One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on December 14, 2008, 01:56:01 AM
-
Richmond can't have lion's share in Polak-Cousins deal
Eddie McGuire | December 14, 2008
THERE I was quietly going about my business on Wednesday night when I received a phone call from the Sports Tonight team on 3AW.
They asked me about Richmond's application to place Graham Polak on the rookie list.
It was the first I'd heard of it. Somehow this was being connected to the Tigers considering Ben Cousins in next week's draft.
As usual, the media hype merchants and the lemmings following in their wake somehow entwined the two and all rational discussion went out the window.
Let's go slowly through the scenario:
Richmond wants to place Graham Polak on the rookie list. Polak, who was hit by a tram during the year, is clearly on a long road to recovery.
Everyone in football wishes him the best and no one would oppose the opportunity for him to receive his contract payments and be given every chance of recovery.
However, Richmond's application is for an uncompromised pick in the draft. Under AFL rules, a player going to the long-term injury list must be replaced with a player on the rookie list.
That is what should happen in this instance. Richmond should not be given the unfair advantage of picking up two senior players in the draft.
What any of this has to do with the Tigers picking Ben Cousins has got me baffled.
Richmond has a pick in next week's draft.
It is clearly the club's business who it chooses. If it is Ben Cousins, then we wish the two parties all the best for the future.
Tying the two issues together and giving clubs 24 hours to analyse their position is what is disappointing. All this should have been finalised before the drafting season.
Polak's position has not changed in the past fortnight. What has reportedly changed is Richmond's desire to recruit Ben Cousins.
In its application to the AFL for this change to the rules between drafts, Richmond aims to pick up two players while freeing salary cap space to accommodate them.
Would the lack of salary cap space inhibit Richmond from picking Cousins? Maybe, but it shouldn't.
There were mechanisms in place. The Tigers, for example, could have gone to their playing group and asked them to refashion contracts to allow sufficient space in the cap for a player to join their list. That window has shut.
But you wouldn't think Cousins would be fussed about payment in his first season at Tigerland. Surely getting a chance would be his major concern.
The Tigers have their pick, so pick away and pick whomever is available. As for receiving a second pick, well, that just compromises the draft. Surely allowing a rookie to be upgraded is the fair compromise.
You can't trawl through the November draft, check out what's available and then decide to manipulate your list long after closing time.
Richmond had no intention of changing Polak's position on its list until it decided to go after Ben Cousins at the 11th hour.
There are mechanisms in place for Richmond to recruit and pay for Cousins without getting an extra senior player and salary cap relief.
This whole scenario with Polak and Cousins has been in play for "slightly" longer than 24 hours.
Suddenly, on a whim, the entire sanctity of the draft is to be thrown into the air. Richmond is being opportunistic and so it should - that's its job. The AFL is there to enforce the rules, not to make them up as they go.
The salary cap and the draft are the two major mechanisms that keep half the clubs alive and give them a chance to compete evenly regardless of economic clout.
The impact of tampering with them has been profound over the years, whether by cheating teams who have won flags and cost other clubs their opportunity, or individuals their careers, or by AFL interference through salary cap and draft concessions which have had the same effect.
Ironically, Richmond has probably suffered more from that than any other club.
This week again we have seen the media become cheerleaders rather than analysts. This is not about picking up Cousins or looking after Polak. Both can be achieved. This is about due process.
Cousins could don the black and yellow jumper and Polak could be looked after without policy on the run and an unfair advantage.
If the Tigers need to do some work to get their salary cap in shape, that's their bad luck for changing their mind on their Cousins strategy.
Everyone supports Graham Polak's recovery, but as hard as this may sound, it doesn't matter if you get hit by a tram or a centre half-forward as far as the rules are concerned.
A rookie elevation means those other clubs in the draft are not affected in picking up a senior player.
Richmond, in looking after Polak, would not be left one man short on their list.
Take out the emotion and the grandstanding and it is all very clear.
Compromise, acquiescence and convenient rule bending hasn't been a friend to Ben Cousins in the past. It's hard to see why a disregard for the rules on the first day of the rest of his life would do anyone any good.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24795484-19742,00.html#add-comment
-
::) :chuck :nopity
It probably won't be published but I left this comment about Eddie's article on the Herald-Sun website.
