Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s a feeling of letting down. You don\u2019t want to get caught up in these items. The thing I would start with is it has been extensive and as far as vindication goes, I\u2019m certainly not sitting here going \u2018you beauty\u2019 and punching the air. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the response to it from my end certainly and the club more broadly,\u201d he told SEN.<\/p>\n
WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been six months worth of work. If I said to either one of you to hand over your laptop and phone\u2026 they were taken for four hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is really important to understand it was that extensive. There will be a range of people out there that think there\u2019s a cover up, I\u2019ve had a relationship with the AFL, I\u2019ve worked there, Geelong may have been receiving some favours, it\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the more trying things I\u2019ve been involved in.<\/p>\n
Mcvee a docker, Starcevich an Eagle | 00:32<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why those devices were taken was to make sure they could do all of the research in those areas. They basically chase down and try to reveal potentially any movement of players, any discussions that maybe related to sponsors, player managers and so forth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always been the question around Geelong, how do you continue to get some of the very best players? The reality is, we\u2019ve always stood up and said the community of Geelong helps. Post COVID really has helped us enormously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go back to Brad Ottens, there was a period of time through the early 2000s, we had a player from a club in Melbourne who was negotiating to come down the road and part of the contract was to have a car and a driver. That\u2019 s how hard it was to get players down the road. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow players want to come down there because it\u2019s a place of choice and the program we run. The important thing is to make sure it\u2019s done appropriately and above board and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve worked through with the AFL.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tassie Gov defend proposed AFL stadium | 01:50<\/p>\n
So, what exactly were the infringements?<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t go into all of them because we\u2019d be getting very personal around our people and we\u2019ve tried not to do that\u2026 an example will be an associate, so a sponsor of the club, an individual within that sponsorship group business has access to a holiday house or a farm and a player or a staff member go and stay there for one, two, three nights. That\u2019s seen as a breach of the soft cap policy,\u201d Hocking continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for that is there\u2019s a value attached to that. All that staff member or player has to do is declare that at the end of the year, every club goes through a mini audit at the end of the year\u2026 there\u2019s a sheet that comes and you just need to declare where and what you\u2019ve been at different times. There\u2019s a bit of grey in that and has been in the system for quite some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a look at the fine print at the bottom of the AFL\u2019s statement, they\u2019re going to tighten all that area up and we welcome that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on us to educate our people far greater in this area so that they know what they can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be mindful of not trying to minimize what\u2019s gone on here. The reality is we\u2019ve copped a fine, some people will look at it and say it\u2019s light, but if people understood how much time and effort has gone into this, <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been conducted right across the whole year, we\u2019ve been very open and compliant with the AFL and the AFL have done a fabulous job, it\u2019s remained confidential right throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and try and justify what we have or haven\u2019t done, we\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n
MCG looking at major $2 billion upgrade | 01:44<\/p>\n
Hocking said the Cats had worked closely with the AFL once they realised there were some \u201cred flags\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of each year you basically join forces with the AFL\u2026 there were some red flags for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think other clubs were starting to question how we get access to these players, they don\u2019t understand how frugal we are when it comes to managing our list and our TPP.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe identified this and said, \u2018hey, I think we need to hand ourselves over and open right up here\u2019. Wherever it goes it goes, we just need to stand up here and take responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
West Coast Pick two could see change | 02:48<\/p>\n
Eyebrows have been raised amongst the footy industry about Bailey Smith and his alignment with Cotton On, while Ford is another major sponsor of the Cats. How does that work within the salary cap system?\u201cThe Bailey one\u2019s a great example. If you see him on a billboard and he is just solely promoting Cotton On fashion, that\u2019s independent but it has to be approved by the AFL, not by the football club\u2026 That\u2019s between Bailey, his manager and the AFL,\u201d Hocking began.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as Bailey\u2019s seen on a billboard with a Geelong logo or any link to Geelong in clothing or so forth, that\u2019s a breach.\u201d<\/p>\n
What could be involved for Curnow trade? | 03:28<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s off-field missteps have added up this year. From Mad Monday dress ups and social media captions, to abusing a photographer at training, the Cats are set to sit down with him over the off-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMad Monday is absolutely on all of us. There is a range of people that were part of that. There\u2019s certain individuals that dressed up inappropriately. We have apologised for that, particularly to Caro (Caroline Wilson), it was unacceptable how that was rolled out and treated,\u201d Hocking continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn regards to Bailey, we have absolutely welcomed what he has done on field. He finished third in the Brownlow. It\u2019s an amazing comeback off the back of an ACL.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come off-field, the interest in him is just unbelievable. He has a different relationship with social media than our age profile. I don\u2019t understand it at all, but he works that exceptionally well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a time in my view this will involve all of us in the off-season where by we need to (talk to him).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about tiptoeing around someone like Bailey but more about tailoring it accordingly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always talk about barnacles on a boat, if you end up with too many it\u2019s only going one way, we have to remove some of those.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong CEO Steve Hocking has addressed the AFL\u2019s findings from the audit regarding the Club\u2019s TPP and Soft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[124591,638,64,63,689,55,639,111704,12923,13658,13659,2105,647,7198,677,81334,85,26889,99691,68900,124592,124590,660],"class_list":{"0":"post-198898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-administrative-errors","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-brad-ottens","16":"tag-chris-scott","17":"tag-geelong","18":"tag-geelong-cats","19":"tag-getty-images-inc","20":"tag-melbourne","21":"tag-michael-willson","22":"tag-oceania","23":"tag-player-managers","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-st-kilda-saints","26":"tag-steve-hocking","27":"tag-supporter-base","28":"tag-trade-peroid","29":"tag-trying-things","30":"tag-victoria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}