Oppo Camp The Non-North Footy Discussion & Matchday Chat Thread (NNFD&MCT) - PART X

[krakouers]

Bulldogs coach victim of alleged $100,000 extortion attempt

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has reportedly been the victim of a disturbing extortion attempt, prompting the AFL integrity unit to appoint a security guard earlier this year.

thenightly.com.au

 

[Ashley B]

Interesting article about Liam Pickering and Scott Pendlebury

10

Scott Pendlebury

Age

37

Ht

191cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

26.5

5star

K

13.2

5star

HB

13.3

5star

M

4.1

4star

T

4.9

5star

CL

4.9

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

12.9

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

2.3

3star

CL

3.6

4star

D

12.4

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

4.8

4star

M

5.8

5star

T

2.6

4star

’s olde manager . The time Liam left was about the time Scott became involved with the company. Liam knew something wasn’t right it seems. The warning sign should have been a restaurant being a good investment. They are very hard work and you need a lot of experience to make them work https://www.theage.com.au/national/...n-restaurant-court-hears-20151208-gli69e.html

 

[Cyber_punk]

AFL boss defends controversial move to help West Coast

‘We want as a competition all our fans of all of our clubs to have hope.’

7news.com.au

AFL boss Andrew Dillon defends West Coast assistance package​

‘We want as a competition all our fans of all of our clubs to have hope.’

The assistance package featured an end-of-first-round draft pick and four additional rookie list spots for the 2026, 2027, and 2028 seasons.


But it has been topical, with the Eagles winning a grand final in 2018 and rival fans believing their current predicament is of their own making.

But Dillon said it was important to give fans hope given they’ve had just 11 wins since 2022, and finished second last, last, third last, and last in the past four seasons.
The Eagles secured dual Brisbane premiership player Brandon Starcevich

37

Brandon Starcevich

Age

26

Ht

188cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.2

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.6

2star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.0

4star

MG

185.3

3star

D

9.5

2star

K

7.3

3star

HB

2.3

2star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.1

3star

MG

187.9

3star

D

8.6

3star

K

5.4

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

1.4

2star

T

1.8

4star

MG

181.2

3star

and Richmond defender Tylar Young in the trade period held earlier this month and enter next month’s draft with three first-round picks 1, 2 and 13.

They also re-signed 2023 No. 1 draft pick Harley Reid until the end of 2028.

“They’ve taken that package and they’ve used that,” Dillon said.

“They’ve attracted a high calibre player and they’ve got two early picks in the draft,” Dillon said.

“I think what you want, what we want as a competition, is for all our fans of all of our clubs to have hope.
“So they’ll get two high quality players this year, or more than two in the draft .... and with Harley Reid as well, they are going to be OK.”

The Eagles also landed Pick two as compensation for departing free agent Oscar Allen

12

Oscar Allen

Age

26

Ht

196cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.8

2star

K

6.6

3star

HB

3.2

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.4

4star

G

1.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

8.6

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

2.8

3star

M

3.8

4star

T

2.0

4star

G

1.2

4star

, who has joined Brisbane.

 

[Samsquanch]

AFL boss defends controversial move to help West Coast

‘We want as a competition all our fans of all of our clubs to have hope.’

7news.com.au

AFL boss Andrew Dillon defends West Coast assistance package​

ok

 

[King Corey]

Its a business in the strictest sense so no journalist will get through the gate asking why this package was unconditional vs North Melbourne's.

It's not like Telstra or Commonwealth Bank would organise press conferences where they invite genuine hardball questions.

And AFL has even less concern for compliance with no watchdog giving 2 shits.

 

[giantroo]

 

[King Corey]

****ing hell.

You couldn't parody better than this.

 

[Ichiro #51]

****ing hell.

You couldn't parody better than this.

We just have to accept that this bullshit will never ever end.

 

[giantroo]

 

[King Corey]

Port Adelaide already planning to arseh*le him if Alastair Clarkson is rumoured to be available.

 

[Ashley B]

I take it all back Scott Pendlebury

10

Scott Pendlebury

Age

37

Ht

191cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

26.5

5star

K

13.2

5star

HB

13.3

5star

M

4.1

4star

T

4.9

5star

CL

4.9

5star

D

25.1

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

12.9

5star

M

3.4

3star

T

2.3

3star

CL

3.6

4star

D

12.4

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

4.8

4star

M

5.8

5star

T

2.6

4star

’s manager is a good bloke after all lol
Kangaroos supporter Jason Sourasis.

