Elmer_Judd
Everyone's favourite grouch
- Jul 25, 2019
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I have no doubt the Swans wouldn't have hesitated to use the full legal arsenal at their disposal.
After all, isn't that everyone's complaint, that back in '05 we used a QC to read the AFL's rules back to them to show that Barry Hall had no case to answer for and was free to play in the granny?
Nah, the trade ban was pure and simple the AFL sending a very clear message to the Swans to get back in our box.
Of course we have been on the receiving end of concessions to help grow the game in NSW (the most notorious of which was signed off on by all other AFL club presidents), but the relationship is far more complicated than the simplistic Golden Child crap you read about us on BF. Power in any high-stakes relationship is exercised on multiple levels, in both directions.
Wasn't it a bit of spite/revenge from Mike Fitzpatrick for the Swans pinching Buddy from under the Giants noses ? Fitzy was a stakeholder in the Giants stadium at the time or something I believe.