PSD pick 2 - No Big Mal.

[Duckworth]

I know that we have signed up Mal Michael and have committed to using our pick 2 in the PSD on recruiting him. If due to an AFL investigation they rule that Essendon is ineligable to select him, as a hypothetical question, what do you believe Essendon should do?

Should Essendon attempt to draft an experienced player to fill the hole in the backline like Perry, or dare I say it redraft Henneman

Or should Essendon take a gamble on a smaller type player that managed to slip through the draft. I read in the paper today that Leigh Adams has been approached by Essendon and asked to train with them (presumably to rookie draft) but could his career could possibly be fast tracked. Others maybe we could look at may include Bird?

Please bear in mind this is a hypothetical question, as I personally believe that Mal Michael will be a Bomber next year, and they will attempt to fix the loop hole next year. What are your thoughts people?

 

[Shane Hird]

I know that we have signed up Mal Michael and have committed to using our pick 2 in the PSD on recruiting him. If due to an AFL investigation they rule that Essendon is ineligable to select him, as a hypothetical question, what do you believe Essendon should do?

Should Essendon attempt to draft an experienced player to fill the hole in the backline like Perry, or dare I say it redraft Henneman

Or should Essendon take a gamble on a smaller type player that managed to slip through the draft. I read in the paper today that Leigh Adams has been approached by Essendon and asked to train with them (presumably to rookie draft) but could his career could possibly be fast tracked. Others maybe we could look at may include Bird?

Please bear in mind this is a hypothetical question, as I personally believe that Mal Michael will be a Bomber next year, and they will attempt to fix the loop hole next year. What are your thoughts people?

I believe the BLs are bluffing with their threats to do what ever it takes to stop MM playing with us...his ours now

 

[Andrew_5]

I dont think nothing can happen anyway..
we asked the afl if it was ok, they said yes, end of...

 

[Lance Uppercut]

...and the draft played out on the assumption we would get him. For eg, we picked Gumby over Hansen.

Not sure the AFL can change it all up too easily

 

[Duckworth]

I believe the BLs are bluffing with their threats to do what ever it takes to stop MM playing with us...his ours now

I agree, I think he's ours now! I really want to get my hands on Leigh Adams though. I really hope we get him in the rookie draft.

 

[Andrew_5]

wouldn't it be ironic if the afl changed there mind also
it would be like mal michael changing his...

 

[Shane Hird]

I dont think nothing can happen anyway..
we asked the afl if it was ok, they said yes, end of...

Is that right A5? Have they said its OK? When did they say that?

All I heard was Leigh matthews spouting on the late news last night saying the Lions were robbed and EFC are not gunna get away with it.

 

[Napier_Street]

This is such a non issue. The AFL/Lions have absolutely no legal grounds to prevent Michael from playing at Essendon. He is out of contract!!!

 

[Andrew_5]

Is that right A5? Have they said its OK? When did they say that?

All I heard was Leigh matthews spouting on the late news last night saying the Lions were robbed and EFC are not gunna get away with it.

heard sheedy on the radio and read it in the paper
Sheedy asked MM manager if he really wanted to retire
and had GO'D talk to him and they convinced him to play on...
EFC went to the AFL..
They said it was all ok,
MM signed the contract and became an Essendon player

I'll try to look it up for you mate so you can read it too, I know i read it somewhere...

 

[Shane Hird]

heard sheedy on the radio and read it in the paper
Sheedy asked MM manager if he really wanted to retire
and had GO'D talk to him and they convinced him to play on...
EFC went to the AFL..
They said it was all ok,
MM signed the contract and became an Essendon player

I'll try to look it up for you mate so you can read it too, I know i read it somewhere...

No worries

Brisbane can cry in their soup for I care

 

[Duckworth]

Is that right A5? Have they said its OK? When did they say that?

All I heard was Leigh matthews spouting on the late news last night saying the Lions were robbed and EFC are not gunna get away with it.

Michael 'sham' has Lions growling

Chip Le Grand November 25, 2006

THE AFL last night launched an investigation into the "sham" retirement of triple premiership full-back Mal Michael as the Brisbane Lions vowed to "examine all avenues" to prevent Michael from playing with Essendon or another club next season.

