Irrigators 'irate' as loan term and fees blow out

Photo: Heykellieee

Hundreds of irrigators in north-west Victoria will be burdened with repayments on a Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) pipeline loan for a generation longer than expected, despite massive fee increases.

Amid concern from irrigators about a lack of information on where their money is going, Woorinen irrigators’ committee organiser Vicki Holland has said nearly a decade after pipeline repayments began there has been no dent made in the $15.4 million principal owing.

“[We were told] the capacity share fees would pay off the loan in 40 years,” Mrs Holland said.

“Now they’re [G-MW] telling us it will take 75 years to pay it back.”

The extension in the life of the loan comes despite the fact the annual fee, formally known as an infrastructure access fee, will have more than doubled since 2003 if recent proposed increases are approved.  

G-MW has disputed there is trouble with the loan repayments.

“The Essential Services Commission have set the loan repayment of 75 years and current repayments and principal is at the level required for this stage of the project,” the water corporation said.

G-MW officials announced at a public meeting in Woorinen in April a proposed 12 per cent increase in annual capacity share fees, with the fee from July 2012 to be $4,650 per share.

“It was $2,180 per share in 2003,” Mrs Holland said.

Irrigators at the meeting “were irate to say the least”, she said.  

The significant increase in the share fees come despite pipeline irrigators being told their initial capacity share fee would only increase with the CPI each year, Mrs Holland said.

Stock & Land has seen G-MW documents indicating the pipeline debt had soared from $15.6 million at the end of the 2005 financial year to a forecasted $18.6 million by 30 June 2011. 

The G-MW documents indicate the increase in debt was due to under recoveries from earlier years and up-front contributions not being collected from new entrants, in addition to the capitalised interest. 

Mrs Holland, wife of the irrigators’ committee chairman Mike Holland, said irrigators were informed at a meeting in September last year of the loan term blow out.

The new loan term means irrigators still have to pay in the vicinity of $80 million before the debt is cleared, if the fee were to be capped at the proposed July 2012 rates. That figure, based on 244.7 capacity shares in the pipeline area, means share fee payments after the previous end date would top $50 million.

Repeated requests to G-MW for the current loan figure and the amount of repayments already made have not seen a response.

After seeing no choice but to make an FOI request to G-MW for financial statements, Vicki Holland was provided with a bundle of balance sheets and profit and loss statements by one of the water     authority’s managers in March.

The incomplete set of documents has failed to provide reassurance, with recent years’ statements not included and no repayment figures showing.

“On the profit and loss statements, under liabilities there is no loan, or payments against the loan showing,” Mrs Holland said.

“The profit and loss sheets are ridiculous.”

Profit and loss statements and balance sheets from the last two financial years were not provided, as they had not been finalised, Mrs Holland said.

“They can’t give us a specific figure of what they have paid back,” she said. 

Despite a lack of public financial information, G-MW managing director Gavin Hanlon has indicated some progress has been made on the debt.

"[The] G-MW component of the Woorinen project was predominantly debt financed and the debt associated with the project has started to be repaid. Just like a home loan, in the early years of a loan the vast majority of each payment goes to paying interest and only a small portion goes to reducing the principal," Mr Hanlon said.

Mr Hanlon said the water authority was "working closely" with the Treasury Corporation of Victoria to ensure the financing costs had as minimal impact as possible. 

The price rises and apparent lack of repayment progress has created uncertainty for many of the 236 irrigators in the area.

 “This is causing a lot of heartbreak for a lot of people,” Mrs Holland said.

While she said there has “probably” been some defaulting by irrigators, leaving the pipeline is expensive.

“It is impossible to sell your capacity share as no one wants to take it on due to the rates - you can give it back to GMW but you have to pay [them] 10 years rates to do so.”

Irrigators have been critical of the lack of response by local member, Water Minister Peter Walsh, who they asked to intervene in the issue. 

Stock & Land reported in April that Mr Walsh had requested a review of G-MW management and operations, with the authority posting a before tax net loss of $52.9 million last financial year.

While it is not clear if the Minister requested specific attention to the Woorinen pipeline finances, it has been reported an independent audit of pricing in the area is under way.

"The Woorinen pipeline customer group needs to continue to work with Goulburn-Murray Water to resolve their issues," Mr Walsh said.      

           

Vicki Holland believes government intervention is now required.

"The Government needs to take control of this debt before it increases any further," she said.

