http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/74131/default.aspx

Good artcle by Lethal but then he flowers it up with this comment.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

I would've thought that the AFL website was more of a fact-based medium. Speculation over salaries and what is and isn't included under the cap is the role of the MSM.



That's not what I heard...

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"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" - Winston Churchill.

Lethal is trying to pump up his "old" team....the Old.."They reckon they're better than you"

Seems like a fair question to me...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Why?

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

It would be a fair question as long as Voss, Black, Lynch, Aker, Power etc. etc. never received money from 3rd parties. Obviously that did not happen whilst Lethal was coach.

There was a lot of rumours about the brisbane boys getting payments/jobs with sponsors like Suncorp. At least this is out in the open.
Also worth remembering that the deal got the go-ahead from the AFL sometime last year. At the time Judd chose Carlton he couldnt have known the Visy job was guaranteed.

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T E A M

It will be interesting to see how our players respond to all this positive feedback from the media.
Remember the match we lost against Essendon* last year after heroic victories against Collingwood and Port Adelaide......I just hope we handle it better this year and don't become complacent.

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There is no footy god

Lethal was coach not CEO or club president.

I wouldn't expect Ratten to have anything to do with Judd's financial arrangements and I doubt Lethal did with his Brisbane players.

It's a fair question when any of these arrangements occur; doesn't matter if it's Judd, Brisbane players, James Hird the stockbroker or whomever.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

But he is commenting on something that the AFL has already ticked off as being legit. So by making the comment, he is trying to be a journo who hangs around garbage cans.

The question is fair when it is asked of ALL players, but the fact of the matter is, that question is only asked in relation to Carlton.

And unless you have worked in the inner sanctum at the Lions don't assume to know what Lethal knew about player contracts or how heavily involved he was with the player contracts.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

From memory, Brisbane players were getting paid by the Bank of Queensland for supposed part time jobs they had there.

What a load of crap.

I don't give a rat's arse if the AFL ticked it off. The fact that they're complicit in what's clearly a way of giving Judd more money for very little doesn't make it right.

If you're going to have a salary cap in the first place then no player should receive any additional remuneration from anyone connected to the club they play for - end of story.

Take off your navy blue glasses for a minute. If this was any player from any other team this place would be up in arms. Just like it was (or TBV/CSC were) back when Hird suddenly became a stockbroker.

I'm happy to see the club work the system to their advantage but don't get all huffy and puffy when someone questions what's clearly dodgy (if AFL sanctioned) behaviour.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Hird becoming a stockbroker didn't bother me.

Him being paid $100K for the domain name rights to jameshird.com did (ditto Monga), as it was outside the salary cap (IIRC, it was given well after the TPP papers were submitted), and there's no way in heaven or earth the domains were worth that much.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

I also would expect that Ratten would not have anything to do with Judd's financial arrangements as well but I would expect that Rats and Lethal would understand that when you have the Fab Four at your disposal plus a host of other stars some of their money will be included in the cap and some of it would be excluded from the cap and it would have to be sanctioned by the AFL.
Once that is done it is game over.
Lethal kept his list together with AFL help.

I can see Lethals point in that Pratt being president also employing one of it's players does raise some question marks. The question is would his opinion change if Pratt wasn't the president at the time and the same arrangement was is place?

I get the feeling that the Lions may have tried something similar and was knocked back by the AFL as they already had a higher Cap than the Victorian teams at the time and that was the motivation for his comment, but that's just my opinion.

Not only was Simon Black allowed to work at the Bank of Queensland, he was given a Bank of Queensland franchise in a predominant area.

We wont question that though because as we all know, it is only Carlton that cheats!!

No, no, no, he purchased it with his money and with his financial friend as a partner. Nothing sinister.

Yep - dodgy as hell.

Doesn't stop Judd's deal being any different.

As I said, I'm glad that we're using the system to our advantage and were smart enough to get it okayed but it's amazing the number of people around here who think that just because the AFL agreed to the Judd deal it's somehow unlike the dodgy crap that goes on at every other club.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

The way I see it, it is exactly like the dodgy crap which goes on at every other club, this time, we've been smart enough to get in on the action, and get the insurance of having it officially sanctioned by The AFL rather than do it the old way, which cost us massively, or not do it at all, which would mean we'd be miles behind the game.

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And so while others miserably pledge themselves to the pursuit of ambition and brief power, I will be stretched out in the shade, singing.

Which is pretty much what I just wrote - it's just the thin skin of those who think nobody should comment on it publicly that shits me.

He may be the messiah but he's still a naughty boy...

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb