The Swans insist that it is all much ado about nothing; the AFL is keen to protect the integrity of the competition; Roos thinks that he is being unfairly persecuted and that the AFL have a vendetta against him; Andy Demetriou says that it's "nothing personal", he's even in the Telegraph counselling restraint. Aker (being Aker) just can't keep out of any argument and reckons the pre-season comp should be scrapped. The people of Sydney are in uproar! In The Age, Carro reckons that it is a farce and is holding the fort for her good mate Snooze; in the Hun noted hack Mark Robinson thinks that it's all the fault of the league; yet also in the Hun chief footy scribe Mike Sheehan disagrees and thinks that Roos has come out looking soiled, and that the AFL's point is valid.
It should shock no-one that I agree with Sheehan. The competitive spirit within me cannot accept that football can tolerate actively trying to lose a game. As I said in an earlier post and feel strongly enough to reiterate, it's all very well to pick a reserves outfit, have your best players on the bench or dawdle over interchanges, but it is surely a far graver action to send out instructions to cease trying.
Nonetheless, it could all be far worse; all I've heard from the weird and whacky world of thugby league is bullets, brothels, booze and brawls through Sydney's red light district. So maybe Roosy's indiscretions are minor in comparison.
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If I was a sports commissioner, and found that someone had thrown a game, they would be out on their ass the next day.