 

[Merlin007]

today's Age:​

​

football club meant to unite Tasmanians is bitterly dividing them​

Richard Flanagan​

Writer
October 29, 2025 — 5.00am

​

For decades the dream of a Tasmanian team was the island’s passion and the nation’s sentimental hope. As the VFL went national in the ’80s and became imperial in its mien, renaming itself the AFL in 1990, Tasmania, with its outstanding footballing tradition, made several proposals to join the national league, each rebuffed, the AFL instead coveting colonising the larger population centres. Footy, once dominant on the island, withered. Desperation took hold. Advocates of a Tassie team came to believe that without an AFL side, footy was condemned to die on the island.
It took an organisation as ruthless as the AFL to exploit that desperation, demanding a blank cheque from a broke state for a new roofed stadium at a spectacularly inappropriate site in the centre of the last Georgian cityscape in Australia in order for the dream to be realised. The stadium has become, to most Tasmanians, a gigantic death cap mushroom they refuse to swallow.

The future of the Tasmania Devils hangs in the balance.CREDIT: AFL PHOTOS

Leading economists and the Tasmanian Treasury have warned for more than a year about the state’s spiralling debt. With annual revenue of only about $9 billion, Tasmania faces a $22 billion debt ($13 billion state debt and $9 billion state business debt) by 2027. In June, Treasury warned that unless unnecessary infrastructure spending was halted, Tasmania would face either a 250 per cent increase in taxes, a 25 per cent cut in services, or 21,000 public servants sacked.
The stadium which only a year ago the Liberal government promised would not cost taxpayers “a red cent more” than $375 million is now estimated by the Tasmanian Planning Commission to cost $1.8 billion over 10 years, plus hundreds of millions more in uncosted extras.

No politician – Liberal or Labor – dares say publicly what many privately admit: Tasmania cannot afford the stadium without destroying its future. Yet no one has the courage to speak the truth for fear of blame if Tasmania loses its proposed AFL side, the Tassie Devils.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl...ays-no-to-hobart-stadium-20250917-p5mvp5.html
And therein lies the torment. Unless the AFL withdraws its unprecedented demand that Tasmania build a roofed stadium for just seven games a year, the island won’t get its team. But if it goes ahead, it will cripple Tasmania’s economy – driving up taxes, slashing public services, and risking recession or bankruptcy – and deeply damage its society.
Cuts have already begun. An “efficiency dividend” introduced in 2024 has triggered draconian measures – nurses recently went on strike over fears of a 58 per cent reduction in nursing staff at Tasmania’s cancer clinic, while TAFE fees have soared by 5000 per cent to $20,000 for some courses. The planning commission warned the stadium would require higher taxes and could cause a credit downgrade, worsening the debt spiral. Looked at this way, the project becomes not a symbol of hope but a monument to a state’s economic suicide.
Tasmanians – caught between political cowardice and the AFL’s callous indifference – are not the only losers. The Devils will suffer too. To succeed, the club needs the island’s half-million residents united behind it. Yet the AFL’s insistence on the stadium has irrevocably bound the team to a hated monument that will rise as Tasmania declines. A club meant to unite Tasmanians is dividing them.


The argument that a $2 billion stadium is needed to make the Devils “financially independent” is a cruel joke when bought at the cost of higher taxes, lost jobs, and cuts to health and education. On an island where illiteracy reportedly reaches 50 per cent, if you can’t read the scoreboard, every promise sounds like another marketing lie.

The brutal irony is that a stadium built to ensure the Devils’ success may condemn them to loathing and even failure in their home state. Despite the club’s denials, the AFL’s insistence on a stadium has dragged it into politics – intervening in two state elections to back the Liberals and pressure Labor. None of this was more shameful than in 2024, when, five days before the state election, the AFL staged a lavish launch of the team’s colours, name, logo and guernsey. Now the Devils plan to unveil their high-profile coach just before the parliamentary vote on the stadium – clearly seeking to pressure wavering MPs. To many Tasmanians, the Devils’ true colours are not green, yellow and red, but the blue of an unpopular minority Liberal government.
King Louis XIV allegedly once declared, “I am the state.” The 21st century sun kings – the AFL – can equally say that in Tasmania, it is the government. Like any empire, the AFL expects its colony to pay tribute and surrender its future.
When 21 Tasmanian politicians opposed to the stadium – spanning all levels of government from the Hobart lord mayor to Andrew Wilkie and Jacqui Lambie – requested a meeting with CEO Andrew Dillon in June, the AFL didn’t even reply. The arrogance is breathtaking: the AFL expects Tasmanians to pay for its $2 billion stadium while dismissing its leaders like beggars at the gate.

Their stadium breaks Tasmania’s planning and heritage rules, violates Treasury’s fiscal guidelines, and ignores the planning commission’s finding – based on an exhaustive year-long investigation – that it should not proceed because it would damage Hobart’s heritage, cityscape, and character as well as Tasmania’s brand, while diminishing “the economic welfare of Tasmanians as a whole”.

