FOR THE second day running, the finances of North Melbourne were a major focus of The Age sports section.
Following its report on Thursday that highlighted, among other things, North's low bank balance, large debt and the AFL's growing concern about both, North hit back with a lengthy press release yesterday. In it, North conceded nearly all of the financial points raised by The Age, but took issue with its alarmist tone.
The Herald Sun's response to this on Friday, an interview with North chairman James Brayshaw by chief football writer Mike Sheahan, focused on the personal toll recent club dramas had taken on Brayshaw and the challenges North faced to turn its finances around.
However, The Age maintained its rage on Friday. The author of Thursday's report dismissed North's response as emotional - apparently if a response to a report names the reporter emotion is involved.
But what, if not emotion, was Thursday's report trying to stir, especially with its front-page pointer ("The footy club with no cash") and headline ("On the brink")?
Also on Friday, The Age's chief football writer Caroline Wilson reported AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou was concerned about North's finances.
Notably, though, Demetriou put his comments in context. His concern was not something new. He had known about North's financial problems before the club's annual general meeting on Wednesday, and before the release of its 2010 annual report last December.
As Wilson reported, Demetriou meets North club officials monthly to discuss the club's business plan and strategies.
Demetriou also said North was not the only club he was concerned about, with Port Adelaide and the Brisbane Lions also in need of AFL assistance.
It's hardly the sort of talk that suggests North is "on the brink", that the AFL is ready to pull the plug on it.
Thursday's report also failed to qualify the auditors' point that North would need an AFL guarantee of its loans. Five other clubs receive AFL guarantees at a similar level, one of them for $1.5 million more than North receives. Context, context, context.
None of this is to say the media should turn a blind eye to North's financial problems, but when you're calling its ongoing existence into question you should, at least, give your readers a full picture of where the club stands in the AFL landscape, compared to all other AFL clubs.
AFL takes over Hobart negotiations
Meanwhile, one of the means by which North hopes to improves its bottom line - lucrative home games in Hobart - seems a step closer to reality, with The Mercury reporting the AFL has taken over the negotiations.
On Wednesday, North chairman James Brayshaw said talks for North to play in Tasmania stalled last year when the club told the Tasmanian Government it was not prepared to relocate from Melbourne.
But The Mercury said on Friday the AFL had recently asked the Tasmanian Government and other stakeholders to conduct any negotiations for AFL games in Hobart with it and not individual clubs.
The AFL has also reportedly nominated North as its preferred club to play at Bellerive Oval, transferring two of its home games a season, starting from next year, for $600,000 a match.
As we've seen, this would be a much-needed boost to North's bank balance.
Lions' Fevola dilemma
The Brisbane Lions face a massive decision on Brendan Fevola's future in the coming days.
It's so big a decision, the Courier Mail reports, that it's been taken out of the hands of Lions coach Michael Voss and entrusted to the club's board.
In some ways, the Lions are damned either way.
Keep Fevola on and they risk untold damage to their culture and player morale if he abuses their trust by mucking up yet again.
But if they take the hard line and dismiss him they face a one-off payment that, the report says, would put them in the crosshairs of the AFL's salary cap police.
The Courier Mail suggests the "best case scenario" is for the Lions to give Fevola one more chance.
If they do - and as footy fans, we would like to see Fevola playing alongside Jonathan Brown in the Lions forward line again - let's hope his recent rehab stint will be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow.
If not, it will be an incredibly sad end for everyone involved.
Sunrise closer on the Gold Coast
As the countdown to Karmichael Hunt's first game at AFL level in round one of the NAB Cup this Saturday night, continues, the former rugby league international told the Gold Coast Bulletin he was far better prepared than the "headless chook" who played his first VFL game last year.
"I have been doing a lot more kicking than anything else (over the pre-season)," Hunt said.
"I've also been doing a lot of work with 'Solly' (assistant coach Dean Solomon) and a lot of positioning with 'Browny' (Campbell Brown) and 'Bocky' (Nathan Bock).
"They have been helping me in terms of getting in the right position when you're defending."
Meanwhile, the Courier Mail profiled the Suns' No. 1 selection in last year's NAB AFL Draft, David Swallow.
The article opened somewhat bizarrely, suggesting Swallow was so well-equipped to play AFL football straight away other clubs would clone him if that were possible and legal, and any futuristic worlds populated by robots would use Swallow as their prototype machine man.
Gold Coast deputy vice-captain Campbell Brown said Swallow had a mature body that was one of the best at the club.
"He certainly knows about it, he has never got a shirt on," Brown said, jokingly.
Swallow, himself, was confident ahead of the Suns' games against the Sydney Swans and GWS this Saturday night.
"I think it is going to be a lot quicker than any level I have played," Swallow said.
"But I think I'm ready for the physical side of things."
In short
Port Adelaide is concerned full-back Alipate Carlile and midfielder Danyle Pearce are among the uncontracted players GWS will target over the next two years, The Advertiser reports. Port football manager Peter Rohde said with former Power coach Mark Williams' now a GWS assistant coach the incoming AFL club had an "in" that may help it nab one of the duo.
Sydney Swans ruckman Mark Seaby fears the AFL's new rule reducing the interchange bench to three players and a substitute will make back-up ruckman extinct, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Former West Coast and Richmond midfielder Ben Cousins has returned to Perth to live as he weighs up his post-football future, the Herald Sun reports. Cousins is considering offers to work in the media, with his immediate focus on competing in February's 19.7km Rottnest swim, as part of a four-man team.
Adelaide Crows coach Neil Craig says he has not seen a more competitive young player than Patrick Dangerfield, the Herald Sun reports.
The Brisbane Lions will appoint a new CEO next week, The Age reports.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