------------------------------------------
Eddie and Collingwood having a cry about unfairness.... hahahahah!
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood has the advantage of 18 games in Melbourne every year and only has to travel interstate four times.
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood get the most financial advantageous blockblusters and prime time tv games while other poorer clubs miss out altogether.
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood force North Melbourne to wear a clash jumper in their home game against the Pies. The Kangaroos have a proud football history too Eddie which your egocentric club snubs.
Please this sooking and whinging by Eddie is laughable. Give the man a tissue and tell him to worry about his own club and the $8 million dollars of club money his board lost.
To top it off Eddie is now suddenly a qualified neurosurgeon who can tell from afar that "Polak's position has not changed in the past fortnight." So you're now an expert in these sort of brain injuries Eddie!
The fact of the matter is Polak's brain injury resulted from a freak accident outside of football and his recovery has slowed in more recent times meaning he won't play footy at all next year. So Richmond is one man down. I'll also note that Richmond did NOT apply for similar assistance when Nathan Brown and Mark Coughlan both suffered long-term injuries as these injuries were football-related.
As far as Ben Cousins goes, no other club wanted him including Eddie's Collingwood. If the AFL grants Richmond pick 7 in the PSD and that pick is used to draft Cousins, then the order and availability of kids in the rookie draft is unaffected. So I would like to know where Richmond is disadvantaging the other 15 clubs. Richmond will still have 46 players on their list like everyone else and 38 senior listed players like everyone else.
Graham Cornes is right. Eddie and Collingwood are the Paris Hilton Pies. All look-at-moi's yet no substance. This article by Eddie is further proof.
-
More digs at Richmond from Eddie....
"Our business plan is based on playing 18 games in Melbourne, not selling games to the Gold Coast like Carlton and Richmond, or to Tasmania like Hawthorn. I don't worry about that, that's their business.
"But we also aren't locking people out of Telstra Dome like Essendon and Carlton do."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24795321-19742,00.html
-
More digs at Richmond from Eddie....
"Our business plan is based on playing 18 games in Melbourne, not selling games to the Gold Coast like Carlton and Richmond, or to Tasmania like Hawthorn. I don't worry about that, that's their business.
"But we also aren't locking people out of Telstra Dome like Essendon and Carlton do."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24795321-19742,00.html
Get a job Eddie you bum and stop harassing the media and the public as a serial talkback and letter writing knob with too much time on his hands.
-
More digs at Richmond from Eddie....
"Our business plan is based on playing 18 games in Melbourne, not selling games to the Gold Coast like Carlton and Richmond, or to Tasmania like Hawthorn. I don't worry about that, that's their business.
So what would happen to your business plan Eddie if the Pies don't get their 18 games in Melbourne? Relying on a third party (read AFL) to ensure you're business plan is successful .... is not great business planning :wallywink
-
More digs at Richmond from Eddie....
"Our business plan is based on playing 18 games in Melbourne, not selling games to the Gold Coast like Carlton and Richmond, or to Tasmania like Hawthorn. I don't worry about that, that's their business.
So what would happen to your business plan Eddie if the Pies don't get their 18 games in Melbourne? Relying on a third party (read AFL) to ensure you're business plan is successful .... is not great business planning :wallywink
Not forgetting all the prime time and "blockbuster" games. Yeah it must be a real difficult business plan to make money out of :sleep.
How about him also trying to imply we are doing this to try to get around the salary cap even though we have plenty of room under the cap. Talk about clutching at straws. He's definitely losing it. I was against Cousins but now I hope we get him and get AFL approval for the extra pick just to shove it up Eddie and his interferring mouth ::).
-
Typical teflon Eddie as always, Collingwood lose $8mil and he's out on the front foot attacking everyone else.
-
Round 20, 2009 Eddie. Lock it in for payback time :yep
-
Round 20, 2009 Eddie. Lock it in for payback time :yep
The irony is if we pick Cousns pick 6 and he plays next year.
