{"id":328221,"date":"2023-09-04T01:29:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T01:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328221"},"modified":"2023-09-04T02:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T02:00:28","slug":"big-afl-grand-final-role-for-controversial-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=328221","title":{"rendered":"Big AFL grand final role for controversial coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Controversial AFL<\/a> figure Mark 'Bomber' Thompson<\/a> will present the Jock McHale Medal to the premiership-winning coach on grand final day, outgoing AFL CEO Gill McLachlan<\/a> announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch of the 2023 finals series<\/a>, McLachlan said that Thompson had accepted the AFL's invitation to present the prestigious award on the last day of September.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Mark has a long list of accolades in his career as a player and then as a coach, including winning three premierships as a player for Essendon along with being selected as a two-time All-Australian, both as a player in 1986 and 1990 and as a coach in 2007 and 2009," he told media.<\/p>\n

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\"Mark<\/p>\n

"We are really thrilled that Mark has accepted our offer."<\/p>\n

Thompson led Geelong to premiership glory in 2007 and 2009\ufeff before returning to Essendon as a senior assistant coach in November 2010. He was sacked at the end of 2014 following the club's supplements saga.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old was later arrested and charged with drug-related offences following police raids on his Port Melbourne home in 2018.<\/p>\n

He was charged with seven counts of drug trafficking and possession but was later cleared of drug trafficking charges. He was fined $3000 for drug possession and sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order.<\/p>\n

The \ufeffAFL also announced 2012 premiership player Josh Kennedy as the premiership cup ambassador, while 2006 premiership captain Chris Judd will present the Norm Smith Media for the player judged best on ground during the grand final.<\/p>\n

With Judd, the 2005 Norm Smith Medallist, the AFL\ufeff continues its tradition of a former winner presenting the individual honour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Controversial AFL figure Mark 'Bomber' Thompson will present the Jock McHale Medal to the premiership-winning coach on grand final day, outgoing AFL CEO Gill McLachlan […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=328221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328224,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328221\/revisions\/328224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/328223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=328221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=328221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=328221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}