officials working with families, so that when they get drafted, and 48 hours later they're deposited in a completely foreign environment without any family or friends around them it's not such a huge shock.


Personally I think Cornes (or was it Rowe? I forget) hit the nail on the head on 5AA today. Misfud and/or Fahoul took offence at Rendell's comments, but not because the comments were racist; rather, because they didn't like being told that their system wasn't working. They were effectively being told that their system was failing people in remote communities, inidigenous people in particular - and by inference, that they personally were failing indigenous players. And they obviously didn't like hearing it. They'd rather believe that the AFL is set up equally well for everybody, and that when indigenous players, or any other players, fall out of the system it's because somebody else didn't nurture them properly, not because the AFL is not set up properly. And when Rendell told them it was the AFL that needed to do more, they got the hump.

And six weeks later here we are watching a man having his good name dragged through the mud for honestly trying to help.

 

[TooFar]

Our friend ClayMonk said this the other night. I told him he was making it up.


"I don't know that it was the AFL that did the executing. Rendell has been unprofessional on many occasions and whilst we enjoy his "straight talk", it is not usualy a good thing for the club. I think Trigg was sick of him blabbing to be honest, and I wouldn't blame him if this was the straw that broke the camels back"

ClayMonk, would you like to expand on this because you may have actually had a point.

Having heard Rendell speak for the first time last night ( I was not overly impressed), taken with his previous outburst and in addition to Trigg’s implied cover ups today, I feel that you may have a good read on the situation ClayMonk. This would explain the quick execution somewhat. Maybe Trigg had had enough and was looking for an out.

 

[Huntercrow]

So Robbo will reveal all in tomorrows Herald.
He says he has learned today of other comments made.
So who is providing all of these little extra snippets of info to the media?

Seems that the more the sentiment swings toward Rendell the more damaging the next round of revelations that make their way to the Media.

 

[Dolemite]

Having heard Rendell speak for the first time last night ( I was not overly impressed), taken with his previous outburst and in addition to Trigg’s implied cover ups today, I feel that you may have a good read on the situation ClayMonk. This would explain the quick execution somewhat. Maybe Trigg had had enough and was looking for an out.

Why were you not overly impressed?

 

[Huntercrow]

I was very impressed with Rendells interview last night.
Considering the pressure he has been under it spoke volumes for his character.
Talk about performance under pressure.
But that was how he played his best footy.

 

[cmndstab]

Also, can someone help me out? Trigg said Misfud was very offended, right? Have we heard this from anyone else? Demetriou? Or just Trigg?

I was under the impression that Misfud had brought it up because it was topical to the meeting, not because he was offended by it, and Demetriou had run with it from there. Perhaps I had it wrong?

 

[Dolemite]

So Robbo will reveal all in tomorrows Herald.
He says he has learned today of other comments made.
So who is providing all of these little extra snippets of info to the media?

Seems that the more the sentiment swings toward Rendell the more damaging the next round of revelations that make their way to the Media.

Get Misfud and Rendell face to face on Footy Classified and see what happens.

 

[ManInTheArena]

Hopefully your club can make this right somehow. Maybe showing the CEO the door.It worked for us. Keep making noise and the board will listen. If they don't, show them the door instead.

They can't, it's unconstitutional at the AFC, board appointments and reappointments are made by the board.

 

[jenny61_99]

What a coup it would be if one of these bloody "journalists" could sit ALL of them down in the same room and interview them! That would be VERY interesting!

 

[ruscy002]

I absolutely agree with you on this! This has become an AFL lead, orchestrated witch hunt - I don't know what the motivation is or why the lengthy delay.

On the other topic, I just think some people assume indigenous people are being "precious" when they take offense to things that are said - even those with great intentions. Vaders example is extreme for sure, but I believe it is possibly very valid in this case. And for indigenous people the sensitivity on this particular topic is greatly heightened for obvious reasons.

Andrew McLeod and Raph Clarke (two indigenous stars of the game) have backed Rendell to the hilt. They know him well, they have not taken issue with his comments at all. Mifsud supposedly didn't take issue even in his position in the AFL.

Vlad is not an indigenous Australian, and I apologise to Fahour if he is an indigenous Australian, but I don't believe that he is. Same goes for Trigg, and Caro Wilson. All of these people are the ones being super "precious" about this and...well...yeah, let's just say that they shouldn't be so bloody trigger happy.

 

[cmndstab]

Why were you not overly impressed?

Presumably because Demetriou is not a very polished speaker. He's extremely rough around the edges.

I imagine it's a big a turn-off to some as it is charming to others.

 

[FR0GGY]

Also, can someone help me out? Trigg said Misfud was very offended, right? Have we heard this from anyone else? Demetriou? Or just Trigg?

Caro is also under this belief. And publicly said so last night and on 3aw today.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Andrew McLeod and Raph Clarke (two indigenous stars of the game) have backed Rendell to the hilt.

As has Darryl White.