a CODE Sports report this week<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe same CODE Sports report suggested the AFL Integrity Unit was now investigating Opie \u2013 a Richmond life member who moved to the Suns shortly after Hardwick was appointed coach \u2013 following a complaint made by an Okebet customer.<\/p>\n
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon confirmed on Monday the league was working with the Suns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I can say is the Integrity Unit\u2019s aware of it and that we\u2019re liaising with the Gold Coast Suns in relation to that and there\u2019ll be more to say on that later,\u201d Dillon told reporters.<\/p>\n
Damien Hardwick, Senior Coach of the Suns. Picture: Russell Freeman\/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Asked whether he thought it was a good look for the league that Opie was still part of the Suns\u2019 match day staff, Dillon said: \u201cWe\u2019ll have more to say on that later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking in Darwin on Thursday ahead of the Suns\u2019 clash with Port Adelaide on Friday, Hardwick took issue with a reporter\u2019s line of questioning.<\/p>\n
Reporter: Damien, will Mark Opie still be in position as team manager for the game tomorrow night, despite being subject to an AFL Integrity Unit investigation?<\/p>\n
Damien Hardwick: Yeah, look as far as I\u2019m concerned, Mark Evans the (Suns) CEO and president (Bob East) will take care of that. As far as we\u2019re concerned, he\u2019ll be doing his role on the weekend.<\/p>\n
R: Is it a good look to have a bookmaker inside the dressing room?<\/p>\n
DH: Well, at the end of the day, is it a good look for the AFL to be sponsored by Sportsbet, all these sorts of organisations? That\u2019s a decision for you guys to make. I\u2019m here to talk about football.<\/p>\n
R: It\u2019s a bit different though, isn\u2019t it, having it so closely connected with the players? Don\u2019t you see any kind of conflict there?<\/p>\n
DH: You want to start talking about conflict in AFL? I\u2019m just here to talk about footy.<\/p>\n
(Club staffer attempts to shift presser focus back to footy)<\/p>\n
R: If not, why isn\u2019t the club wanting to stand him down during this period? Isn\u2019t it appropriate that he is stood down during this period?<\/p>\n
DH: I think I\u2019ve answered the question. At the end of the day, he\u2019s there to perform a role and he does that role with our football club. Conflicts of interest within AFL circles are prevalent everywhere, as we\u2019re seeing at the moment. So that\u2019ll get dealt with in due course.<\/p>\n
Staffer: That\u2019s enough now, back footy \u2026<\/p>\n
AFL launch 2026 Indigenous round | 03:21<\/p>\n
R: What about that culture of bookmakers? Do you see that wider picture as a conflict \u2026<\/p>\n
DH: You should probably book in with Mark Evans the CEO. I\u2019m a football coach, I\u2019m here to talk about the game and what it means to the Northern Territory people. If you want to take it down that path, talk to the CEO that controls the business aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
R: But he is \u2026<\/p>\n
DH: Are we clear? Are we clear? Are we clear? Let\u2019s be clear.<\/p>\n
Second reporter: How has the vibe been from the group getting out and about \u2026<\/p>\n
DH: Well, we love coming to the Northern Territory, but people like this guy want to sit there and make everything about everything else. The game of AFL football is fantastic for the Northern Territory, so you want to sit there and explore that and celebrate it. What we\u2019re very good (as a) society at the moment is bringing everything down, tearing everything down. What we want to do is celebrate the position we\u2019re in here playing two fantastic games up here and we want to bring our very best (Friday) night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Damien Hardwick\u2019s weekly press conference has taken a tense turn after a reporter grilled the Gold Coast coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,2095,12259,64,63,689,55,639,3423,323407,323404,323406,35347,14385,5249,1119,83115,2105,2485,9130,323401,25965,279831,36720,30719,2041,2067,8867,677,6082,668,323402,701,323405,6858,6282,22401,1124,85,36865,82627,323403,2614,242388,4899],"class_list":["post-669767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-america","tag-andrew-dillon","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-waterworth","tag-business-aspect","tag-club-staffer","tag-community-sporting-clubs","tag-conference-video","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-darwin","tag-football-club","tag-football-coach","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-suns","tag-integrity-probe","tag-integrity-unit","tag-life-member","tag-mark-evans","tag-match-day","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-territory","tag-oceania","tag-port-adelaide","tag-press-conference","tag-presser-focus","tag-queensland","tag-report-focusing","tag-richmond","tag-russell-freeman","tag-senior-coach","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-suns-coach","tag-team-manager","tag-tense-turn","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victorian-gambling-and-casino-control-commission","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669767","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=669767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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