Pick this scenario Round 20 next year both teams fighting to keep finals berth alive. Loser is out. Cousins is best on ground and we win to shatter their futile pipedream of a flag and extend their run to 51 years without a premiership in September whilst this catapults us into the 8 and a good finals run. How sweet that will be and how just that would be.
I would call it positive karma.
-
Round 20, 2009 Eddie. Lock it in for payback time :yep
The irony is if we pick Cousns pick 6 and he plays next year.
Pick this scenario Round 20 next year both teams fighting to keep finals berth alive. Loser is out. Cousins is best on ground and we win to shatter their futile pipedream of a flag and extend their run to 51 years without a premiership in September whilst this catapults us into the 8 and a good finals run. How sweet that will be and how just that would be.
I would call it positive karma.
Cousins or no Cousins the Pies are overrated anyway. It's a shame we didn't get to play them later in the season this year as we would've smashed them and replaced them in the finals. When we played them in round 3 we killed them in the stoppages and clearances but stupidly kept kicking the ball straight to their half-backs who rebounded and goaled :banghead. That round 3 game was also the last game before Richo was moved to the wing and we went with a younger forward line against Freo.
-
We were right to deny Tigers: Magpies
December 16, 2008 - 4:00PM
Collingwood have hailed Richmond's recruitment of Ben Cousins as validation of their stance against the Tigers' bid for a "free kick".
Richmond took Cousins with their No.6 pick in the pre-season draft after the AFL refused their request to have the injured Graham Polak placed on their rookie list, which would have gained them a second selection.
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was one of several club chiefs to object to Richmond's attempt to secure an extra selection.
"It justified our position last week," McGuire said on Tuesday.
"In the end the Richmond Football Club will be able to put Graham Polak onto a long-term injury list, they'll be able to put a rookie onto their list.
More at:
http://news.theage.com.au/sport/we-were-right-to-deny-tigers-magpies-20081216-6zm5.html
-
::) :chuck :nopity
It probably won't be published but I left this comment about Eddie's article on the Herald-Sun website.
------------------------------------------
Eddie and Collingwood having a cry about unfairness.... hahahahah!
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood has the advantage of 18 games in Melbourne every year and only has to travel interstate four times.
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood get the most financial advantageous blockblusters and prime time tv games while other poorer clubs miss out altogether.
I must have missed him complaining how unfair it was that Collingwood force North Melbourne to wear a clash jumper in their home game against the Pies. The Kangaroos have a proud football history too Eddie which your egocentric club snubs.
Please this sooking and whinging by Eddie is laughable. Give the man a tissue and tell him to worry about his own club and the $8 million dollars of club money his board lost.
To top it off Eddie is now suddenly a qualified neurosurgeon who can tell from afar that "Polak's position has not changed in the past fortnight." So you're now an expert in these sort of brain injuries Eddie!
The fact of the matter is Polak's brain injury resulted from a freak accident outside of football and his recovery has slowed in more recent times meaning he won't play footy at all next year. So Richmond is one man down. I'll also note that Richmond did NOT apply for similar assistance when Nathan Brown and Mark Coughlan both suffered long-term injuries as these injuries were football-related.
As far as Ben Cousins goes, no other club wanted him including Eddie's Collingwood. If the AFL grants Richmond pick 7 in the PSD and that pick is used to draft Cousins, then the order and availability of kids in the rookie draft is unaffected. So I would like to know where Richmond is disadvantaging the other 15 clubs. Richmond will still have 46 players on their list like everyone else and 38 senior listed players like everyone else.
Graham Cornes is right. Eddie and Collingwood are the Paris Hilton Pies. All look-at-moi's yet no substance. This article by Eddie is further proof.
:bow :bow :bow :bow
-
He is an ar$ehole. Period
As soon as people stop putting him on a pedestal and realise he is just a con man the better.
-
More from Eddie... (this is in the hardcopy of the paper but not on the web)
----------------------------------
Good luck Ben and the Tigers
By Eddie McGuire
Sunday Herald-Sun | 21 Dec 2008, Page 67
BEN Cousins is back in the football fold, chosen by Richmond with the last pick in the last draft.
Everyone wants Cousins to succeed in football, because it will give him the best possible chance to beat his drug addiction and get on with his life.