The latest 12 per cent increase will require Essential Services Commission approval before taking effect. Last year the ESC blocked a proposed 58 per cent fee increase by G-MW, with a 14 per cent rise instead occurring. 

The debt figures are understood not to include any of the $3 million of costs the water corporation last year agreed to bear from failed legal cases and confidential settlements relating to the pipeline.

by Matthew Raggatt

Published in Stock & Land on 24 May 2012

Australia Day Review - Culture, identity and snags on the BBQ

Geoff Morrell and David James discuss the options. Australia Day - Playhouse

Coming immediately after the more sombre remembrance of Anzac Day, Jonathan Biggins’ Australia Day — a Melbourne Theatre Company/Sydney Theatre Company co-production — challenges audiences to consider what in fact, beyond our soldiers, it is that brings us all together.

We are thrown into the Coriole Shire’s committee meeting for the country town’s upcoming January 26th celebration. Here we find a humorous, flawed but largely likeable microcosm of Australian society: the ambitious Liberal Mayor and hardware store owner Brian (Geoff Morrell), loyal deputy Robert (David James), CWA community champion Marie (Valerie Bader) and crude, Green-hating builder Wally (Peter Kowitz).

Telegraphed if nothing else by their late arrival to the meeting, the outsiders to this established local network are Greens’ councillor Helen (Allison Whyte), an inner-city Melburnian who has in fact lived in the area for two years, and Chester (Kaeng Chan), a smart-alec Australian-born Vietnamese school teacher who quickly shows he can give as good as he gets.

As the initial gossiping is followed by the serious issues of the meeting — what varieties of sausages should be bought, whether a dreamtime story should be acted out by the wholly-white schoolchildren, etc — we come to understand each of the characters’ ideologies. Opinions, be they progressive, conservative and often pragmatic, flow easily and often with an obscene tongue to assure us of how deeply-held they are.

Morrell slips easily back into his role as Australia’s favourite conflicted mayor, reviving memories of his time as Mayor Dunkley in the ABC’s local council series Grass Roots. With more pragmatism than principle, he tries to keep Wally and Helen from (figuratively) tearing each other apart, while working out a way to protect his business from the hardware giant hoping to move into the area (“they’re not competition, they’re napalm”).

The flame-haired Whyte is perfectly cast as the modern councillor trying to bring a new way of thinking to the happily traditional town. Calm and collected, the frustrations of being a minority representative together with a single mother gradually come to show.

Bader and Kowitz’s characters represent the older-end of the community, disinterested in technology and politically incorrect. Kowitz however plays the angry, bewildered role, while Bader cheerfully fills the stage as the lamington-making grandmother, retaining her quick wit. Both mock the cocky school teacher played by Chan, who proves to be the most visibly patriotic of all.

With excellent pacing and constant laughs, Australia Day provides the audience, often through private conversations, the chance to go behind the stereotypes of each character as the big day arrives, showing us what truly motivates them and the dangers of judging a book (or bearded local) by its cover.

While one key source of drama can be seen well in advance, the David Cottrell-directed play is focused on the characters, not suspense, resulting in a sometimes disturbingly realistic picture of Australian society.

Extremely relevant (no major federal politician escapes attack), honest and clever (look for the Greens’ councillor’s plan to turn the political demographic upside-down), Australia Day pokes fun at cultural traditions while asking whether the consequences of change are any better.

by Matthew Raggatt

Published on Crikey's Curtain Call on 3 May 2012. Access at: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/curtaincall/2012/05/03/review-australia-day-playhouse-melbourne/

Australian students fail the Asian language test

Chinese characters. Only a small number of non-Chinese Australians are learning them in Year 12. Photo by Zsolt Bugarszki

by Matthew Raggatt



“WE’VE gone from crisis to disaster.”

Professor Tim Lindsey is blunt when describing the state of the study of Asian languages in Australia. He believes the failure to come even close to reaching Australian Government targets will endanger the nation’s lucrative Asian education market.

The chair of the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Professor Lindsey said the disinterest in learning Asian languages and failure to properly invest in their study shows a dangerous “naivety” of Asia.

“Asian countries are overwhelmingly our largest trade partners (and) we are engaged in a state of ignorance,” Professor Lindsey said.

“It is a matter of national survival.”

Lindsey’s comments come after leading accountancy body CPA Australia called for Asian languages to be compulsory for all students from prep to Year 12.

