CHANNEL Seven was hopeful last night that its escalating dispute with footballers, the AFL and the AFL Players Association could yet be resolved out of court.
Seven chief Ian Johnson was planning to talk early today to players' boss Brendon Gale after a Supreme Court judge yesterday ruled to continue the suppression of a story concerning drug use at a Melbourne-based AFL club aired on Seven news last Friday night.
"It's a shame we've (he and Gale) only spoken once this week. It's been a very emotional week," Johnson said last night.
"I very much expect it will be resolved, if not this weekend, then before the finals."
After the court hearing yesterday, Gale, the chief executive of the players' union, said the association was "inviting" rather than "directing" the players to maintain a boycott of Channel Seven.
Gale maintained that the AFL's illicit drugs policy was "rock solid" despite the suggestions made in the past week, including from the vice-president of the union, Adelaide's Brett Burton, that support for the voluntary testing regime was waning.
In other developments yesterday:
■The union held a news conference and did not invite Channel Seven. An association spokesman said afterwards that if Seven had arrived to cover the event, the reporter would have been denied entry to the union's Albert Park headquarters.
■League chief executive Andrew Demetriou said that he had declined a request from Channel Seven to appear on Today Tonight on Wednesday and said that he would decline any further requests from the network until the court case was settled.
"But if you're asking whether I'm boycotting things, 'no' is the answer," he said.
■The Age understands that Channel Seven's boundary rider Ricky Olarenshaw, a former player and now a player agent who manages the affairs of several Adelaide players, will not even approach Collingwood or Crows players during tonight's match at Telstra Dome because of their decision to black-ban the network.
■Crows coach Neil Craig indicated he would proceed with plans to wear a heart monitor for Seven's coverage.
■Dylan Howard, the Channel Seven reporter who presented the controversial story last Friday night, would not be carrying out his usual weekend duties with radio station 3AW. Instead of being a boundary reporter and conducting interviews with players in the rooms, he had instead been rostered into a hosting position in a studio on Saturday afternoon.
Talks between Channel Seven, the AFL and the players' union broke down on Wednesday after the television network refused to apologise for and permanently suppress the contents of the news report aired last week.
"It's disappointing that it's got to this stage," Gale said.
"In the next few days and certainly over the course of the weekend, we invite players to refuse to conduct any pre- or post-game interviews with Channel Seven in matches broadcast by that network."
