![Over and outed: Kangaroos players Drew Petrie and Brent Harvey leave the ground after the loss to Adelaide on Saturday.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/d/t/e/w/image.related.landscape.460x307.grdslu.png/1473583318438.jpg)
![Michael Gleeson](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/h/v/e/e/v/image.imgtype.columnistThumbnail.90x90.png/1406511154884.jpg)
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Michael Gleeson
Michael Gleeson is a senior AFL football writer and Fairfax Media's athletics writer. He also covers tennis, cricket and other sports. He won the AFL Players Association Grant Hattam Trophy for excellence in journalism for the second time in 2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Quill Awards for best sports feature writer. He was also a finalist in the 2014 Australian Sports Commission awards for his work on ‘Boots for Kids’. He is a winner of the AFL Media Association award for best news reporter and a two-time winner of Cricket Victoria’s cricket writer of the year award. Michael has covered multiple Olympics, Commonwealth Games and world championships and 15 seasons of AFL, He has also written seven books - five sports books and two true crime books.
![Over and outed: Kangaroos players Drew Petrie and Brent Harvey leave the ground after the loss to Adelaide on Saturday.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/d/t/e/w/image.related.landscape.460x307.grdslu.png/1473583318438.jpg)
![Back in the side: Tom Liberatore.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/2/a/1/x/image.related.landscape.120x80.grb5wv.png/1473243354427.jpg)
The finals selection gamble: will 'fit enough' be good enough?
The axiom of taking only fit players into finals will be challenged by clubs gambling on taking "fit enough" players into the first week of finals.
![Balme is target of the Tigers rebels.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/a/f/p/c/image.related.landscape.120x80.gra7jk.png/1473204124382.jpg)
Soothing Balme missing for rebels
Within minutes the focus of Richmond's Focus on Football ticket appeared to narrow to a simpler vision: Focus on Balme.
![Tigers coach Damien Hardwick is safe if the board challengers succeed.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/2/r/h/7/image.related.landscape.120x80.gr8xtl.png/1473125153747.jpg)
Richmond challengers: We're 35 years into a five-year-plan
Richmond group wants to keep coach Damien Hardwick but make him change his game plan.
![Richmond president Peggy O'Neal.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/c/u/z/q/image.related.landscape.120x80.gr960y.png/1473064006077.jpg)
Tigers president Peggy O'Neal hits back at rivals
Richmond boss Peggy O'Neal has called a press conference in the wake of a group of supporters going public with demands for a spill of the board.
![The group says it's time Richmond returned to "winning football and contesting premierships". The Tigers endured a ...](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/x/e/g/4/image.related.landscape.120x80.gr8o2f.png/1473037185937.jpg)
Group calls for spill of Richmond Tigers' board
An unidentified group of Richmond supporters - including two premiership players - is calling for a spill of the Tigers board.
![Giant Lachie Whitfield was allegedly secreted away by former GWS football manager Graeme Allan and former welfare ...](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/4/t/e/q/image.related.landscape.120x80.gr5u2v.png/1473115974573.jpg)
It's an old story: Football finds a woman to blame
This is a story of deceit. It is the story of a naïve footballer doing a profoundly stupid thing then trusting the advice of people who should have known better.
![Investigated for deliberately hiding from drug testers: Lachie Whitfield.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/1/3/7/4/image.related.landscape.120x80.gr41b6.png/1472518453086.jpg)
AFL investigates GWS Giants over drugs allegations
Former number one draft pick Lachie Whitfield has been investigated for deliberately hiding from drug testers with the help of two former Greater Western Sydney football officials.
![Stephen Hill, of the Dockers, is tackled by brother Bradley, of the Hawks.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/d/k/1/9/image.related.landscape.120x80.gqdgev.png/1469446884530.jpg)
An up-Hill battle to re-unite brothers at one club?
Alastair Clarkson says what Alastair Clarkson wants to say. At the weekend he wanted to say something about Bradley Hill.
![Elite ruck: Nic Naitanui of the Eagles and Shaun Hampson of the Tigers at Domain Stadium in April.](/web/20160911090319im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/8/h/h/2/image.related.landscape.120x80.gqbv4f.png/1469320431275.jpg)
Get Smart it's Chaos v Control
Hawthorn calls them the "chaos player", other clubs have different names for them: "maverick", which is a bit Top Gun, "rogue".
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