Such calls have been criticised by Institute of Public Affairs researcher Chris Berg, who has said growth in engagement with Asia would be best encouraged through increased permanent migration, rather than a focus on what languages our students speak.

While the consequences of a decline in language study are disputed, the drop in student numbers, particularly those learning as a second-language, is clear for all to see.

An Australian Government-commissioned report released in mid-2010 revealed that the number of school students at all levels studying a language had decreased by more than 100,000 between 2000 and 2008.

Prepared by the Asia Education Foundation, the report, titled the Current State of Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean Language Education in Australian Schools, indicated that the proportion of students at all levels studying one of the four key Asian languages had dropped from 24 per cent to 18.6 percent.

On Indonesian, for instance, the report stated there had been a decline of 10,000 students a year since 2005, making it an “at-risk language at senior secondary schools”. Amazingly, given Australia’s population growth and the increased government interest in Asia, there were more Australian students studying Indonesian in the 1970s than now, Professor Lindsey said.

The decline in Japanese has been slower but is also serious. Between 2000 and 2008, the report described a 21 per cent decline in primary enrolments, and a 16.6 per cent drop in those studying it as a second language in Year 12. Korean meanwhile is “all but gone from the education system”, although this is not a new development.

Growth in the Mandarin figures bucks the trend, boosting the average of the four languages. At the all crucial Year 12, there were 5,256 students enrolled in 2008. This equates to 45 per cent of the students at that level studying one of the four languages, which are promoted as part of the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP). But this Mandarin growth hides the fact that the large majority of these students are from a Chinese ethnic background – CPA Australia estimates only 300 Year 12 students are learning Chinese as a second language annually.

On 2008 figures, there would need to be a 100 per cent increase in Year 12 language enrolments to try to meet the NALSSP aim of 12 per cent of Australian students graduating with fluency in one of the Asian languages by 2020. This looks very unlikely.

Professor Lindsey said it was time for some “social engineering” through language policy to occur, and hoped the Asian Century white paper due for release mid-year would call for a massive increase in funding for languages in schools and universities.

“We are the OECD country with the lowest level of second-country language skills”, he said.

“If the government throws $35 million at it, it will achieve nothing [and] our capacity to deal with [Asia] on our terms will suffer.”

One of Lindsey’s leading fears is the decline of our international education exports, worth $18 billion in 2009 according to a report prepared for the Australian Technology Network of Universities.

“Australia’s third biggest export is education, largely to the Asian market,” Professor Lindsey said.

“You can’t expect Asia to send their students to a country which is increasingly less understanding of them,” he said.

“Australia is educating Asia, but not investing in it… [and] as Asian universities increase their quality and sophistication, our market will decline.”

The IPA’s Chris Berg acknowledged the benefits of more Australians speaking the languages of our leading trade partners, but said the focus on Asian languages was unnecessary.

“You can have a deeper relationship if you speak the language,” Mr Berg said.
“[But] it is quite wrong to say if Anglo-Australians don’t learn Chinese that we will be without Asian skills.”

Last month Berg wrote in The Sunday Age that English’s status as the global language meant a government-backed Asian language push was unwarranted.

“English’s dominance is something to be celebrated, not regretted. And the education curriculum is already stuffed full. Choices have to be made. If governments want to give every student an advantage in business, perhaps basic statistics and accountancy would be more helpful,” he said.

CPA Australia’s checklist for this year’s federal budget seeks the establishment of a free-to-air television channel dedicated to Asian news and culture, and more integration of Asian history and culture into Australian curriculum, in addition to the mandatory language push.

CPA’s chief executive Alex Malley said the relationship with Asia must be based on broad mutual understanding and respect.

“Even in today’s wireless and virtual world, ongoing business success ultimately rests on personal interaction and nowhere is this more relevant than in an Asian context.”

Tim Lindsey does not believe all Australian students should be forced to study Asian languages, but rather exposure to them should be mandatory.

“We can’t rely on the immigration system,” he said.

“Yes, many Asians are learning English, but most are not. In Indonesia and China, it is just not spoken fluently outside one or two cities.”

The Professor said a free-to-air TV channel wouldn’t make much difference, given the likely low number of viewers. Chris Berg also disagreed with the calls for a new channel, which he said shouldn’t be publically funded.

Professor Lindsey, who was a member of the reference group for the four-year NALSSP project now ending, said greater study of Asian history, culture and politics could occur in Australian schools, at the same time as students learnt about liberal democracy and Western history.

