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RFC Memorable Moments #5: "Every Dog Has Its Day"

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one-eyed:
Bulldog needs to take stock
By ROBERT WALLS
The Age
Monday, April 9 ,2001

If Tony Liberatore was responsible for the felling of Matthew Knights 100 metres off the ball at the MCG on Saturday, then he should give the game away. And, if he was responsible and feels the need to soldier on, then his club should do him a favor and insist that he retire.

If Liberatore caused the split in Knight's forehead, then it has to be the last straw in a list of unsavory incidents that have sullied the Brownlow medallist's past few seasons.

There has been much to admire about Liberatore's career. He has had to fight the odds to survive, but in recent years it has been sad to see him desperately clinging to a career that he knows is slipping away fast.

His coach, Terry Wallace, has kept him on the knife-edge. Perhaps Wallace thinks this is the best way to get some value from Liberatore. But what price do you put on sledging and scraping?

If Liberatore split the unsuspecting Knight's head open, then he has become a pathetic figure on our football fields. Knights being split open in the thick of the action is far more acceptable. Being in the contest you expect the whacks to come. But, if he was felled 100 metres away from the contest, then Knights, his wife, his young son and the game itself deserve much better.

Even Liberatore's Bulldog teammates must be sick and tired of continually defending him when retaliation occurs. Of course, publicly they would never say so, but in recent years I'm sure Chris Grant, Brad Johnson, Scott West and Rohan Smith would much prefer to be playing the fine football they are capable of rather than be forced to fly the flag for a teammate who too often stirs the pot.

If Liberatore did a job on Knights, you can only hope that his conscience forces him to have a real strong think about where he stands in the football world.

Life goes on, way beyond his present 35 years. He needs to reflect on the good times, the respect, the camaraderie that football has given him.

But, if he continues on the way he has in recent years, resorting to dirty deeds to hang on to a place in the team, then it will be blood-stained money that he takes. And that, for Tony Liberatore, would be a sad, undignified way to end a career.

one-eyed:
Liberatore under scrutiny
By GREG DENHAM
The Australian
Monday, April 9, 2001.

Controversial Western Bulldogs' tagger Tony Liberatore will today become the centre of an AFL investigation into an incident in which Richmond's Matthew Knights was felled behind play at the MCG on Saturday.

It is believed that the field umpires will this morning lodge a notice of investigation with the league as to why Knights was forced off the ground under the blood rule soon after the start.

The former Richmond captain left the field with blood streaming down his face. He missed the rest of the quarter and had seven stitches inserted in a wound above his right eye.

It is also believed no video of the incident is available from Channel Seven, so the AFL will engage its investigations officer Rick Lewis to head the probe.

The incident sparked remonstrations from both Knights and Tigers' captain Wayne Campbell, who are likely to be cited on striking and wrestling charges later today.

Knights directed his feelings towards the Bulldogs' interchange bench as he left the field for treatment and had to be physically restrained by Richmond doctor Chris Bradshaw.

Knights started the game outside the centre square, opposed to Matthew Robbins and after a tangle with Robbins, he ran towards Liberatore who was about to pick him up.

It is also believed Richmond will give evidence that Knights was contacted to the face by a sharp jab.

Western Bulldogs football manager Paul Armstrong said yesterday he was disappointed that no video from behind the goals had been provided.

``That may have told us the whole story,'' Armstrong said. ``Obviously there will be an investigation and we'll cooperate fully with the investigator.''

If charged, Liberatore, the 1990 Brownlow medallist, would be fronting the AFL Tribunal for the sixth time in the past four years.

In 1998, he escaped a charge of scratching the face of Brisbane's Steven Lawrence, but was suspended for one match for striking in the preliminary final.

The following year, he was cleared of a kicking charge, against Brisbane's Michael Voss, but was suspended for three matches from that same round-10 game after being found guilty of clawing the face of Lions' forward Craig McRae. Last year, he was found guilty of using abusive language against West Coast's Fraser Gehrig and fined $2000.

