The AFL makes as much sense as snorting Bull ants

The AFL.

I grow wearysome of it.

It has been an ugly year for sport in Australia. With AFL there has been drug taking, purposefully losing games, strange rules and racism. In my eyes, the AFL has lost it with all of these points.

Drug Taking

Before the year had even begun, it was announced that illegal supplements were taken by certain players, and in fact whole teams were in trouble.

Investigators to this day are running questions past players. Coaches have been brought into questioning.

The CEO of Essendon mentioned something along the lines as "Any person found taking illegal drugs will lose their position within the club."

The coach admitted to using supplements not yet approved for human consumption. This is an illegal drug, the same practice as mentioned by the CEO, that if taken the said person shall lose their position in the club.

Has it happened? No.  Why isn't anyone talking about it?

Yet players still play with an unfair advantage over others, taking precious premiership points in their wake.

Sure, once investigations have completed, their points will likely be stripped.  But they wont be given back to the losing clubs, which could cost a club a chance at the finals all because of doctors/players pushing the limit without being punished.

Frustrating.

Tanking

In the AFL, the lower you finish on the ladder and the lesser number of wins that you finish a year with, the better draft picks in the following year.

Melbourne Demons were discovered to have purposefully lost games to gain these higher draft picks.

Karma did strike the unfortunate Demons, with high draft picked players poached by other teams and high fines brought upon the club for their strategy of unfair gain.

Persons were banned from being at their club, including Dean Bailey, previous Head Coach for the Demons and now working as an Assistant for the Adelaide Crows.

Bailey has been banned from assisting for numerous games for the Crows. This is punishing a club that has nothing to do with the Demons rather than punishing the person.

Bewildering.

Strange Rules

Expert AFL commentators were asked to state how they would explain the game of Aussie Rules to a person who has never seen the game before.

One person said something along the lines of "No one knows the rules, but half the crowd will cheer the decision and the other half will vehemently boo it."

Commentator after commentator will at one stage throughout the year shake their head at a decision.  Shake their head at a bad call that is confirmed correct by the Umpiring Panel or shake their head at a player ban for an on field discriminatory action.

This has been the case for years and will still continue to be the case for years to come, and we accept it.

We shouldn't. It's impossible to keep up, argh!

Annoying.

Racism

There has been enough talk about Racism. I'd rather not talk about it any more, but enough is enough in the AFL.

To summarise for those that aren't aware to the last few weeks stories, a young girl racially abused an aboriginal player in Indigenous Round. That player after the game was met by opposition team's CEO to personally apologise.  The following few days, that CEO bewilderingly racially abused that same player on radio.

What has happened since then?

The CEO offered his resignation from his club.  It wasn't accepted.

He is instead being put through a few weeks of a racial discrimination program and no one has talked about it since.

Disgusting.


So we have the ultimate sporting league in Australia, trying to do what I believe is the right thing in our Community, trying to do what the right thing for our kids and our indigenous people.

Do the right thing AFL.

Stand up against drug cheating.

Don't ruin our game.

Stand up against racism.

You banned Melbourne staff for sending the game into disrepute. You helped deal a hand against Matt Rendell for overheard comments.

Eddie McGuire referred an Aboriginal player to King Kong days after a thirteen year old girl called him an ape.

It doesn't get worse than that.

But Eddie is back on TV, back in his spot as CEO, back sipping Lattes with his buddy and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou.

What is going on?  Ban Eddie McGuire from his roles associated with the AFL! Stop ruining our great game and be consistent!

Racism ends with us. Prove it.

- tork

It makes me sick

With my boy in and out of hospital with breathing problems, this article I read this morning made me sick.

$18,000 for sick toddler stolen @ninemsn.

Allegedy, $18,000 was stolen from a charity night dinner where the funds were going towards a sick Sydney toddler with leukemia.  The person who allegedly stole it seems to be one of the people organising the night.

Disgusting.

I look at the picture of the young girl and see my own boy in her eyes.  She looks so sad.

I look at the parents and feel for them.

How can anyone be so desperate for money to steal from a sick child with a devestating illness?  Are they souless or are they just so strapped for cash they exist outside of reality?