Chris Berg supported Asian studies in the curriculum, although he said western civilisations were not taught well to children.

“It is important they learn about western civilisations and the origins of liberal democracy first, [and] they’re not getting that at the moment,” Mr Berg said.

Professor Lindsey supported his push for greater government investment in Asian education by pointing to continuing poor attitudes towards the region. The latest Lowy Poll on Australians’ attitudes to foreign policy issues found that a majority of respondents believed Australia was right to worry about Indonesia as a military threat, and had lukewarm feelings to its close neighbour and China.

Putting in place measures to reverse the language decline would be expensive, Professor Lindsey stated.

“[But] minor policy changes won’t do anything,” he said.

“If it is steady as we go, we will pay for it.”



Published by Meld Magazine on 15 February 2012.

Accessible at: http://www.meldmagazine.com.au/2012/02/australians-language-education/

International students help, but racism continues: former High Court Judge Michael Kirby

by Matthew Raggatt.         

Photo: Commonwealth Secretariat

“AUSTRALIA’S level of racism has gone down on the Richter scale,” retired High Court judge Michael Kirby says.

“From a 10 when I was a boy, it’s now a seven.”

It is a disturbing statement.

That it comes from the man who retired in 2009 as the longest-serving judge in Australian history only reinforces how far the nation still has to come.

“Australia was built on racist attitudes, racism was enshrined in legislation,” the former High Court Justice says.

“There is a long way to go.”

Yet the number of international students who have arrived in the last decade shows Australia is a popular place to learn. And it is the international education industry which has helped shift the views of many, Mr Kirby says.

Bringing young international students with “flexible attitudes” to the island nation helps Australians to know, understand and embrace people from different backgrounds, Mr Kirby states.

“It’s easier to dislike them when you don’t know them,” says the man who sat on Australia’s highest court for 13 years, and who for nine years was Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney.

“[Meeting different people] reinforces what Australian students are taught in theory.”

The ease of meeting a student from another nation has never been greater.  In 2009 the number of enrolled international students hit a record 630,663, up 130 per cent from just seven years earlier.

His Honour (he no longer retains the Justice title) does not pretend to know exactly how great a factor international education has been in creating a more tolerant country. But the effect of being able to see and relate to those who might seem different reminds him of the influence a TV soap opera had decades ago on opinions of the gay population.

The suburban based soapie Number 96 portrayed the first openly homosexual man on Australian television, a lawyer played by Joe Hasham.

“Number 96 played a significant role in changing attitudes to gays…it did more than two hundred learned, serious-minded speeches could have,” Mr Kirby says.

In addition to the personal connection many Australians have had with international students in the last 20 years, countless businesses and education providers have come to rely on the foreign student dollar.
Mr Kirby says this can help to change some intolerant views.

“[As] more Australians get an economic investment, this gives people a stake in [the students’] presence,” he says.

Crimes against international students

Yet seven on the Richter scale is still an almighty quake, and overseas students have not all been free from attack – physical and verbal.

Robberies of students, particularly from India, and a number of highly-publicised serious assaults have seen public demonstrations in Melbourne in 2009, with the Indian community demanding better protection.

In February last year, Meld Magazine had reported the acknowledgment by then-Chief Police Commissioner Simon Overland that race had been playing some part in the over-representation of international students, in particular Indian students, among robbery victims.

“Undoubtedly some of what we’re seeing is racism,” the Chief Commissioner had said.

Michael Kirby is surprised to learn of the remark from Meld, but is glad at least one public official was prepared to make it at the time.

“I support that,” Mr Kirby says.

“Had there been more comments of that kind, there would have been less damage to the Australian education industry, particularly in India.”

Mr Kirby is highly critical of the “denialist” manner in which the spate of attacks on international students had been managed and presented by government.

He acknowledges, as Chief Commissioner Overland had at the time, most victims were likely targeted because they were on their own, often travelling late at night for work, and were easy targets for opportunistic criminals.

“They probably would have been attacked even if they weren’t of [predominantly] Indian background,” MrKirby says.

But he says authorities had failed to confront the issue as they should have.

“They should have made it clear that if there was even the slightest element of race, perpetrators would face the full effect of the law, and race would be taken into account in sentencing.”

The co-author of a decade-long study on racist attitudes in Australia agrees with Kirby that the 2009 attacks on Indian students, to the extent they had been racially motivated, reflects a more widespread intolerance.

