Boxer has a busy couple of weeks lined up and has some fascinating interviews scheduled.

Keep following Boxer’s Blog and you will learn:

Rebecca Judd finally tells us what she thinking and what she thought she saw in him.

Cameron Ling answers his critics: “I am not an animal….I’m a Human Being”

Leroy Jetta tells us about his time at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and how it made him the player he is today.

And finally James Hird tells us about those ridiculous pointy ears. Is he part Pixie or is it only a chromosome issue?

Keep reading Boxer’s Blog to find out.

The stock of suitable and available chief executive candidates for the recently vacated CEO job at the Kangaroos is fast diminishing as The Boxer’s very own ‘Boxer’ announced today that he had officially withdrawn from the interview process.

Boxer very kindly agreed to join us at The Boxer headquarters today to enlighten Boxer as to the reasons for his abrupt turnaround.
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Carlton coach Brett Ratten says that Port Adelaide’s humiliating drubbing of his Carlton team at AMI Stadium, might well be a blessing in disguise as the club sets about its preparation for the must win clash against Geelong this weekend.

Another loss would in all likelihood see Carlton drop from the top 8 for the first time in 2012 and with matches against  West Coast, Hawthorn and Collinwood to follow, the Blue’s 2012 finals campaign would be effectively snuffed out.  Ratten however remains optimistic.

“No there is a real positive to come out of yesterday’s match.” Ratten told The Boxer this morning.  “Usually we spend the best part of Monday reviewing the weekend footage and making the necessary adjustments to our game plan, which we then take onto the training track.  This week I’m told our highlights reel runs for a total of 2 minutes and 37seconds so, once we’re finished looking at our 6 goals and our 7 inside 50’s we’ll be ready to get straight into some hard training.”

The AFL has confirmed what many of us had already started to sense. Carlton’s heavily leveraged private equity assault designed to buy an AFL Premiership, is in a state of deep crises. Many stock market experts predict that the private equity partners backing the market premiership raid will soon lose patience and members and investors will seek to further reduce their financial exposure as a matter of priority.

AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick today addressed a packed media gallery at the Melbourne Stock Exchange where he announced that there will be both a AFL and ASIC investigation into the goings on down at Princess Park.

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Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital recently established a medical research specialist division to investigate chronic traumatic encephalopathy – or brain damage caused by repeated blows received by AFL players during their playing careers.  The new research division has been named the “Brain Bank” and is to be headed by the eminent neurosurgeon and Alzheimer specialist; Professor Vincent Cattogio.

“Unfortunately the condition can only be adequately researched after the death of the player.” explained Prof Cattogio.  “Accordingly we are looking to enlist donors of suitable calibre, to donate their brains to the Brain Bank, for testing after their death.”

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Stirred by Fox Sports Eddie McGuire Tonight’s nostalgic inquiries into the lives of former AFL greats, Boxer’s Blog will inaugurate its own retrograde weekly report on some of the games’ past champions.

Once a week Boxer will sit down with one of our childhood hero’s and explore their time in the game, the highs and the lows, and learn about the path their life have taken since the curtain was drawn on their football career.  Once a week Boxer will interview a past superstar and answer the question; WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

First up in the gripping series which is to be posted very soon, Boxer will sit down with the former champ, the sensation from Sandringham, and ask what we are all wondering; where are you now: JACK WATTS?

In 2011, Hawthorn finished the home and away season with a record of 18–4, finishing third. It lost to Collingwood by three points in a preliminary final. In a season in which the club was not expected to perform particularly well the team won 18 games. Lance Franklin won the Coleman Medal and was nominated an All-Australian, as were; Josh Gibson, Sam Mitchell and Grant Birchall.

The enthusiasm amongst Hawthorn members that greeted Alistair Clarkson and his charges during the 2012 preseason was deafening.  Widely touted as clear Premiership favorites, Clarkson did nothing to deflect the attention on the team.  “We have been chosen to lead this club and we have a mandate to win the 2012 Premiership” proclaimed Clarkson after his team’s 22 point victory over Collingwood in Round 1.  That early enthusiasm amongst the club members however has all but evaporated, with barely one in four (27%) of Hawthorn members now prepared to declare that Hawthorn can make the finals, according to a new poll – the worst for any major AFL team after just 5 rounds, in almost four decades.  The club has bumbled its way to a 2:3 win loss record and this week face an in-form St Kilda at the MCG.

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This morning the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims confirmed that the consumer watchdog will launch an investigation into the conduct of the AFL surrounding the highly publicized ANZAC Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon, played at the MCG yesterday.

Commenting from his office this morning, Mr Sims said that the ACCC became concerned when monitoring the publicity and advertising in the lead up to the match:  “This year in particular the Commission were aware of the parameters within which the AFL were required to work.  It is clear that neither Essendon or Collingwood are in the best 8 teams in the AFL competition, so on that basis we wanted to be sure that the AFL were not seen to be promoting tickets to the match on the foundation that consumers who purchased those tickets, did so expecting that they would see a high quality match.  Having studied the promotions we formed the view that consumers might reasonably expect, based on what the AFL were propagating, that the two teams in question were serious contenders to play finals football, and that is simply wrong.”

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The AFL have confirmed that Saturday’s blockbusting battle for 12^th spot on the ladder between Collingwood and Port Adelaide will now take on extra significance with the winning team set to become the one and only team entitled to be known as the Magpies. Andrew Demetriou appeared on Fox Sports ‘On the Couch’ last night to, as usual talk about himself, but also make the announcement about the match which the AFL have rebadged as “The John Gould Cup”.  Here is a transcript of Mike Sheehan’s exclusive interview with Andrew Demetriou:

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