This article just saddened me.  When you relate your own stories to others, you just feel for them so much more.

Luckily, my boy is no where near as ill as this young girl, but I wish their family all the best in their trying time that has been made even worse.

My heart goes out to them.

- tork

Times are not kept in updates or hashtags

Do you blog?  Do you write? Do you enjoy reading blogs?

I love it, all of it. With my writing, I like to think "You never know what you are going to get".

Don't know why I enjoy it.  I find it sort of a lost art, especially poetry.

I love poetry, well, most of the time. I've posted a few originals that you might like to read:

Evening Rest
Australia Day Poem

I am a Shakespeare fan.  As the kiddies say, "Big ups to my main man Willy.  I give you props"

..ahem..

Let me quote to you Romeo & Juliet.

What smell through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet just farted.

I think thats how it goes.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is, write, keep writing or start writing.

Times are not kept in Facebook updates nor Twitter hashtags. Stories are held for our future.

And you can quote me on that.


So write for your future memories. Write to express. Write from the heart.

As my blog help tip of the day, readers/followers can tell when you write for Google. You won't keep folks hitting that follow button if they aren't interested!

That's what I try do. I try to tell my stories, even when writing things that aren't artsy fartsy.

Anyway, I hope it gives at least one person motivation to write something amazing, anything.


If you're lost for ideas, there is always my blog award currently running: The Torkona Award II - Your First Born Birth Story

Have a crack at writing whatever you feel.  In years time, give yourself something to look back on.

- tork 

Tork's secret entry to the Aussie Bloggers conference?

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Seems to be a certain Aussie Bloggers conference going around.

I jump from one blog to another and there it is, someone going to the bloggers conference.

I personally think this is a fantastic idea, but also frickin' scary hehehe.

I want to do a little experiment and see how far it gets me.

Yes I've only had this blog for three months, but I'd like to see how many eyes and ears I've reached in that time.  I know a lot of folks follow me that are going to this conference, so here's what I want to try and do.

Ask anyone there 'What do you think of Torkona? Isn't he a spunk?"

No, no, thats not quite right.. make it this:

Ask anyone 'Have you read Torkona's blog?'

Why? Because.. I want to go :-(


Reading it all over the blogsphere, it sounds like the place to be.  By getting a little chatter is, maybe, my way of being there.

Who knows, perhaps once I get more readers/followers and increase my word of mouth in the Mummy/Daddy blogger world, I may appear.

But for now, I will keep to my kind of anonymity.  Keep you guessing of Torkona :-)  Hell, none of you know what age I even am!  Hmm, what age do you think?

Anyhoo, I'm jealous, so for those that are attending the Aussie bloggers conference, enjoy.  For those that aren't, join me for a virtual pint of beer over on Twitter ;-)

- tork

My life, the Amatuer Blogger

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I think I have done everything a blogger shouldn't do.

I always read twitter, I read facebook, I jump into reddit, I fart about on StumbleUpon.

I've posted drivel for the sake of posting.


I watch my blog stats and constantly hit refresh.

If I get a view then I see if they commented.

Ooh, and I've used the word "I" 10 times so far! :-)

If you are an experienced blogger (a year or longer) you are more than likely nodding your head saying "Yeah, I've done all of those when I was first starting out".


The problem is, yes, I admit it.  I.. am a consumer.


I'm addicted to social media and my blog stats. I pace around my keyboard just watching, hoping, that people like my blog and follow or subscribe to it.


Spending time on social media is starting to eat into my time of typing away a killer post that will bring me to my goal of a guzillion followers. 


I need to spend less time consuming and more time producing cracker content for my people! :-)


If I just try to limit my Twitter(s), Torkona3, funnybLErg and Adelaide_SA (*sigh*) and other social media to say 30 mins at night, I could become a better blogger.


The first step to overcome an addiction is to admit to it though, right? :-)

I think I'm slowly getting there with my latest blogspot Adelaide and South Australia blog. But I'm still slipping into bad habits.


Are you a social media addict? How do you fight the urge to consume?


- tork