That’s always been the message but I’m not too sure.
The fact that we rolled over with such harsh penalties about a week after the news broke suggests there was more at play. Crows and the AFL didn’t want the facts to come out so they settled quickly. Crows got their punishment for cheating and AFL maintained the competition is fair and wasn’t actually compromised. Move along nothing to see here.
That doesn’t happen over a ‘clerical error’.
a very well respected poster here told me that the AFL had accepted our 1st year of draft picks and on top of that Trigg and Reid were to be terminated plus the financial penalties. Trigg refused to go and threatened to bring the board along with him. This was passed onto him by a board member at the time. Our crime was as stated at the time, we weren't able to play ball with the sackings so had to wear further draft penalties.