TAKING AUSTRALIAN OUT OF THE AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE It is a dangerous thing when free people become slaves to an ideology,

particularly an ideology that regards money as more important than the rights of free people, where bullying is normal workaday practice, where the assassination of a person's character is done as ruthlessly as a hit man killing an underworld rival. It is a dangerous thing for the presidents of AFL clubs, 17 in number, to form a collective against the 18th club, particularly when the outside world knows they were rail-roaded into it by a system that owes more to Orwell than to one of the basic tenets of sport fair play. Dangerous, too, because those 17 men, yes all men, interesting that, too, must be aware in the back of their minds that the treatment meted out to club number 18 could one day come their way, and they would be left alone to fend for themselves as their fellow presidents gang up against them and their club. David Koch, Peter Gordon, Colin Carter, you could all one-day find yourself subjected to the same hate-mail as Paul Little. Ken Hinkley, Brendan McCartney and Chris Scott could see confidential documents and their mobile phones handed to an investigator because of a claim splashed on the front page of a newspaper. Couldnt happen to us bet they would have said that at Essendon seven months ago. When the bully gets away with it once, hell always try to get away with it. Ask yourself this. How would your wife, your children, your parents, cope with the level of character assassination being levelled against Paul Little, James Hird and co?

"Mum and Dad, it's just not that way at all." But it is that way; it says so on the television every night. How would you cope with Caroline Wilson and Patrick Smith writing the same hateful words every day, particularly when you believe they have been leaked information, when you have been expected to be silent? How would you cope with the most vexatious charges being laid against you, and then being made public when a normal court would dismiss them in short order? How would you cope with a situation where the prosecutor, jury and judge (the AFL) claims it has an open mind about Hird and Essendons guilt, has been trying to do deals about punishment for weeks if not months? How would you cope with the knowledge that the AFLs governance flaws in health and safety appear to you far worse than yours, yet you are in the dock to be judged by the organisation whose own actions/inactions contributed to the saga? How would you cope with Eddie McGuire letting a woman cry on air for an excruciatingly extended period of time about the drug her son took, when the anti-doping authority, ASADA, couldnt find any evidence to issue infraction notices after a six month investigation? How would you cope with feeling betrayed by a system and the perpetrators of that betrayal, despite possibly breaking the law, being allowed to continue with their betrayal, unabated? People are wondering how we got to this in Australian football. We got here because selflessness has been replaced by selfishness - a greed so appalling that it demands that individuals be sacrificed to what is laughingly called the greater good.
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Aaaah, the greater good, what a wonderful institution that is. My recollection is that for decades successive governments, the churches and the media covered up sexual assaults in the churches and outback aboriginal communities for the greater good. History may yet record the AFL receiving the same backlash. Australians dont like it very much when the truth is kept from them, when due process and natural justice are sacrificed to the greater good You all should be doing your best as individuals to ensure Essendon and James Hird receive natural justice rather than seeming to be scared of alienating Mr Demetriou and Mr Fitzpatrick. You would all be much better people if you embraced the ideals espoused in the following three anecdotes: My father spent eight months in a hole with four mates (400 yards from the nearest Allied soldier) in Tobruk in WWII. He was shot up at El Alamein and his four mates stayed with him for six hours holding the Germans at bay until they were rescued. The same as Dad would have done for them. Thats how it was with that generation. Our family motto was based on James Russell Lowells poem Stanzas of Freedom: They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak They are slaves who dare not be, in the right with two or three In 1970, the New South Wales Cricket Association banned its players from wearing adidas cricket boots. The NSW players were angry about this decision. However, captain, John Benaud, told his players that under no circumstances were they to wear the banned boots, though he intended to do so. John Benaud was banned. He risked his career for principle and his brother Richie Benaud resigned as a life member of the NSW Cricket Association.

