Caroline Wilson is a Walkley award-winning columnist and former chief football writer for The Age.
The Lions’ ledger has looked significantly worse than 6-6 from 12 games at the season’s midpoint, but their un-Brisbane-like behavioral signs began post-season.
It began with a telephone message from former Bombers chairman Paul Little to David Barham in the days following Essendon’s 10-goal loss to Adelaide in round two last year. Little wanted a meeting.
After dedicating more than 15 years of blood, sweat and tears to the Giants, it would be an alarm-bells moment for the club if Greene, their captain and talisman, chose to finish his career elsewhere.
The former Brisbane Lions champion spent much of his coaching career looking over his shoulder.
Paul Moore’s disappointment comes after the AFL commission recently confirmed changes to player movement starting with the 2026 national draft.
All-Australians Shaun Burgoyne, Michael O’Loughlin and Michael Walters are among those critical of the make-up and lack of Indigenous representation on the panel designed to address a crisis in the number of First Nations players in the game.
Whatever other struggles the Blues are enduring behind the scenes, the Elijah Hollands incident exposed a bigger failure. The club has also failed to handle the fallout.
Paul Briggs, a decorated community leader, resigned along with two other advisers after the AFL Commission bypassed them when it ticked off targets to increase the number of First Nations players in the game.
Ginnivan’s switch to Hawthorn on the last day of the 2023 trade period, in a deal essentially based around second-round pick swaps, now looks a poor decision from the Magpies.
The worst thing about the ill-fated AFL integrity investigation is that it could have been avoided. Now it’s headed for the Supreme Court.