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

[justroyal]

Damn. I was hoping it was Eleni.

 

[DrZaius]

The Brownlow Medal was supposedly beyond the reaches of desperate and devious money makers.

Uhhh what?

But, no, an umpire has allegedly betrayed the purity of the Brownlow.

Come on Robbo, the Brownlow has only slightly more integrity than AA selection these days, which is to say quite little.

 

[Heaps of fun]

He has besmirched the good Pell name.

 

[Hojuman]

Pell umpired our 2015 prelim yeh ?

 

[DrZaius]

He has besmirched the good Pell name.

LOL

 

[shinboner magic]

Only fair that the cats are stripped of their flag

 

[SonofSamsquanch]

He has besmirched the good Pell name.

I had a PE teacher named Pell. An American but he could play cricket and footy pretty well. Was actually a decent bloke too.

 

[Disco Dew]

He has besmirched the good Pell name.

 

[DarwinRoo]

Interesting that 3AW news reader said that the umpire is alleged to have distributed the info to HER group of friends. Only one HER I know who umpires unless it was a slip of the tongue. (Hun report says four men arrested - curious).

If it was Tony Tardio then I’m surprised he isn’t blaming Dan Andrews.

 

[giantroo]

 

[big_e]

It's Pell.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/news/mark-robinson-reveals-the-money-trail-that-exposed-an-afl-umpire-in-alleged-brownlow-medal-betting-scandal/news-story/f8b338c3481253a9ed48909eb875d811

​

Finally, sadly, the Brownlow Medal may have been got at.

It seems it could have been an inside job, as it always is with the betting scandals which have rocked sports around the world.

Cricket, baseball, basketball, soccer, you name them and they’ve all been brutalised by people believing they can fix matches, play dead or bowl no balls.
The Brownlow Medal was supposedly beyond the reaches of desperate and devious money makers.

But, no, an umpire has allegedly betrayed the purity of the Brownlow.

His name is Michael Pell.

You might not have heard his name before, and now you probably won’t forget it.

He, and three others, were arrested on Monday morning.

They probably were thinking they had got away with the Great Brownlow Robbery until police knocked on their doors.

It’s not yet known why Pell allegedly gave the votes of several matches to his three mates, who then allegedly placed bets across multiple betting agencies.

Was it a dumb tip-off or was it much more sinister?

Did Pell owe them money, was he being stood over? Are they old mates or organised crime figures? Did he get a cut of the action?

A police investigation will probably determine all that.

The immediate concern for the AFL is how deep does the scandal run

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How many times did it allegedly happen and is Pell the only umpire?

Pell would be feeling sick right now.

He’s allegedly been caught betraying football’s most prestigious and most sacred award, which had its first night of celebration in 1925.

Not once off, either. He’s allegedly cheated the system in multiple games. He sat with his fellow two field umpires post-matches, where they decided who would receive the 3,2 and votes, and then he allegedly broke the seal of trust.

Pell umpired in the vicinity of 16 games this year and all 16 of those games have or will be scrutinised with betting agencies.

Allegations of The Great Brownlow Robbery, as opposed to one of Victoria’s most famous sporting scandals The Great Bookie Robbery, were identified by a modern-day crime fighter — data.

It appears Pell’s three mates, or at least one of them as the kingpin, placed the same bets across multiple agencies to try to avoid being red-flagged by the data police.

It didn’t work.

One agency was alerted to a punter or punters placing bets on players’ votes in different matches and winning every time. By the end of the count, a red flag was beside his name.

That information was given to the AFL. It cross-checked betting patterns with their other betting partners and found the same person/people had placed similar Brownlow bets with them.

The AFL immediately knew the information could only come from one source _ the umpires.

It cross checked the betting with games and the umpires involved and it produced the one constant — Pell.


The discovery sickened AFL officials, too.

The league is accused of over indulging in betting partners, but without them Pell and his mates would still be thinking they were God’s gift to gambling.

Pell’s explanation will be the most riveting.

There’s a documentary on Netflix about an NBA referee named Tim Donaghy, who in 2007 gave information to gamblers about how he would referee games. He also bet on those games.

He was jailed for 15 months.

Over the years, there’s always been whispers and rumours surrounding the Brownlow.

Plunges have been won and lost, but one story has a bit more meat on the bone than others.

In 1993, the umpires had their traditional pre-Brownlow BBQ on the Sunday, and the chatter among each other suggested Essendon’s Gavin Wanganeen would go close to winning the medal.

