AFL acknowledges Sydney Swans have been unfairly targeted over runner Jeremy Laidler
THE AFL issued the Sydney Swans with a ‘please explain’ but later said they had been targeted unfairly as ‘runner-gate’ ruffled coach John Longmire’s feathers.
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SYDNEY coach John Longmire’s angry claim that the Swans have been unfairly targeted by the Melbourne Mafia over ‘runner-gate’ has been vindicated by a bizarre admission from AFL House.
The governing body issued Sydney with a ‘please explain’ as to why runner Jeremy Laidler spent so much time on the field in the critical dying minutes of Sunday’s thrilling win over North Melbourne.
Yet in the same official statement, AFL football operations manager Steve Hocking admitted that Laidler and Sydney had unjustly been made an example of.
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A fired-up Longmire argued Laidler was guilty of nothing more than human error and slammed Melbourne media figures for giving the issue such undue attention.
The AFL conceded as much but in a stunning contradiction went ahead demanding formal clarification from Sydney anyway.
“We’ve issued a letter. In fairness to Jeremy, it’s unfair that he’s actually been highlighted to the level he has been. We could probably send out 18 (letters) a weekend,” Hocking said.
“If you have a look at what we did during the JLT (Community Series), which everyone seems to have forgotten about, and on the verge of the season there was potential that it was going to change and we ended up staying with the status quo, but it’s on the agenda.
“That will be something the Competition Committee work through.”
Longmire said the Swans had been victimised by a storm-in-a-teacup of Melbourne’s making.
“Jeremy came on with 1.33 left to go. He had a small window with 43 seconds to get off the ground when the play was between him and the interchange bench. He didn’t take it. He missed that opportunity as a lot of people make mistakes or miss opportunities whether it’s free kicks or decisions you make,” said Longmire.
“There’s absolutely no indication of him deliberately blocking space or manning up players. That’s just absolutely incorrect.
“It tends to grow its own legs.
“It would have been nice to have some of the media actually ask the question before they made such strong statements in the press on a Monday night.
“I don’t understand the obsession about (runners) to be honest. It’s a long game, it goes for 30 minutes a quarter, you’ve got young players out there. You’re allowed to deliver messages.”
Longmire will at this SCG this Saturday match-up against one of his protégé’s, Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew. But Longmire said there’s no time for any niceties despite his former assistant’s struggles in his first year at the Swans.
“I’ve spoken to him a couple of times. But once the season starts no matter what happens you have a little bit of contact during the course of the year but you largely focus on your own team and what can happen there,” said Longmire.
“I’m sure they’re on top of what they need to do and learning a lot and definitely this week is about us trying to beat the Gold Coast Suns and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
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