Michael has been accused of misleading the Lions over his retirement plans and breaching a two-year, $50,000 contract to serve as the club's "ambassador" in Melbourne and Papua New Guinea.
Brisbane chief executive Michael Bowers said the Essendon recruiting coup of signing Michael for two years, if endorsed by the AFL, would "tear at the whole fabric" of the competition's highly regulated player market.
"This is a complete and utter ruse," Bowers said. "It is a sham and a fraud on the club. If this situation is left to stand, then the integrity of AFL contracts and the drafting system will be seriously undermined. It creates the potential for anarchy and no other AFL club could seriously support such a precedent.
"We will examine all avenues for stopping Mal Michael playing for Essendon or any other senior AFL club until the end of 2007."
Essendon chief executive Peter Jackson defended Michael's decision to nominate for next month's pre-season draft and Essendon's right to take him and said the move had already been cleared by the AFL's investigations manager Ken Wood.
Jackson said Essendon's first contact with Michael was on November 2, nearly a month after he formally retired from Brisbane by signing a deed of release from his next year's playing contract. He dismissed suggestions that the Bombers had secretly orchestrated his Gabba exit.
"Anyone who retires and gets absolutely no consideration for it other than what they are entitled to get under that year's contract; it is a bit rich to say you can't go and earn a livelihood somewhere else," Jackson said. "All that has happened is the guy has changed his mind."
Bowers challenged the Dons' version of events and invited all parties to submit phone records for scrutiny.
"If Essendon is happy to give up phone records to confirm that no one at the Essendon Football Club rang Mal and Mal didn't ring the Essendon Football Club, that would be a very easy thing to prove," he said.
Michael said he had no intention of playing next year until his manager Michael Quinlan received a speculative phone call from Essendon and former Brisbane assistant coach Gary O'Donnell on November 2.
Two weeks later, he met Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy and Jackson at a Windy Hill coffee shop and agreed to end his brief retirement.
But in a curious admission, Michael revealed he had already begun to question his decision to retire on the day of the grand final - four days before he met Bowers at the Gabba to sign his deed of release. The following night at Brisbane's best and fairest count, Michael received glowing tributes from his former team-mates.
Essendon announced mid-morning yesterday that Michael had agreed to terms to join the Bombers for the next two years and that the club would use its No.2 pick in the December draft to secure him.
Carlton has the first pick in the draft, but coach Denis Pagan said the Blues remained committed to former Port Adelaide and St Kilda ruckman Cain Ackland. "We have no intention of drafting Mal Michael," Pagan said.
In pure football terms, a fit Michael and the expected return of Matthew Lloyd from injury will have a dramatic impact on the Essendon goal-to-goal line and its 2007 season prospects.
With Michael at full-back, Dustin Fletcher will be released to centre-half back, ensuring Scott Lucas plays as a permanent forward alongside Lloyd. By the time Essendon takes its No.2 selection in today's national draft, its team will be further strengthened by the addition of either ruckman Matthew Leuenberger or key forward Scott Gumbleton.
Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy said the influx of talent would give the Bombers a "powerful opportunity."
But the reverberations from the Michael bombshell will be felt more immediately within AFL House, which must spend the next few weeks wading through claims and counter claims from Michael, Quinlan and officials from the two clubs, as well as the peculiar financial arrangement between Michael and the Lions.
The deed of release signed by Michael on October 4 and lodged with the AFL by the Lions makes no mention of retirement and does no prohibit Michael playing with another club.
But what might otherwise be a clean break is complicated by a subsequent arrangement in which Michael agreed to provide "consultancy and other services" to the Lions as an ambassador splitting his time between Melbourne and PNG. Michael confirmed he had signed the agreement, but the Lions have not lodged it.
It appears Brisbane and Michael are in financial dispute over whether the $50,000 was for genuine "ambassadorial services" or deferred playing wages and whether the money would be paid to Michael personally or a company. Michael refused to comment on claims he had contacted the club as recently as three days ago to request payment in full.
Jackson denied any knowledge of the agreement and said it was a matter for Brisbane and the AFL. He also accused Brisbane of not doing all it could to retain Michael, who had lobbied Lions coach Leigh Matthews for a reduced training schedule.
"If you are quietly not that unhappy that a player is going to announce his retirement with a year to go because you have got salary cap pressures and you want to keep other players you wish him all the best," Jackson said.
"If you really want to keep that player and he is determined to retire well I would suggest you would draw up a deed of release which is a little bit different."

 

[Andrew_5]

thats it thanks Duckworth...

 

[Shane Hird]

Looks like the Lions havn't got a leg to stand on with this issue.

 

[Andrew_5]

Looks like the Lions havn't got a leg to stand on with this issue.

No they dont...
They should of put the same clause in their contract as Port Adelaide did with Stewart Dew, "the cant play for another club" clause..

Now the Lions are regretting it...

