Mirko, you and some of your friends in your ivory towers should get out into the community, especially the magistrates courts and have a look at the effects that drugs and alcohol are having on the lives of particularly the less well off members of our community. If these young gods who so many of the young worship, set a better example, a lot of this sh1t would not be happening.

Mirko, a good article. I think your argument is convincing. But why is it that, though you have convinced me, my gut screams that there is something more than moral reasoning involved in this case?

Where does the big money come from? From sponsors who buy TV slots to get their products associated with sporting prowess. If the public begins to frown moralistically upon a particular player or sport the image-building associations backfire on the products. So the AFL has to come down hard on behaviour that will threaten the income stream.

So disqualifying this young player is good business rather than immorality. But of course, as you point out, that is because the general public inappropriately disparages the behaviour - which is not directly related to the sporting skill. But if we the public had better discernment then perhaps the whole edifice of advertising using idols would collapse, and would that be a bad thing?

Fencepost

Both the WA football clubs are artifices. they did not begin as clubs such as South Melbourne or Footscray for example as the game for the working class youngsters. These teams are the plaything of the denizens of the leafy western suburbs of Perth.Now how could these folk stand for the audacity of Ben Cousins snorting cocaine and doing a runner on the cops.These ae the same folk who will use Brian Burke and Co to do their dirty work for them.They would like to build a super stadium seating 60,000 bums which other denizens of those leafy suburbs are opposing. How could they let scumbags like Ben Cousins besmirch their pristine Arcadia.

VK3AUU - and others - I implore you to not use again the term ivory towers - I have never seen on elet alone som eone in one an dif some one was in one what on earth does it mean - surely they could get the papers delivered or be visitied by persons of lesser standing to get an idea of l ife n the real world

- add to the the ivory tower phrase that of "Tall Poppy syndrome" - dont use it. It is too often a term used in error when they user really means judicious weed control.

I also wish people would stop using the terms Howard Haters and "of the left" as they are just a dumb as the other two but I despair - I think they have made their way into the national lexicon and I will have to suffer a while yet.

Would you prefer that I used the term "Hallowed halls of learning" or even "Cloisters"

Public idols do the projecting masses, of transference addiction and vicarious existence, a great service when they confer, thru their behaviour, an undeniably powerful and priceless lesson, namely...

... no one is perfect,
... they're only human, and
... dont throw stones from your glass houses.

l think these are fantastic lessons for the young, the dumb, the blameless, the witless and the naively impressionable, the ultimate lesson of... REALITY TRUMPS ILLUSION.

Well done cus, thanx for the lesson, the great footy and the very entertaining gossip that gets around about a young buck like yourself, living large and having a life which most are deeply envious of.