Roos could fulfill Coast contract…
North Melbourne could yet fulfill its three-year contract to play AFL games on the Gold Coast, despite the threat of more poor attendances such as Saturday night's decade-low crowd at Carrara, reports AAP. Only 6354 fans watched North beat West Coast by six points in the first of three matches the club will play on the Gold Coast this season. North chief executive Eugene Arocca was disappointed by the low turnout, and acknowledged that some Gold Coast AFL fans may have made their feelings towards the Kangaroos known by staying home. But Arocca said North had no plans to seek a fixture change for later this season, and could even agree to play three more games at Carrara in 2009 rather than ask for them to be switched back to Melbourne. “It needs to be looked at, but we're not going to leave a $1.2 million outcome without thinking about it," he said. "We hosted a game recently against Sydney at Telstra Dome and drew 28,392 and still lost $1000. Ideally, we'd like to be playing 11 home games in Melbourne, but there's no point getting three crowds of 30,000 at Telstra Dome and losing money."

…but shareholders hold key
In a peculiar but very real way, the Roos' problems with their shareholders and at Carrara are linked, reports The Herald Sun. If they fix the shares issue, and there is growing hope all shares will soon be returned to the club's control, they will have far better bargaining power in fixturing talks with the AFL. The AFL has regularly told the club that several deals, including access to millions of dollars in annual special distribution, would be jeopardised if shareholders continued to rule the club. "We have got an agreement to play three more games there next year, and we have already discussed those games with the AFL in a preliminary sense," North boss Eugene Arocca said. "While the shareholding issue remains unresolved, it is very hard for the club to do deals with the AFL. Any discussions about the Gold Coast and our contract to play games there will be wrapped up in other commercial decisions. You can't just take the Gold Coast games in isolation."

Who turned the lights out?
An investigation will be launched into how someone in the Carrara crowd managed to turn off a generator that supplied power to one of the six light towers in the final quarter, reports AAP. "Whether security was around at the time, I don't know," said the AFL's manager of grounds operations, Jill Lindsay. "The ground manager told me that to push the button to turn the generator off, you'd have to know what effect it would have. It's an issue we'll need to follow up with Gold Coast City Council, who manage the venue." The tower's energy source was being supplied by a generator because the transformer was damaged in a storm two months ago.

Lighten up?
The Australian’s Patrick Smith has commended Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson for his firm action in chiding his player Mark Williams’ choking gesture at Port during Saturday’s win. The Hawks players said yesterday that Williams was deeply remorseful for his action. The Age’s Rohan Connolly says to ‘lighten up’. “As much as we love it, AFL football is still just a game, something to be celebrated, enjoyed, and occasionally, laughed at,” Connolly writes. “ It certainly shouldn't be the stuff of pompous sermonising. Yes, in some more earnest football circles, the Hawk goalkicker's former "disgraceful" imitation of a rifle shot following a goal, and, more recently, that heinous crime of presenting two outstretched forearms, will doubtless be viewed as priors that warrant tough sentencing now. Sadly, probably the same circles that often lament the perceived homogenisation of our game, and the accompanying loss of character and colour with it. Not for the first time, there will be some hypocrisy going on.”

Roos says new system is ‘ridiculous’
Sydney coach Paul Roos has branded the AFL's updated interchange procedures as "ridiculous", "embarrassing" and a blight on the game, reports The Age. The over-officious new system — introduced post-haste after the Swans were found to have had a 19th man on the field during their match against North Melbourne three weeks ago — had proved a significant hindrance to coaches in the trial run, Roos said. After his side defeated Essendon by 91 points yesterday at ANZ Stadium, Roos said he was not opposed to teams being penalised for having extra men on the ground, but complained about the AFL's insistence that players' names had to be announced to officials before they were permitted to take the field. "I think it's a bit embarrassing when you watch games on the weekend and you see five on the interchange bench and six on the interchange bench … I think that's just as embarrassing as having 19 versus 18, to be honest," Roos said.

Pies pickled by new bench rules
Collingwood didn't have any injuries to speak of after Friday night's important win over St Kilda. Well, not to its players anyway, reports The Age. One official who had to play interchange supervisor might have required some post-traumatic counseling. To say the new interchange-bench set-ups and rules didn't exactly go smoothly in their first outings would be an understatement. Poor Magpie man, Billy Carp, was being driven mad attempting to physically restrain sometimes up to three players at once from entering the arena before the players they were replacing had left the field. At least twice, once for close to one minute, the Pies were left one short as the necessary paperwork was handed to the AFL interchange steward. There were several transgressions, which from next week will cost free kicks and 50-metre penalties.

Tiger in Germany
Richmond’s 2003 best-and-fairest winner Mark Coughlan will be treated by the same German doctor who helped Geelong's Max Rooke recover from a chronic hamstring injury, reports The Age. Coughlan, who has had two knee reconstructions, suffered a recurrence of a hamstring problem after playing in the VFL last weekend and club doctor Greg Hickey said the 26-year-old left for Munich on Friday. Rooke, who was treated with injections of calf blood and rooster combs by Dr Hans Muller-Wolfhart, overcame a long-term hamstring complaint to play in last year's finals series and grand final victory.

Swans win one, lose one
As Nick Malceski was having his hair ruffled by his team-mates after a successful comeback from radical knee surgery, Tadhg Kennelly was in the rooms contemplating another season interrupted by his own knee curse, reports The Australian. Malceski knows the pain, and it was he who consoled Kennelly when the dashing Irish defender fell heavily yesterday and dislocated his left knee. The extent of the damage won't be known until he has scans today.  "I just said, 'keep your head up mate'," Malceski said. That may be a challenge for Kennelly, who had his 2007 season cruelled after he dislocated his right knee. He immediately missed two games but the problem recurred and he had to sit out another seven matches, including the final four games of the season.