Former Dees coach Dean Bailey (above) and former football manager Chris Connolly have been found guilty of conduct unbecoming and will cop suspensions. Picture: George Salpigtidis Source: Herald Sun
MELBOURNE has been found not guilty of tanking after a forensic seven-month investigation by the AFL.
But key individuals - then-coach Dean Bailey and then-football manager Chris Connolly - have been found guilty of conduct unbecoming, stemming from comments made by Connolly.
The pair have been suspended, Bailey for the first 16 rounds of the coming season, and Connolly until February 1 2014.
Bailey can remain employed by Adelaide - where he is an assistant coach - during his suspension, but cannot deal with players in any capacity.
Connolly is not allowed to perform any function for or on behalf of the Melbourne footy club, where he has held a marketing role for the past 18 months.
The AFL's deputy CEO Gillon McLachlan announced the results of the investigation in a press conference this afternoon.
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He confirmed that the Demons will be fined $500,000 for being the employers of Connolly and Bailey, which will be paid by the club in instalments.
''The Melbourne football club did not set out to deliberately lose matches in any game in 2009," McLachlan said today.
The Demons will not lose any draft picks because the club was found not guilty of the serious charge of conduct prejudical to the draft. In other words, not guilty of deliberately losing matches at the end of the 2009 season.
Rule 17.1 states in part that "conduct prejudicial to the draft means conduct which has the purpose or has or is likely to have the effect of hindering, prejudicing, interfering with or preventing the natural operation of the draft.
AFL Regulations 19 (A5) says: "A person, being a player, a coach or an assistant coach, must at all times perform on their merits and must not induce, or encourage, any player, coach or assistant coach not to perform on their merits in any match – or in relation to any aspect of the match, for any reason whatsoever".
No action will be taken against chief executive Cameron Schwab.
More than 50 past and present club staff were interviewed by the AFL and club documents and computers were examined.
In the end, AFL investigators found no evidence to that the club tanked.
It's accepted that clubs can experiment with player positioning on the field.
It's understood a contentious move in the Melbourne-Richmond game in Round 18 of 2009, where Melbourne ruckman Paul Johnson found himself on Richmond's small forward Nathan Brown, has been determined as a brief match-up and not, as has been suggested, a deliberate coaching move.
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Melbourne found not guilty of tanking
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Melbourne found not guilty of tanking
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