 

[blumfieldisback]

and Matthews said hey look providing essendon didnt makea deal before mal retired what can the brisbane lions really do?? they should have negotiated that clause in his retirement package and their wouldnt have been a problem because A he would have stayed or B retired for good.

what is the investigation going to prove, who is going to fess up and say yeah we convinced mal michael to go down this path to get him to essendon.

and the lions crying over missing a draft pick well this could happen to any club, if a player is out of contract u could lose him for nothing ala port adelaide losing Nick Stevens. Boo hoo caroline wilson lets look after brisbane after they have won 3 premierships in a row and played in 4 grannys a feat not achieved since 1950.

We lost wanganeen and for what McAlister yeah that was fair for us. we lost Merret to Brisbane maybe this is payback time. people have short memories.

 

[IDGAF]

Looks like the Lions havn't got a leg to stand on with this issue.

Probably not ... but morally reprehensible

Put biased views aside and take 5 minutes to think about it . Can you imagine the can of worms this can possibly open up ?

This means anyone who is on a little in years , sick of thier current club and desires a change , can manipulate the system in this fashion depending who is on the bottom rungs of the ladder ... clubs are are screwed because they have no option but to tear up the contracts and ...Hey Presto ! ... we have decided to go on.

IMHO he should have the option of playing for the Lions this year or have a year off and then play next year .

I repeat ... horrible can of worms being opened here .

 

[tom9779]

Probably not ... but morally reprehensible

Put biased views aside and take 5 minutes to think about it . Can you imagine the can of worms this can possibly open up ?

This means anyone who is on a little in years , sick of thier current club and desires a change , can manipulate the system in this fashion depending who is on the bottom rungs of the ladder ... clubs are are screwed because they have no option but to tear up the contracts and ...Hey Presto ! ... we have decided to go on.

IMHO he should have the option of playing for the Lions this year or have a year off and then play next year .

I repeat ... horrible can of worms being opened here .

Not really, the only can of worms is that clubs need to make sure they have the right work place agreements in place to protect them.

If a person can't decide to play AFL again after retiring, then I think there is something seriously wrong with that.

 

[DaSawx]

You think any club would be stupid enough to let this happen again?

Get a grip, no worms, no precedent set, nothing, teams will just be smarter in the future, quite simple.

All this crap about the draft being redundant, huge can of worms blah blah blah is quite laughable

 

[IDGAF]

You think any club would be stupid enough to let this happen again?

Get a grip, no worms, no precedent set, nothing, teams will just be smarter in the future, quite simple.

All this crap about the draft being redundant, huge can of worms blah blah blah is quite laughable

... i don`t think so

throw in the fact that Brisbane lost a triple premieship , AA player for no compensation

Be interesting to read the work on here if it was Dustin Fletcher ... your not being objective .

Your right about one thing ... teams will have to be smarter .

 

[IDGAF]

If a person can't decide to play AFL again after retiring, then I think there is something seriously wrong with that.

The question is Thomas , was he ever retiring in the first place ?

 

[DaSawx]

... i don`t think so

throw in the fact that Brisbane lost a triple premieship , AA player for no compensation

Be interesting to read the work on here if it was Dustin Fletcher ... your not being objective .

Your right about one thing ... teams will have to be smarter .

I can definately undertsand why Brisbane fans would be angry, but I can't see it going even close to someone being able to retire and go somewhere else just because they don't like the place, all this incident has done has awoken teams to a loophole which will easily be closed off by everyone.

 

[Duckworth]

I can definately undertsand why Brisbane fans would be angry, but I can't see it going even close to someone being able to retire and go somewhere else just because they don't like the place, all this incident has done has awoken teams to a loophole which will easily be closed off by everyone.

Well said! It will be up to clubs to add in a clause to prevent this type of thing happening in the future. May even make some players think twice about retiring, not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[IDGAF]

May even make some players think twice about retiring, not necessarily a bad thing.

Don`t know about that , 99% of retirements are genuine ... this one clearly wasn`t .

... in any case , maybe the Lions had it coming , looks like a fair bit went on behind closed doors up there . Defineately a few guys with s..t on the liver

 

[wazzabp]

I can definately undertsand why Brisbane fans would be angry, but I can't see it going even close to someone being able to retire and go somewhere else just because they don't like the place, all this incident has done has awoken teams to a loophole which will easily be closed off by everyone.

Exactly. Clubs will now look after their own best interests a bit more vigilantly in future.

 

[silk]

Brisbane need to stop worrying about stopping this and work out how then can make money from it... Brisbane vs Essendon next year is going to be one of the biggest matches out side of finals. Brisbane should use this to create a "rivalry" and they need to market it to the people in brisbane, with a focus on J BROWN VS MAL MICHAEL: Rumble in jungle 2 or some crap like that