The importance of playing fair

Credit: Cathy Wilcox

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THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

Jake Niall’s case for a relaxation of Brownlow Medal ineligibility (“Heeney penalty exposes a flawed Brownlow”, 23/9) misses the point. If a player is rubbed out for a match or more, he is taken to have indulged in unfair play. As Charles Brownlow wrote in 1923: “Play fair and all [shall] be well.” Nicholas Green, Inverloch

Scoring system flawed
Jake Niall (23/9) highlights one aspect of the voting which he deems unfair, but fails to mention a far more significant deficiency which arises from the way in which votes are actually awarded.
How fair is it that the player judged best on the ground receives three times as many votes as the player judged third best, a disparity further increased when only three players out of a possible total of 44 can be awarded votes? It means that players who are consistently among the best, week in, week out (but place third) are outscored by those who stand out on fewer occasions.
While all scoring systems have their shortcomings, it would be fairer to follow the examples of other AFL awards and give individual scores out of 10 for the best three players.
Bryan Long, Balwyn

Points-based system better option
The Brownlow Medal is given to the “fairest and best”. It is odd that a player can collect $20,000 in multiple fines and be eligible but a week’s suspension eliminates them.
A fairer system might be to have a points-based one where, say, a week’s suspension would attract 10 points and each $1000 fine would get one point. You could adjust the elimination level to nine or 11 points depending on whether you want to include players who get a week’s suspension.
David Moore, Kew

Insomniacs should try this
Forget counting sheep to get to sleep. Try counting Brownlowzzzzz.Works every time.
Ron Mather, Melbourne

Gambling ads invasive
“AFL, NRL torpedo gambling ban” (21/9) – what a joke! Do they not realise we footy fans hate those invasive and pervasive ads and how badly their support for gambling reflects on their code and image?
Do we really want to teach our kids that you can’t enjoy sport for its own sake – that betting is part of the game?
This posturing about damaging community sport is hypocritical given the damage gambling does in communities, particularly in lower-income areas. If the AFL’s product is any good, it will attract other sponsors.
Julie Satur, Somerville

Club songs have had their day
The 2024 season of footy is nearly finished and we’ve had another year of listening to the same awful club songs.
While the game has evolved and adopted new and better coaching and playing techniques, the club songs have done anything but.
Could anything be more hackneyed and make you cringe than hearing those jolly old blokes’ voices singing along with the trombones? Are these club songs not overdue for a remix or even ditching for the 21st century? Even the lyrics are out of date.
Carlton’s Lily of Laguna (1896) was originally a racist song. Goodbye Dolly Gray, the tune on which Collingwood’s theme is based, was popular during the 1898 Spanish-American War. North Melbourne’s use of Just a wee Deoch an Doris (1911) ... what was that? These are not even Australian compositions for an Australian game!
R. Doherty, North Fitzroy

The season is nearly over, thankfully
The AFL grand final time has rolled around again and I’ve gone out of my way like other years not to buy tickets or to have anything to do with the game. Like the advertisement on TV where the guy says the unthinkable, “I don’t like beer!”, I don’t like Australian rules football – never have, never will. I know I am not alone, there are at least 10 of us who eschew footy.
Brian Noble, Taylors Hill

THE FORUM

The technology of war
The current wars in Ukraine and Gaza show how methods of waging war are constantly changing. Now a single soldier with a shoulder-fired missile can stop tanks; unmanned missiles and drones are common, and even pagers and radios are weaponised.
In light of this, do our politicians still believe that Australia’s best future defence is six ridiculously expensive nuclear submarines possibly arriving in 2040?
Colin Mockett, Geelong

