*TRANSCRIPT – AFL 360 – TUESDAY NIGHT, 19.30-20.20, EPISODE 17, 29th JULY 2014*

GERALD: Hello, I’m, Gerald Whateley, this is Mark Robinson and welcome to AFL 360 for this week’s edition of the show. Tonight we will be discussing the punch from Tyrone Vickery, the road to the finals for all 18 teams, as well as taking a major look at the transformation of the AFL as its roam on stakeholders has weakened.

MARK: Yes, Gerald, firstly we will introduce our guest panelists AFL expert reporter Damien Barrett, a well respected Australian sportsman’s, and favourite on the show, basketballer Andrew Gaze. Welcome Andrew and Damien, to start off, Damien, over the past year we have witnessed the end of Andrew Demetriou and the beginning of Gillian McLaughlin as head of the AFL. What are your thoughts on the different effects this is having on the league and the community?

DAMIEN: Well, thanks for having me boys, I would initially start off by saying Andrew Demetriou was almost a bit of a control freak. He ran the AFL how he wanted it, and that was by having no negative connotation in regards to the league itself. We saw sacked reporters, players fined, suspended and of course teams stripped of points and draft picks. We won’t go into that issue specifically but it does link to the point of the conversation we will be having tonight.

GERALD: Mr. Gaze, what are your thoughts?

ANDREW: Well as a major fan of the AFL as a league I would have to say that it became a bit too overprotective of itself and therefore dictating to an extent of what a dictator taking over a country would do. If you look at it from this perspective, Adolf Hitler killed people who were against him; The AFL in contrast doesn’t do this to such extremities, but has put in place penalties in order to deter people from doing so. So as has been previously been mentioned, reporters have been banned from being accredited to report on the AFL after making controversial comments as seen through the eyes of the AFL in particular Andrew Demetriou.

MARK: Yes I would have to agree, but as a special for tonight’s show we will break to Gillian McLaughlin right now, this is an unplanned decision from the producers to do this. As it is a perfect time to speak to the boss, we will do so. So Gillian welcome how would you say your impact as the top man in charge is changing the AFL?

GILIIAN: Well thank you for the opportunity to speak on the show. I would say my influence is focused on making a better league and as entertaining for the fans as possible. As it is the money from the fans goes on to help run the league itself, so we need to please the people who want the great league of the AFL to continue successfully. We had the unfortunate Essendon Football Club dilemma from the past few years in which Andrew Demetriou and co. disliked strongly against, as it created a type of negative effect on the league, but we have rules for a reason, if they are broken, fine we deal with them and move on. My role as chief will be to not be to make the stakeholders of the league go off a bible and follow rules that have been there since the beginning, I am open to change in order to improve the quality of football and the progression of the league within society.

GERALD: Alright Gillian if you would just stay with us for a few more minutes, as this brings up interesting discussion from Andrew, as a basketball expert. Andrew can you give some contrasts between the AFL and perhaps the NBA or other professional American sports league you may know a bit more about considering you have played in the U.S professionally?

ANDREW: Yeh sure, well in the NBA there much less of a strain put on players to behave and therefore criticism by reporters on the league is common and expected much more than in the AFL's case. The NBA often gets offered suggestions in order to improve and what individuals expect of the league. Players misbehaving are not often recognized as such bad role models