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2004 Post-Season Articles
2005 Draw: St Kilda Club Reaction
Rod Butterss: "The St Kilda Football Club is pleased with the draw for season 2005. The draw should assist the Club in attracting new sponsors due to the increased national TV coverage. We are delighted with the opportunity to establish the seasons opener against the Brisbane Lions as a blockbuster and look forward to working cooperatively with the Lions to create significant interest in what we anticipate will become a feature in years to come. We congratulate the AFL for their preparedness to reward clubs that have demonstrated the ability to draw large crowds and promote the game in alignment with the AFL's stated strategy."
The Article - Sportal - afl.com.au - 30Sept04
Cats, Saints rewarded in 2005 draw - ABC Sport - 30Sept04
How your club fares in draw - AAP - HeraldSun - 30Sept04
2005 draw stands up pretty well - Rohan Connolly - TheAge - 01Sept04
2005 fixture - HeraldSun - 30Sept04
Friday night lights for Saints and Cats - afl.com.au - 30Sept04
AFL wins tax case
The AFL has escaped paying a $1.67 million land tax bill for Waverley Park after winning a court case against the State Government. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled the AFL was exempt from paying land tax for the former football stadium in 2001. Though Waverley Park was listed for sale that year, it was still used by the public for recreational purposes, tribunal president Justice Stuart Morris said.
The Article - HeraldSun - 05Sept04
Saints, Cats rewarded in 2005 draw
St Kilda and Geelong have been rewarded for their much-improved seasons this year by gaining a huge increase in blockbuster matches in the 2005 AFL fixture. The AFL, much criticised for Collingwood and Essendon's dominance of the Friday night matches in 2004, has decided to reward teams for their on-field performance in next year's draw with the Saints and the Cats the big winners. St Kilda will not only open the season - in place of the Magpies - by playing Brisbane at the Gabba on Easter Thursday night but will play another five Friday night matches for the season - including against Fremantle in Perth in round 21 - after playing just two Friday night matches this season.
The Article - Sportal - 30Sept04
2005 Draw - afl.com.au - 30Sept04
2005 Draw: Analysis - afl.com.au - 30Sept04
Saints heading to South Africa
St Kilda will conduct another intense off-season training camp, this time in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where players will undergo altitude training in a bid to seek a competitive advantage on their rivals and build team unity. Such was the perceived success of the Saints' two-week training camp in London in October/November 2003 that the club is investing in a similar trip away - possibly for up to three weeks. St Kilda was easily the best out of the blocks this year, winning the Wizard Home Loans Cup before scoring 10 successive home-and-away victories. And it fell six points short of a grand final berth after a markedly improved season.
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 29Sept04
Living in Potchefstroom - North West University, Potchefstroom
International Athletes - North West University, Potchefstroom
Cyber season
The trade winds are whistling through cyberspace, from Melbourne to Perth, London to Dubai. Thousands of AFL supporters, aged 10 to 90, are meeting on supporters' websites - Bomberblitz, Saintsational, TheBlueView, Hawk Headquarters - in a fast-growing, modern-day blog phenomenon. It's a 24-hour cheer squad, where like-minded people meet behind the secrecy of usernames, where trade secrets are whispered, trade prices announced, foreign trades mooted, trade-ins and trade-offs debated. It is, literally, a web of intrigue - on Monday, West Coast's Daniel Kerr was a sure thing to go to Essendon. On Tuesday, Scott West was already training at Windy Hill. On Wednesday, Lance Whitnall's manager was talking to Geelong. On Thursday, Mal Michael was moving to Carlton. It can't all be true, but as sure as each rumour will be emailed around the country before being discussed on SEN or 3AW radio that night, it can't all be wrong, either.
The Article - Rod Curtis - TheAge - 02Sept04
Riewoldt bids for captaincy
Saints luminary Nick Riewoldt has flagged a desire to seek out the club captaincy next season, when the position is rotated for the third time. Having comfortably taken out the Saints best-and-fairest award, receiving All-Australian honours and being awarded the AFL Players' Association's coveted Most Valuable Player award after just his fourth season, the 21-year-old said he was aiming to hone his leadership skills in the coming months and press his case for the job. "That's something that I probably need to talk to (coach) Grant (Thomas) about, whether I'm ready for it. But that's something that I certainly have an aspiration to do at some stage in my career," Riewoldt said on Tuesday night. "You look at a guy like Lenny Hayes this year who people probably questioned whether Lenny would be ready, but he put his hand up and did a terrific job. I'd certainly like to put my hand up for the job next year."
