AFL is Aussie football from the southern/western states. It's a big deal. The management power base is Victoria. It's no coincidence they've jumped on the War on Freedom tone set by Andrews.

First they happily embraced the Fully-Vaxxed mandate radicalism set by Andrews. Including the cover-up of any athletes experiencing vax-injuries - as we mentioned last year's MVP is currently out with heart issues. A couple of rogue commentators asked questions - they were shut down.

Now they've launched a general crackdown on dissent. Sport is great for metaphors - this is in that category:

On the weekend a dubious free-kick was paid at a crucial moment - in fact the recipient was staging. Two opposition players watched the replay on the big-screen - they reacted (to the screen) with mild (non-taboo) hand-gestures that showed natural disbelief - as would anyone who saw it.

For that, they were penalized 50 m, making a goal a certainty.

There was some alarm among the fans - being able to show some mild dissent has always been a part of the game - some to n thro chatter between umpire and player. It's also been known that you can't go overboard or be abusive - that was already a rule. But this goes much further

AFL: (W)e've been really clear on this. We have unanimous support from all the clubs, all the leaders of clubs.

Not from the fans - but who cares what they think?.

There's no acceptable level of dissent towards umpires. If players show demonstrable dissent, then they're risking a free kick or 50m penalty. .. I get that players may think what's the level of dissent we're able to produce? And the answer to that is none.

(Y)ou can't show dissent. It's been accepted in the game for far too long. Ultimately, we've let this go over a period of time, and we just have to get onto it.

Been accepted in the game for far too long - forever in fact - until now - until we got onto it. Maybe i'm reading too much into this, but the above arguments could've come straight out of Andrews's or McGowan's mouths with their CCP-inspired Covid-safe crackdowns on dissent.

It shows how this elitist controlling mentality spreads insidiously through the culture, at least. As leaders they cannot resist the power-grab window Covid opened up. Normalization of the New Normal. The Great Reining-in.