Fomenting hate
Your correspondent (Letters, 23/9) complains that Louise Adler fails to mention Hamas or Iran’s government in her opinion piece (“The things I’ve learnt you can’t ask about Israel”, 21/9) but fails himself to mention Israel’s own despotic government.
To his series of legitimate questions about who drives the suicide bombings, murders their opponents or hides among their civilian population could be added: who thinks that slaughtering a whole population, by bombing, famine or disease is the solution?
An oppressed and dispossessed people, fleeing butchery to safety in their ancestral homeland, have, incredulously, become the oppressors. Where do you think the hundreds of thousands in refugee camps in Gaza come from, and why are they there?
I grant that if the solutions were simple, they would have been found by now. But I do know that indiscriminate, unspeakable massacres by both sides will only foment hate that will last for generations and likely condemn all to endless war.
We can only hope that the good people of Iran, Palestine and Israel gain the strength and courage to rise up against their self-serving murderous regimes.
Graeme Russell, Clifton Hill

Defending a democracy
Your correspondents, Evan Thornley and Bruce Hartnett (Letters 23/9), deserve credit for introducing facts to counter the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian views of Louise Adler. She fails to address how you could achieve lasting peace with an adversary who denies your right to exist.
As for the allegation that Israel is inherently anti-democratic, that is incomprehensible when Palestinians can vote, be elected, and participate with Jewish citizens protesting against the elected Netanyahu’s government, which would never be accepted in Islamic fundamentalist Iran as the key financier and backer of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Israel (as with all democracies) can be criticised openly and legitimately by those seeking perfection but as someone more famous than me remarked: democracy is a flawed system but all the other systems are worse.
Bill Vickers, Melbourne

Don’t blame victims
Some of your correspondents (Letters, 23/9) seem to have missed the point of Louise Adler’s article, and that is that there will be no peace in the Middle East until both sides admit their role in prolonging the ongoing conflict.
It is not acceptable to blame the victims of the other side for their own suffering. Acts of violence are not justified by previous acts and should be condemned without qualification.
Peter Martina, Warrnambool

Overdue rail investment
Having just returned from a trip to Europe, it reinforced the difference in rail travel in the great cities compared to Melbourne.
There are few, if any, railway crossings in these cities – London has about five and Paris one, with most rail travel separate to car, bus and truck travel.
The upgrade of the rail system in Melbourne comes more than 100 years later than the metropolitan rail systems in Europe.
That successive Liberal-National Party state governments did nothing for many years does not reflect well on them.
We should compliment the Andrews and Allan governments for the investment we are now seeing in the removal of more than 100 rail crossings and the new underground rail loop from Cheltenham to Box Hill.
An investment well overdue and one that will be celebrated for generations to come.
Barry James, Lilydale

Paying for foreshore
I am a long-term resident of Mornington and have seen what happens on public holidays and weekends on our foreshore (“Hot spots to make tourists pay to park”, 23/9).
The council has done a great job of providing very attractive amenities: children’s playgrounds with marine themes, free barbecues, water, toilets and extensive picnic seating. I have watched day visitors for more than 60 years arrive and take everything they need from their cars and set up camp. Local business does not get a look-in.
Then there’s the cost of the clean-up after they leave. It makes parking fees look like a good idea. The downside is that businesses in the charged parking areas have been missing out on their regular customers during the recent charged parking experiment.
Winston Anderson, Mornington

Warning on future
The final words from the Tax Office and the assistant treasurer’s spokeswoman are crucial for anyone considering taking money early from their superannuation fund (“Alarm over rising raids on super for medical cases”, 23/9).
Superannuation was introduced to ensure dignified retirement living with government assistance. The fact that superannuation funds were accessed during the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a warning sign for the future.
If the funds are depleted, retirement will not be sustainable, leading to an impossible financial pattern for the government.
Anne Kruger, Rye

