It makes sense for Martin to stay at Tigers
It would be so easy to declare on the eve of Richmond's last home-and-away game that Dustin Martin would be crazy to leave the Tigers.
Caroline Wilson has been chief football writer for The Age since 1999. She was the first woman to cover Australian Rules football on a full-time basis and the first woman to win the AFL's gold media award. She has won the AFL Players' Association's football writer of the year (1999) and the AFL Media Association's most outstanding football writer and most outstanding feature writer (2000, 2003, 2005). In 2014 she won the Melbourne Press Club's Graham Perkin award as Australian journalist of the year. She also won a MPC Quill Award in 2003.
It would be so easy to declare on the eve of Richmond's last home-and-away game that Dustin Martin would be crazy to leave the Tigers.
There are friends and admirers of Nathan Buckley who have advised him over recent weeks and even months that he should walk away from Collingwood. More pertinently, that he should tell the club to shove its coaching job.
The sad but ultimately hopeful story of Chris Yarran's battle with ice addiction cannot help but vindicate critics of the AFL's illicit drugs policy and raise the eye brows of football supporters who analysed every nuance of that 2015 trade period.
Former St Kilda president and recovering addict Rod Butterss has accused the AFL of "lazy leadership", pointing to the game's $10 million-a-year deal with CrownBet and its refusal to take a strong stand on gambling advertising leading into and during match broadcasts.
The AFL has turned to a group of heavy hitters to examine and ultimately reduce Victorian clubs' reliance on poker machines.
The Adelaide Crows were quietly taken to task following a guest-speaking performance by former Australian Test cricketer Greg Ritchie before last week's Showdown.
The Richmond revival has as many heroes as last year's failed season has villains.
The AFL had little choice in terminating its football boss, Simon Lethlean, because his authority as the purveyor of rules and regulations across the 18 clubs had been too badly damaged.
Etihad Stadium's historic anchor tenant club Essendon looks certain to push to cut its match quota there in exchange for one extra game a season at the MCG.
The AFL has abandoned plans to introduce a pre-finals wildcard round in 2018.
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