While the Tigers will sweat on video charges against Knights and Campbell, they also have injury worries, headed by Nick Daffy's left knee, which he hurt in the opening quarter against the Bulldogs.

In a blow for Richmond, Daffy will miss at least the next four weeks as he is scheduled for arthroscopic surgery tomorrow to repair damaged medial cartilage.

As well, late withdrawal David Bourke will miss another two or three matches after surgery to repair damaged cartilage in his knee.

Key players Brad Ottens and Ben Holland will require fitness tests this week before being considered against Brisbane at the MCG on Saturday. Ottens turned his ankle, while Holland corked a thigh in the first half.

one-eyed:
Libba may not be safe
By Geoff Poulter
Herald-Sun
Sunday, April 08, 2001

FOOTBALL'S unwritten code of honour is unlikely to save Tony Liberatore from yet another controversial visit to the AFL tribunal for his part in the Matthew Knights incident.

Richmond may be forced to find a cure for ''Monday Amnesia'' in order to defend retaliators Knights and skipper Wayne Campbell against possible video charges from Saturday's MCG clash.

If the AFL doesn't beat them to it, the Tigers are likely to lodge a complaint about the behind-the-play clash that resulted in a bloodied Knights looking as though he was on the wrong end of a bar-room brawl and a sizeable melee.

While he has only three tribunal convictions, Liberatore, 35, has been one of the league's most controversial players.

The battling Bulldog has been a key figure in several unsavoury incidents, including stoushes with Lions Craig McRae and Steve Lawrence and Sydney's Paul Kelly.

Significantly, there appears to be no video evidence of the Knights-Liberatore clash, which means Richmond will need to adopt a tell-all policy for league investigators.

Yesterday the Tigers were still fuming about opening quarter fracas that forced Knights to the bench for six stitches to this forehead.

They will meet at 8am this morning to decide their course of action.

''It is something that we haven't yet formed our full position on, we will weigh it up,'' football operations manager Trevor Poole said.

''We are considering it very delicately in the sense that it is not something you can say let's just pass it over.

''We have to get to the players involved . . . and Knighter is one of those obviously . . . these people will have to be brought together.

''(They) have to be rallied together so we are all clear on whether we want to do anything about it.

''We'll meet and consider it deeply and appropriately.

''I don't think it (the Tigers' dilemma) is in any way related to the Collingwood (last week) incident.''

Tiger coach Danny Frawley said: ''Every dog has his day'' on Saturday night. Libba's day may come this week if the claims of an eyewitness prove correct.

A radio talkback caller, who claimed to be an AFL club forward scout, said he saw the Liberatore-Knights incident.

''I saw everything ... my job there was to watch the Bulldogs,'' the scout, who identified himself as Damien, told Triple M yesterday.

''I looked towards the centre and saw Knights running towards the wing and he was looking at the ball ... what was happening in the play.

''Liberatore turned around and saw him and ... started charging towards him and bang, that left arm of his came up and bang.''

The furore that erupted over the Knights-Liberatore clash could have a costly postscript.

It's likely the AFL will cite players from both teams for being involved in a melee. One of the field umpires is expected lodge a notice of investigation as to why Knights had to leave the field.

Whether to lay video charges will be decided when league scrutineers view all available TV footage of the game.

Seven Network's corporate development director Simon Francis said yesterday there were end cameras focused down the ground at all eight AFL matches.

But he said it was unsure whether the behind-the-play incident involving Knights was on film as the cameramen were instructed to follow the ball.

If there's no videotape of the incident, the AFL will call in its investigations officer Rick Lewis to interview players, officials and any independent witnesses.

Richmond ruckman Brendon Gale can expect a call from Lewis after suggestion on TV yesterday that some players had witnessed what happened but would be reluctant to talk about it.

one-eyed:
By Monday every footy journo was having his/her say in one of the hotest footy stories ever.

No more cones of silence
By Mike Sheahan
Herald-Sun
Sunday, April 08, 2001

TONY Liberatore is in trouble. Again. Right up to his ginger beers.

