Jack Ziebell’s attempt to jump plane queue leaves North teammates bemused

THEY’RE a bunch of bigheads at North Melbourne, they’re Muppets up at GWS, a novel way to land yourself in the book and a heated clash among club officials?

Exclusive photo of North Melbourne's new leadership group. L-R Robbie Tarrant, Jamie Macmillan, Jack Ziebell, Shaun Higgins and Andrew Swallow. Picture: Kylie Else

ANDREW Swallow’s cult blog on the Kangaroos website has returned from hiatus in fine form.

“Follow Swallow” takes no prisoners with new captain Jack Ziebell and Shaun Higgins in the gun.

The former skipper describes as “disgraceful” an incident at the airport last Saturday — on route to Hobart for the clash with GWS — in which Ziebell queue jumped.

Ziebell crossed to the priority boarding line and was allegedly heard saying he was captain so didn’t have to wait.

After being confronted by his bemused teammates, Ziebell tried to clarify the situation by saying he was a Velocity Gold Member, which gave him the right to priority boarding.

The North cheersquad had a bit of trouble with the skipper’s name on Saturday.

Happy 150th @jackziebell. Hope you like this banner better! #bannergate #fixednow #neverhappened 🤦🏼‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/94aF4V5HQ2

— Heath O'Loughlin (@thossian) April 11, 2017

Higgins comes under fire over the size of his head and Swallow suggests it is so big that he has to book back-to-back appointments to give the hairdressers a chance to finish the job.

“Apparently they do the sides in the first session and then move to the top of the head if time permits,” Swallow writes.

“One time they tried two hairdressers on either side of his bounce, but it wasn’t sustainable. The other issue is that the hairdresser’s arms get tired.”

Swallow also claimed that Higgins was trying to set a world record of the most haircuts in a calendar year.

Shaun Higgins, second from right, has copped some attention from Andrew Swallow. Picture: Kylie Else

A SHAKY DEFENCE

DONCASTER East under-19s player George Vlahos was scheduled to face a tribunal hearing last night after being booked for shaking a goalpost when his Croydon opponent was taking a set shot for goal.

Initially he was red-carded for the incident in the third term, which would have ruled him out for the rest of the game, but another umpire overruled that decision and he was handed a yellow card and sent from the ground for 20 minutes.

Doncaster East elected to challenge the one-game suspension offered by the Eastern Football League judiciary because they’re adamant their man was innocent.

They claim he was leaning against the post, preparing to get a run up to jump and try to touch the shot for goal.

The kick went straight through the middle and Croydon romped home to a 104-point win.

Six players in the AFL, including Essendon legend Dustin Fletcher, St Kilda’s Stewart Loewe and Fitzroy’s Darren Wheildon, have all been fined for goalpost shaking.

THE TWEET

Heath Shaw following up from his 2015 team of Simpsons lookalikes and Harry Potter lookalikes in 2016 with a Muppets line-up.

Giants chief executive David Matthews and chairman Tony Shepherd were named on the bench and compared to the cantankerous pair of Statler and Waldorf.

It's that time of year again. I have been called a @TheMuppets plenty of times over the years, so here is a @GWSGIANTS team full of them. pic.twitter.com/XrAtnvSg9d

— Heath Shaw (@heathshaw23) April 11, 2017

Draftee Isaac Cumming got the dubious honour of being compared to the Muppets star Kermit the Frog, while Adam Kennedy could be a tad upset with his comparison to Miss Piggy.

Shaw used a photo of a chubby teenage Shane Mumford to compare the ruckman to Bobo the Bear, while co-captain Phil Davis was deemed a spitting image of Count Von Count.

Shaw didn’t leave himself out of the team though, naming himself in the back pocket as wild drummer Animal.

THE WHISPER

Another SpyGate scandal almost erupted at the weekend after an official from a visiting team heatedly clashed with an employee from its rival, claiming he was taking photos of a training session.

It was later revealed the photographer worked in the marketing department and was taking shots of the LED lighting set-up for the next day’s game.