New season for scandals and Tigers
The Examiner (Tassie)
March 25, 2008
IN case you hadn't noticed, the footy season has begun.
You had to look carefully, but the tell-tale signs were about.
Players were suddenly being sanctioned for incidents outside drinking establishments, breaking curfews and urinating in public.
And a Richmond coach has heralded the beginning of a new campaign by urging supporters not to expect too much from his team.
Let them down gently Terry.
The lead-in to round one was a new take on a familiar story.
This time last year Ben Cousins was looking at a club-imposed suspension.
This year it is a league-imposed suspension.
As the West Coast Eagles nervously await the league's reaction to a Supreme Court judge's investigation into the club, and the AFL finalises its personal conduct policy, it would be inconsiderate of players not to provide some suitable exposes and scandals.
It seems traditional that at this time of year talk of anterior cruciates is replaced by posteriors and opiates.
Fortunately, Melbourne coach Dean Bailey believes Colin Sylvia has learnt his lesson after breaking the club's 1am curfew.
And Carlton chief executive Greg Swann believes suspending Brendan Fevola for the latest in a string of disciplinary breaches stretching back to 2001 will not help him.
You might think that Fev had spent so long in the last chance saloon that he would know where to find the toilets.
Meanwhile, it is business as usual down at Tigerland after the club's worst season since 1960.
Even AAP's season preview struggled to find reasons for optimism. Under the Richmond section "Why your team will do well", it stated: "Well it can't get any worse."
A more informative, but equally droll, insight into life at Punt Rd was provided by former club great and now player welfare officer Dale Weightman when he spoke at a Whitelion function in Launceston earlier this month.
The diminutive but dynamic AFL hall of famer provided plenty of laughs about his 274-game career with the club. The 170cm rover nicknamed Flea said that his career began with him rather optimistically billed as "the centre half-forward to replace Royce Hart".
In his first year of playing, Weightman cleared $395. In contrast, Brett Deledio made $110,000.
And the two-time best and fairest revealed what magic words coach Tony Jewell used to inspire his charges to a massive 81-point victory over Collingwood in the 1980 grand final.
"If you lot don't beat this mob you don't deserve to be playing footy."
But Weightman's most telling contribution was describing how, having already played 115 top flight games, he discovered he was an insulin-dependent diabetic.
To deal with the condition, he made sure that the Tigers trainers had plenty of lollies around the boundary in case he needed a sugar hit during a game.
However, the practice had a habit of backfiring.
"It was very frustrating during a game to see the fat trainers on the boundary eating all my lollies," said Weightman.
http://northerntasmania.yourguide.com.au/news/sport/sports/new-season-for-scandals-and-tigers/1208673.html