This time, it matters for nought that he is just 163cm. Even at Luke Darcy's 196cm, he still would be in it up to his ears.

What we have is an incident, a bloodied victim, and clear evidence that both the victim and a body of on-lookers is certain it knows the identity of the assailant.

A few of them hinted they would take the law into their own hands at the MCG on Saturday afternoon, but didn't, and now it's where it belongs: with the authorities.

The uproar and outrage over the weekend demands both an official AFL investigation of exactly what happened to Matthew Knights, and referral to the AFL Tribunal.

If the AFL investigator in this case runs head-first into the cone of silence, as usual, and can't assemble sufficient evidence to lay a charge, he should feel compelled to refer the matter to the tribunal and ask it to unravel the mystery.

Dare the parties to play blind, deaf and dumb in front of Brian Collis and company. We must have a conclusion to this affair.

The front pages of the sports sections of Victoria's two Sunday papers carried photographs of Knights looking like he had been set upon in a pub brawl, and pummelled into submission.

It is publicity of the worst kind. As much as certain sections of the football fraternity lament the lack of biffo in the modern game, biffo belongs to a previous era and those still mired in the past.

The greater good of the game is not served by incidents in which players are hurt off the ball.

The normally unflappable Knights went troppo on Saturday, clearly of the belief he had been unfairly treated.

He was hurt during the opening five minutes, and still was angry and flustered when the final siren sounded.

All we know officially is that Knights suffered a blow to the forehead, delivered by an unknown person, with the strong implication it was Liberatore.

It is now beholden of Knights, Wayne Campbell, who obviously lost his cool as a result of the incident, and anyone else who believes they know what happened to tell their story.

Monday memory lapses won't do any longer. Players who choose to forget what they thought they saw when confronted by an investigator should have to say so publicly, and bear the consequences.

The appropriate course of action, the mature course of action, is to assist the authorities with their inquiries. Warnings of paybacks are rubbish and ill-considered.

This is not the schoolyard. It is the AFL. Richmond coach Danny Frawley will be embarrassed today by his post-match promise of ''payback time at some stage'', presumably the return match in Round 17.

That's not the right way to sort things out, and, just as a matter of interest, who does he have at Richmond to do any squaring up?

A few old-timers from the Richmond teams of the early 1980s, maybe? Captain Blood, perhaps?

Frawley was entitled to be angry, but justice is the responsibility of those in charge of the game.

As for Liberatore, we are tempted, but our culture says we should wait until we are privy to all the facts.

Suffice to say, it doesn't look good for the player who was quoted in the Herald-Sun last year as saying ''footy is like going to war,'' but he is entitled to natural justice.

one-eyed:
Opening up the wounds
By Patrick Smith
The Australian
Tuesday, April 10, 2001

RICHMOND Football Club, Monday morning, 11 o'clock:

Mark Brayshaw is chief executive of Richmond Football Club. Has been for a couple of years. He is trying desperately to change the culture of the club. Few people have done that anywhere in any sport. It has fallen to Brayshaw to also change the culture of AFL football. By 11am yesterday he was not returning calls.

Earlier Brayshaw had been more forthcoming, articulating his problem on radio. Richmond, who last year under Brayshaw and coach Danny Frawley suspended two players for alcohol-related breaches, are
trying to remake their image and their environment. Brayshaw said the club was attempting to be honest with themselves and their public.

The suspensions of Brad Ottens and Nick Daffy last season were tendered as evidence of that. Now, Brayshaw found himself in a position to make football itself accountable.

Richmond have two -- Matthew Knights and Wayne Campbell -- of the three players central to the bloody mess that was the first five minutes of the Tigers-Bulldogs match last Saturday. The third player,
of course, is Tony Liberatore. The Bulldog clashed with Knights, who ended up dripping blood and needing six stitches to his forehead.

Campbell was enraged by what he saw and remonstrated, well sort of, with Liberatore. But Richmond could only make football accountable if Knights and Campbell recalled with clarity and honesty what happened
in that mad moment on the MCG. That would go against a century of footy culture. Not long after that radio interview Brayshaw effectively took his phone off the hook.