Along his journey, many people of good reputation and intention have been publicly smashed. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou is one.
Demetriou is a tough nut, but I can assure you, he is a man of compassion.
Demetriou may have been tough in handing Cousins a 12-month suspension and demanding three-times-a-week urine testing and four-times-a-year hair testing, but those things will constantly remind Ben to strive to stay off drugs.
But if Cousins fails, let's all hold back on attacking the man and Richmond. The Tigers have rolled the dice in the hope they have picked up Ben Cousins the brilliant, Brownlow Medal-winning footballer, not the recovering addict.
No one will feel good if he succumbs. Giving up an addiction is no easy thing. How many people struggle to give up cigarettes, chocolate and coffee?
Richmond needs support and, if things don't go to plan, don't condemn.
Cousins' manager, Ricky Nixon, told me on Wednesday that it was only in the past fortnight that Cousins realised his comeback wasn't only about him.
Collingwood went into due diligence wanting to recruit Cousins. The thought of Cousins in full flight in a black-and-white guernsey was tantalising to me. The players, too, wanted us to pursue him.
But back then Cousins was nowhere near showing signs of making a comeback. As Nixon has said, "No one could have picked him up''.
It took until he was ignored in the national draft for the penny to drop, Nixon says, to realise it wasn't just about Ben and his recovery, but also about the club, its players, its supporters, its sponsors, the AFL and the football community.
Faced with the reality his career was over, Cousins finally realised that whoever was prepared to take him was doing him a favour -- rather than the other way around. And not a moment too soon.
It is well documented why the other 15 clubs passed on Cousins and why Richmond left it to the last minute to pick him.
Being a recovering drug addict would normally be enough to put a line through a prospective member of an elite sporting team.
At 30, even football's greats start to go off the metaphoric cliff.
His last game will have been more than 18 months ago by season's start.
He has suffered a severe hamstring injury.
There is a worry about his association with alleged criminals and the task of controlling media scrutiny.
Cousins' testing regimen would place a burden on any club.
If his hammy goes or he just can't make it, then let's celebrate the fact he was prepared to have a go.
Everyone is hoping Ben Cousins the Tiger is a massive success. If he isn't, well, "such is life''.
-
Giving up an addiction is no easy thing. How many people struggle to give up cigarettes, chocolate and coffee?
....and making stuff up about other clubs. :P
A fair article by Eddie. :)
-
A fair article by Eddie. :)
You get the strong feeling that Eddie's PR machine - just like Cousin's a few weeks ago - has kicked in and said "pull your head in d-head, you aren't winning any friends or making any headway here". ;)
-
I agree smokey, never believe anything in the media....back pedal and damage control, too late buddy! :gotigers
-
Eddie you bloody sycophant! You make me want to puke. :chuck
Talk about hedging your bets in case Cousins has a ripper of a season with us!
I still remember you as the channel 10 sports reporter swaggering into Edwards Tavern in the late 80's acting like you owned the joint, full of your own self importance and trying to flog VIP memberships to your own mutual appreciation club.
You get far too much airtime you turd!! :banghead
-
An attempt by Eddie to try and justify to Pie supporters why he passed on Cousins just in case Cousins comes good and makes a fool of the Pies as well as the Saints and Lions. He must be spewing that Richmond is getting all the attention and is flavour of the month. No one could give a stuff who is captain of Collingwood Eddie. Then again announcing it on the same day as Cousins press conference maybe was deliberate. Maxwell is/was hardly a certainty to be in the Pies best 22.
-
Demetriou may have been tough in handing Cousins a 12-month suspension and demanding three-times-a-week urine testing and four-times-a-year hair testing, but those things will constantly remind Ben to strive to stay off drugs.
Pardon? I thought it was the AFL not just Demetriou acting on his own.
-
Eddie you bloody sycophant! You make me want to puke. :chuck
Talk about hedging your bets in case Cousins has a ripper of a season with us!
I still remember you as the channel 10 sports reporter swaggering into Edwards Tavern in the late 80's acting like you owned the joint, full of your own self importance and trying to flog VIP memberships to your own mutual appreciation club.