The Article - Samantha Lane/Sportal - saints.com.au - 29Sept04
Juicy match-ups for Wizard Cup
Traditional rivalries and some interesting reunions feature in the opening round of the 2005 Wizard Home Loans Cup, which was released by the AFL on Wednesday. And in a marked departure from the last few years, the focus will be back on Victoria, with four games in the opening round set for decision either at Telstra Dome or Optus Oval. The opening round of the pre-season competition will start on the weekend of 19 February. Traditional rivals Carlton and Essendon will meet, as will Collingwood and Richmond. Last year's winner St Kilda and Hawthorn will also meet at the Dome, while Sydney travels to Melbourne to play the Western Bulldogs, who will be coached for the first time by former Swans coach Rodney Eade. AFL Broadcasting, Strategy and Major Projects General Manager Ben Buckley, said a desire to draw large crowds and help clubs with membership sales was a reason behind changing the focus of the opening weekend of the Wizard Home Loans Cup. "We wanted to minimise the travel and get as many teams playing in their home city to maximise access to their members to be able to sell seasons tickets," he said.
The Article - Ashley Browne/Sportal - afl.com.au - 29Sept04
AFL quick on the draw to blow hole in MCG
The AFL called a meeting in its war room as the heavies prepared to unleash their latest weapon of mass destruction. Deep within AFL headquarters the WMD has a working title of Fixture 2005. Yesterday, Andrew Demetriou gathered with his generals and manipulated the WMD so finely that it was pointing at the very heart of the MCG. Then they pulled the trigger. That explains the hole in the MCG stands and the state of the ground. Kaboom. The battle that pits the Melbourne Cricket Club and the MCG Trust - which run Melbourne's premier sporting facility - against the AFL grows more bitter by the week. The AFL wants to be able to play finals at the venues of the clubs that earn that right through the position they finish after round 22. And that's how the competition should be run. However, a deal struck in 1992 between the AFL and the MCC ensures that finals are played at the MCG every week of the finals. A banking system introduced recently allows some flexibility but it did not save Brisbane from having to play its preliminary final at the MCG when the Lions had earned the right to play the match at the Gabba. Since that agreement - signed in 1992 to ensure the MCC had product to support the building of the Southern Stand and one that runs until 2032 - Telstra Dome has come on line. The AFL will own that venue lock, stock and retractable roof in 2024. So for the final eight years of the MCC deal the league will be in direct competition with its client, the MCC. That's a conflict of interest, a problem that is myriad in the world of football. Most are very rarely addressed. Ian Collins, the man who runs Telstra Dome, is also president of Carlton. The Blues have struck a deal to base their home games at Telstra Dome and not the MCG. Football somehow shrugs its shoulders and just lives with these blinding conflicts. Carlton says Collins did not attend meetings involving the switch from Optus Oval. A lame duck president.
The Article - Patrick Smith - The Australian - 01Oct04
Northern fans to see more AFL
The Ten agreement is significant notably because the AFL has already started informal talks with all interested parties regarding the next broadcast deal. While Channels Nine, Ten and Foxtel hold the rights until the end of 2006, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has said the league's preference would be to have a new long-term agreement in place before the end of 2005.The commission will meet in November to formally put in place parameters of its expectations for the next deal. The league is understood to be already working with Ten and other potential bidders to fix the last agreement's damaging oversight, which led to the withdrawal of prime-time Friday night football into regional areas of NSW and Queensland.The Seven Network, which holds rights to bid last in the next deal, appears to be Ten's key free-to-air rival regarding broadcasts into NSW and Queensland given the Nine Network's commitment to rugby league . . . The night games were scheduled on the condition that both were televised live into Brisbane. Not only did the Brisbane-Geelong game rate respectably but the Port Adelaide-St Kilda clash attracted an audience of more than 200,000 on the Friday night.
The Article - Caroline Wilson - TheAge - 30Sept04
Anderson makes first mark with tribunal reform
Adrian Anderson's first season as AFL general manager of football operations is behind him. If he has grown in the role it has been slowly and tentatively. The clubs have warmed to him at treacle pace. He is cautious to the point of reticent. He continually revisits his answers to make sure that he has absolutely painted a neutral position. The only time Anderson has not was his unprofessional and grossly unfair attack on the chairman of the AFL tribunal Brian Collis over the Jonathan Brown tribunal case that fell over before it even started to get up. The young man is about to have a significant impact on the competition by the end of the year. The AFL tribunal system next season appears likely to be greatly different from the one that battled through 164 charges, found 49 players guilty and suspended them for a total of 95 matches this winter.
The Article - Patrick Smith - TheAustralian - 02Oct04
AFL review on tribunal - Sportal - 02Oct04
Clubs' input sought on tribunal review - Lyall Johnson - TheAge - 02Oct04
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