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SWANSBEST
11th June 2003, 07:36 AM
NSW Premier Bob Carr says interstate teams deserve home finals on merit.


Wake up, Victoria
By JOHN THIRSK and wire services
11jun03
THE interstate bickering over this year's AFL finals escalated yesterday when NSW Premier Bob Carr said Victorians had to realise the game had moved beyond a suburban competition played on Saturday afternoons at run-down Melbourne grounds.

Like a good defender on the rebound, Mr Carr was hitting back at a charge by his Victorian opposite Steve Bracks.

The previous day Mr Bracks said Melbourne, as the spiritual heartland of the code, had every right to host AFL finals ? even if they involved interstate teams. Mr Carr and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie have been vocal in their support for interstate teams to host finals against other out-of-Melbourne teams.

Bracks laid the boot into his NSW and Queensland rivals by suggesting they should keep out of the debate because they knew nothing of the finer points of the game.

Brisbane Lions chairman Graeme Downie yesterday accused Bracks of having his head "stuck in the sand".

But Mr Carr went further, saying the finals debate had nothing to do with the finer points of AFL, but rather fairness and equity for all teams.

"A team that plays hard all year and earns the right to host a home final shouldn't have it taken away," Mr Carr said.

"I'm not surprised Premier Bracks is so upset given the poor performance of the Victorian teams this year.

"It's time the football establishment realised that the game has moved beyond a suburban competition . . . the game no longer belongs to Melbourne, it's a national competition and it's about time they treated it as such."

The Melbourne Cricket Club wants the AFL to honour a deal which could result in preliminary finals between two non-Victorian sides at the MCG.

With six of the top eight teams on the AFL ladder from interstate, preliminary finals involving non-Melbourne teams look inevitable. But critics are asking, why play Sydney v Fremantle or Port Adelaide at the MCG? The game would draw 40,000 capacity crowds in either Sydney or Adelaide but would go down like a lead balloon in Melbourne.

Mr Carr, Mr Beattie, South Australian Premier Mike Rann and Western Australian Premier Geoff Gallop have all written to the AFL calling for a change of thinking.

Bracks wants the group to butt out because tradition has it the AFL finals would be played at the MCG.

But Downie said Bracks' comments were disappointing and a classic example of Melbourne not embracing a national competition.

http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6575111%255E2771,00.html

scurrilous
11th June 2003, 05:45 PM
Put up or shut up Mr Premier. Where were you in the early Millenium years? Heck, where were you at the start of the season?

As for Bracks, he should shut the hell up too.

RogueSwan
12th June 2003, 11:52 AM
As Scurrilous has, put the Premiers should butt out. They don't care about the AFL, they only want to be seen by the electorate as caring.