You get far too much airtime you turd!! :banghead
ROFL, good vent Tiga :thumbsup
-
Team Eddie pick a close to a nobody to captain his team in 09 just incase they fail badly. He then has something else to hang his coat on.
He is becoming his own worse enermy. He really has to learn when just to shut up. Could be he is too closely related to Joffa.
-
An attempt by Eddie to try and justify to Pie supporters why he passed on Cousins just in case Cousins comes good and makes a fool of the Pies as well as the Saints and Lions. He must be spewing that Richmond is getting all the attention and is flavour of the month. No one could give a stuff who is captain of Collingwood Eddie. Then again announcing it on the same day as Cousins press conference maybe was deliberate. Maxwell is/was hardly a certainty to be in the Pies best 22.
Exactly right MT! Just Eddie trying to justify why the Pies didn't pick him up now that the football world has so whole-heartedly embraced the Tigers decision to give Cousins a second chance. I am certain that if Eddie, the Collingwood football club, the Pies supporters and their sponsors had foreseen all the positive media attention and AFL supporters support they would have snapped him up in a heartbeat. Now that they could be made to look like fools Eddie is pretending to be supportive of the decision just in case Cousins stars in 2009.
Bad decision Eddie - the Tigers can't lose either way in picking up Cousins but you and your club will look like fools if he has a great season next year....and what a great feeling that would be for not only Benny and the Tigers but for all the other 15 clubs.
Back in your box Eddie
Stripes
-
The shine is off Eddie, even his loyal Magpie supporters are starting to doubt his rhetoric. That entire Channel 9, Footy Show click has started to unravel.
Now would be a good time for either Channel 7 or 10 to take on the Footy Show.
-
Anything, but not the footy show.
-
Anything, but not the footy show.
Sorry, I meant take on the Footy Show with their own football show - not light hearted, unfunny, in jokes that none of us understand but another type of football show that is entertaining and informative.
-
Anything, but not the footy show.
Sorry, I meant take on the Footy Show with their own football show - not light hearted, unfunny, in jokes that none of us understand but another type of football show that is entertaining and informative.
Sounds better now I have to say.
-
Eddie somehow thought that if Collingwood made a song and dance about getting Cousins and then deny the guy in such a PUBLIC way,nobody else would be interested.
He's a dog and a suck.
A suck-dog,if u will.
Tiga,another edi story:
One night at the Metro nightclub in the city a younger edi became a little to heavy handed with a Serb named Jim.
Needless to say,Jim was unimpressed with dikwads attempt to promote his broadie upbringing and laid,"The GREATEST Headbutt I have ever seen" to send the coke-snorting journo onto the top of the bar.
Out Cold.
LMAO U Fat nut.
-
Pure PR fluff piece.
He has his tongue firmly implanted in Dem's arse.
-
Eddie in the Hun today whining about the stick his copping for earning $5million at Channel 9 for doing SWEET #$@* ALL!!!!
Imagine the guilt on Eddies face on the 15th of every month when $500k gets paid into his bank account. He must blush like this bloke :banghead and do a bit of that head banging stuff given he has no job after a year off the air....
-
Here's the truth boys. Fear of the Tiger has always bubbled under at Collingwood. The manufactured rivalry with Essendon is only there because we have been crap. Put us back in the top 8 firing line with the Tiger Army swaggering and boasting ( as we will) and the Pies will be transfixed with beating or trying to beat us.
Because we are moving and looking on the up Eddie is scared that the revival of the Tiger train will dislodge his useless list which staggered into the finals last year and will also replace them as the 'Event" game every weekend.
We have the superstar. He doesn't. End of.
-
If Cuz proves everyone wrong Eddie and the Collingwood board will have more than Richmond to worry about. The B&W ferals will be ticked off why the Pies didn't get Ben and once again missed out on a big name player who they had in their grasp.
It all worked out fine in the end for us anyway despite Eddie and the other clubs who protested and stopped us putting Polly on the rookie list. We still got Benny in the PSD and Gourdis was still around for us to rookie as planned. The only downside is for Polly who can't even see how he would go playing even for Coburg ressies because he'll be on the LTIL.
-
How long does a player have to stay on the long term list?
-
How long does a player have to stay on the long term list?
8 weeks minimum.