Not in the public interest
Proposals for economic reform face a well-organised and well-funded industry lobby (“Lobbyists scare tactics won’t wash with voters”, 23/9). Ross Gittins notes several activities, including business, employer and industry groups lobbying the government, top bureaucrats and senators.
The lobbying includes private consultations with industry groups. Teams of highly paid, specialist lawyers and others check through the proposals, preparing amendments.
If the proposals are made public, there may be some consultation with public interest groups, usually represented by a volunteer, working on a spare Sunday afternoon.
Then there is the well-funded, tax-deductible media campaign targeting the MPs and voters.
How can we get long-term public interest government out of such a process? We cannot. We have not.
Many countries have stronger laws to limit the power of lobbyists. This could start with constraining the practice of MPs and bureaucrats taking up lucrative employment with industry groups.
This sort of integrity reform will probably only come to Australia if minor parties and independents hold the balance of power.
Ann Birrell, St Kilda West

Less outrage, more action
I wonder how many of the outraged correspondents so critical of the Uniting Church (Letters, 23/9) are regulars at services at the church building in question. If they had, they may have noted the numbers and ages of those who do attend.
I wonder how many of the “outraged” contribute to the maintenance of the buildings to go under the hammer?
Here is an idea. Instead of being a keyboard critic, put your money where your keyboard is. Put together an “outraged” fund to buy the building and maintain it for the benefit of the community.
Ken Rivett, Ferntree Gully

Build it, and cars will come
If we are going to build more homes as high-rise buildings (“More suburbs to get towers in expansion of planning”, 22/9), then greater attention to the adequacy of roads as well as public transport is needed. Some might say that better public transport will obviate the need for more capacity on the roads for cars, but experience shows that both are needed.
However, this is not that simple. Existing heavy traffic will only get worse to the point of being intolerable. That could be fixed by banning on-street parking. But where would the cars park without a major commitment to accessible parking? Businesses would fold.
The call to “build more” is not simple for many reasons.
Graeme Young, Wheelers Hill

Natural attrition
Thanks, CBD (23/9), for reminding us that back in 2010, the Greens were calling for an end to brown-coal power stations and duck hunting. It’s a blight on mainstream politics that we still have both in Victoria. But those power stations are wearing out and closing voluntarily, while the duck shooters are diminishing in number. Latest reports show duck licences have fallen almost 20 per cent over the past seven years.
Up to half of those licences are not used in any given year, and the age profile shows the hunters are a greying bunch.
Natural attrition prevails where political courage fails.
Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills

AND ANOTHER THING

Parking fees
Be careful what you wish for (“Hot spots to make tourists pay to park”, 23/9). Charging visitors to

park in tourist towns will have unintended consequences. To make it easier for locals to find places to park close to the shops, less tourists will need to visit.
David Charles, Newtown

Credit: Matt Golding

Apparently, regional eateries are going bust from a downturn in visitors. Now those regions are going to start charging parking fees from the customers that they want to attract. Doesn’t make much business sense to me.
Russell Brims, Bentleigh East

Dental work
With more people accessing superannuation for dental treatment (“Alarm over rise in raids on super for medical care”, 23/9), the cavities left will eventually be filled with extra pension entitlements.
Joan Segrave, Healesville

We create schemes to allow those in need access their super, then complain when they do.
Craig Tucker, Newport

The Greens
What on earth is going on with the Greens? (“Greens issue RBA reform ultimatum”, 23/9) Demanding interference in the decisions of the Reserve Bank is populous nonsense.
Robin Lohrey, Howrah, Tas.

The Greens would be a joke if the issues they meddle with weren’t so serious.
Greg Stark, Newtown

Credit: Matt Golding

Furthermore
It is pleasing to see two Melbourne clubs, “The Bloods” and “The Gorillas”, playing in the AFL
grand final this year.
John Uren, Blackburn

Perhaps there is another reason to find life beyond the Earth. The search for AFL umpires who can interpret extra-terrestrial rules?
Hank Dikkenberg, Glenorchy, Tas.

Finally
The line, “To detail these facts is beyond the capacity of a short letter”, struck a chord with me (Letters, 23/9). I have felt the same frustration after reading certain “Faith” columns in The Sunday Age.
Brian Kilday, Jeeralang Junction

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To submit a letter to The Age, email [e-mail]. Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.