Carlton’s Greg Williams was the raging favourite, but one of the umpires told a bloke about the enthusiasm for Wanganeen, and the bloke told colleague Jon Anderson, who already had a stack on Williams to win.

At 14-1, Anderson had a saver on Wanganeen. ‘’Hearing the umpires had said that was enough for me,’’ Anderson said.

The most infamous scandal came in 1910, when Carlton’s Bongo Lang was suspended for five years for accepting a bribe.

In response to these current allegations there will be calls to change the Brownlow Medal voting.

We don’t want that.

What we want, what we ask for, is people who don’t cheat, lie and deceive the Brownlow Medal.

Now it’s allegedly happened and Pell might end up joining football’s Hall of Shame, and potentially being on the podium.

Of course the best medal leak of all time was that involving North Melbourne's own Brady Anderson, whose Sandover Medal win was leaked by the WAFL receptionist who had to call and invite him to the count.

 

[andana]

Of course the best medal leak of all time was that involving North Melbourne's own Brady Anderson, whose Sandover Medal win was leaked by the WAFL receptionist who had to call and invite him to the count.

Surprised we never gave his program a go considering all the players we've lost thru injury

 

[Passmore]

 

[DarkPhoenix]

McKenna picks Brisbane as the team he wants to go to for his return.

Colour me ******* shocked, player with a free choice at where he goes picks a premiership contender.

 

[shinboner magic]

McKenna picks Brisbane as the team he wants to go to for his return.

Colour me ******* shocked, player with a free choice at where he goes picks a premiership contender.

Why doesn’t he have to go into the draft

 

[Passmore]

Why doesn’t he have to go into the draft

Must be something about "retirement". Tipungwuti- McDonald did the same.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Why doesn’t he have to go into the draft

I think the rule is something like that if you are an ex-AFL player not on an AFL list for 1 year, then you are classified as DFA who can be picked up by anyone. Same was the case for Tippa, I think, who could have chosen anywhere to play (but The Bard was too convincing).

It wouldn't surprise me if they stretched out the criteria to 2 or 3 years somewhere along the way, as I can see someone pulling a dodgy soon enough.

 

[Val Keating]

Old mate is going down the sustained success path again. I’d tell the Essendon supporters it’s a trap, but * Essendon.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

I think the rule is something like that if you are an ex-AFL player not on an AFL list for 1 year, then you are classified as DFA who can be picked up by anyone. Same was the case for Tippa, I think, who could have chosen anywhere to play (but The Bard was too convincing).

It wouldn't surprise me if they stretched out the criteria to 2 or 3 years somewhere along the way, as I can see someone pulling a dodgy soon enough.

Nah, Tippa "retired" this year, but final list lodgement isn't until Dec 1st and * never delisted him.

So he was never officially off their list.

If you retire, you can't play for a club other than the one you were signed at for 18months.

So when he decided to un-retire, he was just re-activated as a current player and signed a new contract.

 

[giantroo]

 

[The acurate one]

Old mate is going down the sustained success path again. I’d tell the Essendon supporters it’s a trap, but * Essendon.

Oh it will be methodical alright. Years in the making Brad is mad for sustained success. Also never put wins against the side preseason as those they work against you as the season unfolds.

But of course, if you have a poor year, it is all part of the journey. Then you can shove it up the arse of those saying you're no good when you climb the dais for a ninth-place finish.

* have been through a lot and I'm thinking this may just be going too far.

oh well.

 

[King Corey]

Old mate is going down the sustained success path again. I’d tell the Essendon supporters it’s a trap, but * Essendon.

Geebus.

Brad Scott, Jake Stringer, Darcy Parish, Adrian Dodoro.

So many knobbers in the one place.

 

[Val Keating]

Geebus.

Brad Scott, Jake Stringer, Darcy Parish, Adrian Dodoro.

So many knobbers in the one place.

Just keeping up their tradition

 

[TennisPlayerAndy]

Geebus.

Brad Scott, Jake Stringer, Darcy Parish, Adrian Dodoro.

So many knobbers in the one place.

He’ll have the downhill skiing, defensively unaccountable group looking a million dollars.

Right up to the point they give up multiple leads and miss the finals with a percentage of 120.

 

[TheBigHorne]

He’ll have the downhill skiing, defensively unaccountable group looking a million dollars.

Right up to the point they give up multiple leads and miss the finals with a percentage of 120.

Honestly he's prefect for them in an evil way

A tease coach for an easily teased fanbase. They'll be up and about when they put away a top 4 team easily but call for the heads when they drop the inevitable game to a poor side.