Head of University of Western Sydney’s Social Sciences Department Kevin Dunn has said the 2009 attacks had revealed “a deep undercurrent of racist incivility” against those who appear different.

With his report, published in September, showing more than 43 per cent of Indians and Sri Lankans surveyed had experienced discrimination via name-calling or similar insults, Professor Dunn echoes Kirby’s view that leaders had to open up and confront the issue.

“This country would be in a far better position today if more political effort was expended on anti-racism initiatives than it was on denying racism,” Professor Dunn said.

Michael Kirby says the public relations handling of the 2009 events had been “very poor”.

“It was not a good look,” Kirby says.

Since 2009, the number of international students enrolled in Australian courses has dropped, Australian International Education figures show.

The number of Indian students enrolled had fallen by more than 20,000 in 2010. The Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program, completed by Michael Knight this year, outlines a range of factors responsible for the dip, with the 2009 events and their publicity included among separate economic and permanent residency factors.

“[The attacks] undermined Australia’s reputation as a safe destination for students…it will take some time to overcome the negative perceptions,” Mr Knight said.

Attitudes towards migration

An honorary graduate of universities in India and Sri Lanka, Mr Kirby says while there is a view in Asia that Australia accepts student migration simply for economic advantage, the nation will remain an attractive place for Asian students.

“That’s logical; we’re an English speaking, democratic, generally safe country on the edge of Asia,” Mr Kirby says.

Economics aside, Mr Kirby would like to see more international students studying at secondary schools around the country. It is in our interests, he says, for young Australians to meet people from other backgrounds.

Mr Kirby says international education can help Australia show the world it can be relied on to provide a place to study free from the racism of the past.

“We must be worthy of the trust of other countries.”



Published by Meld Magazine on 10 November, 2011

Link to article & comments: http://www.meldmagazine.com.au/2011/11/interview-michael-kirby/

A little more speculation works for the Gallery

      Image courtesy Sydney Morning Herald

by Matthew Raggatt

To the almost eternal annoyance of those in power, the media loves to document any hint of or reason for a leadership challenge. 

From the biggest names of national journalism to the newest scribe on the block, political challenges are like baby play and can trump seemingly any policy issue for newsworthiness.

But do commentators get a little too much of a kick out of it? Is the writer's ego stroked more than the public interest and knowledge base is enhanced?

Consider last week's Michelle Grattan article in The Age on former Labor powerbroker and now talking head Graham Richardson. Richardson's interest in using his connections to grow his media influence is laid bare. With a gig on Sky, a regular column in the News Ltd press and frequent appearances on current affairs shows such as Q & A, Richardson's expertise - which seems to be particularly focused on what MP X says about leader Y - is in demand.

The irony of Richardson's media game, acknowledged in a Daily Telegraph article in June, is his apparently important role in removing Kevin Rudd last year. Since then the media has barely gone 48 hours without some story on leadership tension, and it is now Richardson telling us the names of some Labor backbenchers pushing Rudd's cause.

Grattan herself is of course a prolific commentator on leadership issues, on multiple occasions each week telling us what the recent events mean for Gillard's standing in the polls and the party-room.

Laurie Oakes is likewise the first to jump on a leadership tidbit. The current polls, including their views on preferred alternative leaders, justify articles raising the omnipresent question of Rudd's future role. Brilliant and balanced, one does suspect however that Oakes would see some justice in a return to the Queenslander. His massive reputation continues to be maintained through updating us on the latest leadership whispers.

Then there's Andrew Bolt, whose distaste for Julia Gillard needs no referencing. As he stirs the leadership drama, Australia's most read columnist seems to increase his influence; we will wait to see if the recent High Court finding can effect that.

As Crikey editor Sophie Black openly stated last month, part of the reason for the constant leadership chatter is its ease of production.

"All the media - all of us - instinctively like leadership stories. We're addicted to them, partly because they're so easy to cover - they're not about complex policy issues, they don't require sophisticated analysis, they don't demand hours of research in order to say something interesting or meaningful."

Yet one should not forget that journalists do have an interest in publishing the polls and the inside backroom politics. More readers, more viewers, and everytime Gillard vs Rudd vs Abbott goes up in lights, the commentator's name shines a little bigger and brighter too.


Published by Media Musings on 7 October, 2011

Where there's a Will there's a story - Mirabella, the QC and the $100,000 gift

Sophie Mirabella in Parliament. Courtesy Kym Smith, The Australian.


Was The Age right to lead with the personal story of Sophie Mirabella and her relationship with the late Colin Howard QC?

