IN the pursuit of crappiness, tanking, the game's most powerful man would seem confused at best.

By forcing Sydney coach Paul Roos to front an inquiry into the serious charge of match-fixing - one based on the interpretation of a remark uttered to a player - chief executive Andrew Demetriou is not only guilty of sullying the reputation of one of the code's great servants, but also a mecca of hypocrisy.

Dare this column remind Demetriou of an utterly, unimportant and uninteresting match-up between two of the worst performed teams of last season - a twilight, end-of-the-year fixture which pitted Carlton against Melbourne at the MCG.

Indeed, it was one of those matches where it would have been tough to have even given away tickets. Just 26,156 people attended.

But there was something about the match-up that gave it real, even profound, meaning: a deep suspicion that one team was determined to lose the game to help secure a poor win-loss record and thus, claim a priority pick in the national draft.

The incentive to win for the Blues was non-existent.

Sitting on a 4-17 win-loss record and having lost 10 consecutive games, victory would have rendered the club ineligible for the first priority pick of the draft.

So, not surprisingly, the Blues stumbled badly and for the second successive season, gained the coveted first and third selections.

The Blues were rewarded for their crappiness by being gifted talented and towering, 200-centimeter ruckman Matthew Kruezer. Pick three also paved the way for the club to trade for the game's best player, Eagle Chris Judd.

Said Andrew Demetriou of the suspicion: "If people genuinely believe a priority pick is going to be a panacea for a football club, they are delusional. We don't subscribe to the theory teams deliberately go out to lose or manipulate results."

Could a coach really tank a game in a way that isn't embarrassingly obvious? Where is the evidence that Brett Ratten coached his team to lose? And why would a coach, who presumably cares about his career record and has some pride, want to lose?

They're but a few questions pro-Carlton types will ask.

But there is evidence the Blues adopted a lose-now, win-later strategy.

They shut down for the season. Nine players, including Matthew Lappin and Anthony Koutoufides, were unavailable for selection in the season finale because of year-ending injuries.

By all accounts, all were suffering from minor or lingering issues and could probably have played if needed.

Lappin admitted as much. Of his back injury, he, said: "If it were a final, I would have done everything in my power to be fit."

The Carlton scourge was not nearly as egregious as the purposeful losing that occurred at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

In Pool B, Sweden was to face Slovakia in the last round-robin match for both teams.

Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson publicly contemplated tanking against Slovakia, knowing that if his team won, they would have to face either Canada or the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals.

He told Swedish television: "One is cholera, the other the plague."

Sweden lost the match 3-0.

The most obvious sign of tanking was when Sweden had a five-on-three power play with five National Hockey League stars?Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidström, and Fredrik Modin ? on the ice, and failed to put a shot on goal.

If he was seeking to tank, Gustafsson got his wish; Sweden would face a much less formidable quarter-final opponent in Switzerland. Canada would lose to Russia in a quarter-final in the opposite bracket, while Sweden went on to win the gold medal, defeating the Czechs in the semi-finals.

The pursuit of crappiness is a realisation of sport in the 21st century - a billion-dollar business where winning on each occasion no longer is everything.

Roos, like some other coaches, doesn't want to win pre-season matches.

You don't have to be Einstein to figure that out; his NAB Cup win-loss record is 0-5 in five seasons.

He believes the longer a club stays alive in the knock-out pre-season competition, the more difficult its preparations for the premiership season become.

So, for the ill-fated February 17 clash with Hawthorn, Roos selected a typically young and depleted team devoid of 13 of his first-choice players.

What is more important? Saving the integrity of the NAB Cup, a glorified practice match circuit with ludicrous trial rules - which nobody is really interested in anyway.

Or, the season proper, where everybody is supposed to put in their blood, sweat and tears to win every weekend? That is, unless you're eyeing off a priority pick.

The comparison is inevitable and legitimate; how did Carlton and its respected front-office of administrators/coaches escape the embarrassment of a league investigation into their motives?

Perhaps, as Roos has alluded, this farcical investigation into him was retribution for years of public squabbling - settling old scores.

"It has got nothing to do with any of that," Demetriou said this week. "The rules are the rules, regardless of NAB Cup or not. This goes to the integrity of the competition."

Next, presumably, league headquarters new found disdain of tanking will spark investigations into Brisbane, whose coach Leigh Matthews didn't even turn up their NAB Cup opener against Essendon on the Gold Coast. His lieutenant, triple premiership defender Justin Leppitsch, was installed as the Lions' acting head coach.

So too Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse, who embarrassed the league's top brass with a pitiful 81-point loss as they showcased our game to the world in the Middle East.

If Demetriou is so concerned about the integrity of the NAB Cup, he should apologise to Roos or launch more farcical investigations into the pre-season efforts of Brisbane, Collingwood et al.

But as for Carlton, it can again deliberately lose games (if it chooses) and in turn, destroy the integrity of the 2008 draft.

What's a greater crime?

Your Comments

1 Comments

. sandgroperinsa - Mar 21 08:41pm

IN the pursuit of crappiness, Dylan Howard is still employed!

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