I cant recall my father ever expressing disappointment with me about anything not about my Smiths Chips and Coca-Cola diet, nor my lackadaisical attitude to training and fielding, nor my relaxed attitude to university studies. However, when he learnt that I didnt stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the trenches with John Benaud he gave me a tongue lashing that Ron Barassi would have been proud of. Although I was only 21, and had some potential to go on with cricket, he told me a team sport obviously wasn't my go and that I should consider playing an individual sport such as tennis, golf or ten pin bowling. He gave me a week to think about it. I didnt need a week. I knew he was right. In 1977, more than 20 Australian cricket players had signed to play World Series Cricket. Rod Marsh was not one of them. Rod had a huge decision to make. Should he stay with the establishment and receive the most prestigious job in Australia the captaincy of the Australian cricket team - or should he stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his mates and join WSC. Rod made the biggest sacrifice of those who joined WSC by foregoing the opportunity to be the Australian captain. WSC was a turning point for Australian sport. You, your club and your players have benefitted enormously from the stand those WSC cricketers made against authoritarian sporting regimes. Sadly, they too, had to resort to the courts to receive the freedoms to which they were so clearly entitled. You have also benefitted from our Diggers who went to war to ensure Australia is the freest country in the world. Freedom ... just think about that word for a moment, of the men and women like my dad, probably some of your dads or grand dads, who suffered enormous privations, or even paid the ultimate sacrifice, as it is known.

What would they make of your mob mentality now, herded into a collective thinking seemingly by fear and perhaps even a desire to cherry pick the best Essendon players? Imagine if the Diggers had let fear overwhelm them as the bombs were raining down and the bullets were flying. You would not enjoy the freedoms you have now. In honour of their sacrifice it is time for you to reflect on what is now being sacrificed, seemingly for something so utterly unworthy as a media deal with a Pay TV network, sponsorship deals with gambling companies, and a need to save the Australian Crime Commission and Justice Minister, Jason Clare, and former Sports Minister, Kate Lundy, from embarrassment. The Rats of Tobruk who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and there were Australian football men among them such as Ron Barassi senior - would be turning in the grave at the actions of those in the AFL who daily are deserting their mates. It is time you embraced the ideals in these three anecdotes and supported James Hird and Essendons right to natural justice shoulder-to-shoulder. Otherwise you become nothing more than a slave of the worst and most cowardly type those who would not dare to be, in the right with two or three. Heres two more things to ponder. Mr Demetrious right to sit in judgement of James Hird has long ago evaporated. First, he declared the Bombers would not get a soft landing. Second, if James Hirds version of the infamous

Demetriou-Evans phone call is accepted by the ACC, or by the Victorian Supreme Court, Andrew Demetriou himself could purportedly be subjected to criminal charges. Even Stevie Wonder and Kumar Dharmasena could see that Demetriou couldnt be objective in these circumstances. Forget everything else for a second, your acceptance of Demetriou sitting in judgment on Hird is indefensible and will leave a stain on your characters and legacies forever.

Didnt it occur to you that if Fitzpatrick and Demetriou could not only convince you in a short meeting that Hird and Essendon were guilty, but also what the punishment should be, that justice for Hird & Co wouldnt be seen to be done in a hearing that Fitzpatrick and Demetriou were on the jury? To demand that Demetriou stand down would require courage on the part of the clubs that they arent exactly famous for displaying. Yet courage should be a central theme of the game at all levels. One of the reasons we love Australian football so much is because of the courage of the players. Every week, they back back into packs, or throw their body at the ball. When one of their teammates gets whacked, they dont back away, they rush to his aid, ready to accept a fine or suspension. It is writ large on every coaches whiteboard in the AFL get around your mates, stick up for them if they pick one of us, they pick all of us. The seemingly craven behaviour in the face of bullying of the 17 club presidents is a deeply disturbing thing for those of us who cherish what the likes of my dad and Ron Barassis dad fought for. When people with leadership roles in the game in this country show so little courage, perhaps they forfeit the privilege of having the word Australian in the title of their game.

Bruce Francis 23 August 2013