Ratten admits to tanking interviews

Updated August 01, 2012 15:21:44

Carlton coach Brett Ratten has admitted he was interviewed twice by the AFL over tanking rumours.

Ratten said on Wednesday that the league had every right to talk to players, coaches or officials if they suspected clubs were throwing games.

And he said he had no issue with the league interviewing his player Brock McLean after the midfielder said he left Melbourne when he realised the Demons appeared to be deliberately losing.

McLean played for Melbourne in 2009, when they lost six of their last seven games to finish bottom of the table with four wins, and snared star draft picks Tom Scully and Jack Trengove.

"Circumstances that happened in the second half of the year never really sat well with me," McLean said earlier this week.

"They don't call it tanking - we would call it experimenting or whatever it was. It just went against everything I was taught as a kid, taught as a footballer and as a person."

The AFL says it will interview McLean over his claims but Ratten said on Wednesday he never took offence when the league spoke to him.

"They've investigated Melbourne, they've investigated us," Ratten said.

"Personally as a coach, I got investigated twice in regards to this, so I've gone through that procedure and the AFL have ticked it off.

"They've done their findings behind the scenes and everything's clear.

"If the AFL want to speak to anyone at any time, they've got the right to ... they are the chief of the game, you could say, and they can call upon any person at any time."

"They interview you for a reason, whether it's a rumour, or something's there or someone said something. I didn't find it offensive at all."

AAP

Tags: australian-football-league, sport, carlton-3053, melbourne-3000, vic, australia

First posted August 01, 2012 15:21:44

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Primus admits Power is struggling

Port Adelaide coach Matthew Primus has called on supporters for help after admitting the AFL club is wrestling with a $2 million debt.

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Tags: australian-football-league, port-adelaide-5015

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AFL admits Brown doubly lucky

Updated April 13, 2011 05:43:00

The AFL has admitted Gold Coast's Campbell Brown was doubly lucky to only receive a two-game suspension for striking Western Bulldogs opponent Callan Ward.

League operations manager Adrian Anderson said the Bulldogs' medical report on Ward, plus the match review panel's decision to grade the contact as reckless rather than intentional, saved the Suns hard man a longer ban.

Brown took the early plea for his two controversial incidents during Saturday's game.

He also accepted a two-game suspension for high contact with key forward Barry Hall, meaning he will miss the next four matches.

There has been a strong reaction to the two Brown penalties, with several AFL commentators arguing the Ward punishment should have been harsher.

But neither Ward or Hall were injured in the incidents.

Brown threw his elbow back and caught Ward in the face, briefly stunning him.

"I've heard a lot of comparisons with elbows and king hits and whatever, in all of those cases you've got a bloke with either a broken jaw or concussed or out for several weeks," Anderson said on radio station 3AW about the Ward incident.

"That worked in his favour."

Had the panel ruled the Ward strike was intentional rather than reckless, Brown would have faced a three-game ban with an early plea.

"It is on the lighter side," Anderson admitted.

"The reason why the match review panel did that is because he wasn't looking at Ward when he threw his arm back.

"They weren't satisfied he intended to hit him the way he did, that could have gone either way ... I can see their argument.

"It's not clearly wrong, I don't think."

Losing their vice-captain for a month is another blow for the fledgling Suns after they started their debut season with big losses to Carlton and the Bulldogs.

Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna admitted on Tuesday that Brown must earn back his team-mates' trust.

McKenna said a "remorseful" Brown addressed the young Suns playing group as they prepared for this weekend's clash with Melbourne.

"I spoke to him over the course of the weekend (and) he addressed the playing group today," he said.

"Obviously he was remorseful to the playing group.

"He understands that he has let them down.

"He has to earn back their trust - which I am sure he will do."

Also on Tuesday, Adelaide ruckman Ivan Maric became the first player this year to challenge his charge at the tribunal.

But his plea against a rough conduct charge was unsuccessful.

Maric still remains eligible to play in Saturday's Showdown against Port Adelaide because his penalty was a reprimand and carryover points.

-AAP

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