As a Tasmanian, I am horrified that the beauty and uniqueness of my historic city could be sacrificed to a thuggish corporation that believes itself above the law. I agree with Brent “Tiger” Crosswell – one of Tasmania’s greatest footballers – who opposes the stadium for one very simple reason: it would destroy the city he loves. I am appalled by the AFL’s bullying. I am enraged that Tasmanians are expected not just to cop all this but to pay for it with their future, burdening generations with debt.

And what if parliament refuses to back the stadium? Would the AFL really destroy its own team, with its players under contract and 100,000 mainland supporters? Even commentator Gerard Whateley doubts it. How could the AFL justify killing a club because a state refused to ruin itself for it?

Nor would the AFL need to. As well as two existing stadia where AFL games are regularly played, the Devils already have the richest state sponsorship deal in Australian sporting history – a staggering total of $314 million, composed of $144 million for the club over 12 years, $105 million to establish a high-performance centre, and $65 million to upgrade the Launceston stadium for the Devils games that will still be played there.

For now, the AFL doesn’t care. But when television screens fill with images of the homeless and of sacked workers chained to bulldozers at Macquarie Point, it might. In Tasmania, such battles tend to end in the mud and sometimes in jail – but they usually end the same way. The Franklin River, the pulp mills, the stadium: the people win, and the empire retreats in shame.

 

[Dinkers]

Good ^^^

 

[Makeshift Park]

Louis the Xiv, death cap mushrooms, and a 50% illiteracy rate?

With such a sense of understatement, I was kinda surprised Flanagan didn’t end that piece by evoking the spectre of Auschwitz, or likening Andrew Dillon to Sauron.

 

[ToxicMegaPunts]

Louis the Xiv, death cap mushrooms, and a 50% illiteracy rate?

With such a sense of understatement, I was kinda surprised Flanagan didn’t end that piece by evoking the spectre of Auschwitz, or likening Andrew Dillon to Sauron.

Not a problem in Tassie, as only one of the two heads needs to be literate.

 

[Dinkers]

Tassie should poach Dan the man Andrew. He gives no ****s for debt, is mad for it. Probably get his Chinese mates to build 3 stadiums.
Well if he isn't at a military parade in China of course, with his good friends Putin & Jong-un.

 

[King Corey]

Good ^^^

Clarkson's % of talking about Tasmania at North Melbourne press conferences just went up from 99.1 to 99.8.

Leaves 0.1 for Hawthorn and Brisbane each.

 

[roos_fanatic08]

I still can’t wrap my head around why a new stadium has to be part of the deal. What’s the matter with

 

[CURVE]

Occasionally a stat comes to your attention that amazes you a little and in the attached article two stats had that effect on me.

Dreams realised: Your club's last win with a goal after the siren

The first stat was North Melbourne's, it's hard to believe the last time we won after the siren was our coaches debut match all the way back in 1987.

Most recent win
Alastair Clarkson v Melbourne, round 15, 1987

Most recent loss
Nic Naitanui v West Coast, round 8, 2013


The second, is Essendon's, it's 112 years since they last won after the siren.

Most recent win
Jimmy Gordon v University, round 16, 1913

Most recent loss
Mac Andrew v Gold Coast, round 22, 2024

 

[big_e]

I still can’t wrap my head around why a new stadium has to be part of the deal. What’s the matter with

Because the AFL never really wanted a team and this gives them an excuse to back out.

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

I still can’t wrap my head around why a new stadium has to be part of the deal. What’s the matter with

When also compared against that both current stadium would be fine to house a relocated team.

They’re just ****ing simps.

 

[Samsquanch]

Not a problem in Tassie, as only one of the two heads needs to be literate.

And anyway, if they take their shoes and socks off, they can count to 24.

Or so.

 

[RightWingRoo]

I still can’t wrap my head around why a new stadium has to be part of the deal. What’s the matter with

Bellerive has no room to expand and is a s***house ground viewing wise.
They do need a better venue, but don’t need a roof and ideally a less difficult location.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Bellerive has no room to expand and is a s***house ground viewing wise.
They do need a better venue, but don’t need a roof and ideally a less difficult location.

They could whack it on the domain. Shitloads of parking there. Close enough to the CBD too.

But I kinda doubt that in the current economic environment they could build a roofless one there for less than a billion. So I’m not sure that would receive an endorsement from the local objectors anyway.

 

[RightWingRoo]

They could whack it on the domain. Shitloads of parking there. Close enough to the CBD too.

But I kinda doubt that in the current economic environment they could build a roofless one there for less than a billion. So I’m not sure that would receive an endorsement from the local objectors anyway.

The domain would be one option, could build it on the old TCA ground.
Other one would be Glenorchy, either at a redeveloped KGV oval or heard there was some vacant land near the racecourse.
There's no cheap option, but there is hopefully a compromise that would be cheaper than Mac Point.