However, Richmond's position in this investigation had been firmly and morally established already. Frawley did that at quarter-time when he dragged Knights to the edge of the centre square and demanded
the umpires look at the bandage wrapped around Knights' forehead. At that moment Frawley was demanding the umpires act. They have, lodging a notice of investigation both of the Knights-Liberatore incident and
a second to establish just what the hell Frawley thought he was doing.

But Frawley and Brayshaw's problem is obvious enough. Frawley's actions meant he wanted an investigation and having got one, it is now incumbent on Richmond to co-operate expansively with the investigations officer Rick Lewis. And that is what they decided to do. Knights took it on the forehead, he won't take it on the chin.

Frawley has other concerns. The response from his team on Saturday was limp. The Western Bulldogs expected that. Having identified their own lack of aggression the week before, the Bulldogs determined to
address that on Saturday. And they no doubt knew there was no better team to do that against than the Tigers. Richmond have been tagged as soft. Saturday only underscored that. Frawley and his men can now
expect the fiercest scrutiny from every other team. They are this year's marshmallows.

AFL Headquarters, Docklands, before you've had your second coffee:

Things are a tad tense. The AFL has problems, too. Big ones. This is the second incident in two weeks. Last time the key players had trouble remembering their first names never mind what happened. Paul
Licuria and Aaron Lord clashed. Licuria felt something and fell to the ground; Lord felt contact but couldn't make head nor tail, elbow or shoulder of what caused it. Investigation dropped through lack of
active brain cells.

So if nothing comes of this Libba incident, if another player is seen to be struck behind play and the AFL processes incapable of administering justice, then the AFL is impotent. A bucket full of Viagra wouldn't help save its integrity. The officials know that; know this is a crucial week for the AFL.

Andrew Demetriou makes a decision. If there is an investigation and the players' memories prove as reliable as the 9am out of Sydney then Demetriou will report Liberatore. The players can do their explaining to tribunal chief Brian Collis, who has the power to suspend players with broken brains.

Whitten Oval, Footscray, mid-morning, black coffee all-round:

Bulldog heavies meet. President David Smorgon, coach Terry Wallace, football manager Paul Armstrong, chief executive Mark Patterson, football director Jim Edmond and, of course, Libba. What to do? The club has taken a trashing over the past 36 hours. People are reading everything into anything. There's the report that Wallace patted Libba on the head after the game. To some that was evidence that Libba had acted under instruction. So Libba decides to put his hand up for the second time in three days. Bulldog heavies duck. Libba
appreciates the club is concerned that its recent past scratching, clawing etc has been less than savoury.

Whitten Oval, 2pm, estimate nearly 70 journalists lob for media conference. Or there's a free lunch.

It's a media conference. Crowd immediately halved. Terry Wallace on the left, Smorgon in the middle and Libba on the right. Wallace says he has been concerned with the speculation over the role of Libba in Saturday's incident. Then it is over to Libba. The Bulldog says he is distraught with the innuendo and speculation. It is time to state his case. Libba's no fibber. Yes, he did make contact with Knights but here is how and why. The Richmond player was running towards him.

Libba lifted his arm in self-defence and contact was made but it was not deliberate. Instinctive, yes. Spontaneous, yes. Pre-meditated, absolutely not. Libba apologises to Knights. Sorry about the gash, fella.

AFL Headquarters, God not another coffee, late afternoon:

Rick Lewis, AFL's chief interrogator gets the call. Big boy, you're on. Libba spilt blood now he has spilt his guts. Go see if Knights is of the same mind. Talk to Campbell, too. Maybe he has stopped running around in circles by now. Talk to Frawley. Talk to the umpires. Just don't do talkback.

Bottom line, skinny latte with two sugars, to hell with the diet:

Football has pulled itself back from the brink. Had this matter come to nothing football would have taken a body blow far more debilitating than the one suffered by Knights. It is a milestone of sorts. Football's irresponsible code of silence has been cut if not broken. It will be hard to stop the bleeding from here.

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