Amongst the nation's leading papers there was general acceptance the story was news.

On The Age's website comments were fairly evenly divided. Of those which took a clear position, 14 said the story had no public interest, with one suggesting it was a "very grubby article". 17 posts however attacked the Liberal Member for Indi on her judgment and character.

Meanwhile Daily Telegraph editor and headkicker David Penberthy took what some may say was a hypocritical look at the issue. Acknowledging the story was one of public interest given its questioning of Mirabella's morality, Penberthy proceeded to criticise those commenting on the article too harshly.

Organisations needed to "lift their standard" for publishing views on news comment sections and opinion forums, he said.

Penberthy said the treatment of Mirabella "is merely the latest example of this modern trend towards abusing people first and asking questions later.”

Over at Crikey, who published their own shorter version of the story before The Age, there were fewer comments but a similar spread of views, divided between statements that their article unnecessarily covered a private matter to others that the issue went to the heart of the MP's integrity.

The Age later reported that Mirabilla had not declared $100,000 worth of gifts Howard gave to allegedly assist her in her career-making 2001 election win. "At the time, any contribution for an election campaign of $1500 or more was required to be disclosed," Michael Bachelard wrote.

An unfair targeting of a Coalition MP or just uncovering the grim details of another pollie's shady acts?

Penberthy appears to have a short memory on such issues.

Last month the Daily Telegraph attacked Craig Thomson over the union credit card escort scandal, describing how the Gillard government would fall if he were forced to resign. This month News Ltd reported NSW police findings there was no evidence Thomson had committed a crime.

It may be there is also no impropriety by Mirabella to be found.

"All declarable items have been declared," she told The Age.

The articles however warrant further explanation from the shadow minister. For Penberthy to  focus on the views of those commenting on websites rather than the actual issues at hand seems a surprising shift given his active participation in the recent torrid political environment.


Published by Media Musings on 30 September, 2011

King Ling the servant leader

There’s a biblical verse saying “whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all”. Few men in the AFL have lived that verse like retiring Geelong skipper Cameron Ling. After 246 uncompromising games, Ling left footy as the humble leader of the most dominant side since the Hawks of the late '80s.

With the red mane of a lion and a heart to match, Ling made a name for himself as arguably the game’s best tagger. While stars like Selwood, Bartel and previously Ablett chalked up possessions at will and Podsiadly, Johnson and Mooney kicked the goals, it fell to Ling to focus on the other side’s best player. It’s a far from glamorous job, trekking the kilometres alongside the nation’s best and fittest, often being found at the bottom of a pack. Like a full-back, your game is judged on the statistics of someone else.  A success is when someone else isn’t noticed.

Off the field the media took a liking to the left-footer. On Before The Game and for any TV or radio station after one, Ling smiled, copped the good-natured flack over his flaming hair and never took himself too seriously. As his comments this week indicate, Ling was happy just to be playing alongside some of those who will be remembered amongst the Cats’ greatest.  “It’s just an honour to work next to you guys. I’m so lucky to be part of this group,” the skipper said in the hours after his latest premiership.


Even with the cup in his hands, with Ling it never seemed to be about him. For the life-long local, teammates, club and city seemed to come first. 

If one is only as good as his last game, Ling can move on in life mighty pleased. Five days after Dane Swan won the Brownlow medal with the most votes in the history of the 3,2,1 system, Ling blanketed him. His close tagging was typefied by a first-half broken nose, after he banged his head into the back of Swan’s.

As ABC Radio’s Mark McClure said, if you matched the two up in a foot race Ling would get beaten my 50 metres over a 100. “But put a football in there and it’s a whole different story,” he said.

Both players ended up with 20 possessions. For a tagger, that means your job is done. For Ling, however, particular satisfaction can come from the fact that when the game and season was on the line in the final quarter, he did more than stop an opponent. He had 6 possessions, the Brownlow medallist just one.

While Bartel and Johnson kicked goals from everywhere to lead the Cats to victory, Ling, fittingly, pounced on a spillage in the last minutes to kick his first and the game’s final goal.

He will himself go down in history, joining players like Hird, Voss, Judd and his mate Tom Harley as a premiership captain.

But it will be for his determination and selflessness, as the player who gave up the chance for individual glory each week for the good of the side, that Ling the player will be remembered. With three premiership medals his to keep, there’s no doubt where this servant finished.


By Matthew Raggatt