Thoughts:
1) Fecking disgrace
2) Putting aside Rule's involvement, asa general point, FC invite trouble by retaining the likes of Cooke and Raynor after transgression and signing player after player with "form" - Tansey, Reardon, Gleeson, Long, Aspinwall, Seymour. We should not be surprised that we are continually linked with this sort of thing when some of the participants are known risks. One would hope this is taken as a learning by McRae and Pearson, but the fact Aspinwall's on their watch suggests this hasn't happened yet.
3) In some circumstances this sort of thing is "justified" or "explained" by the huge pressure on individuals to deliver in marginal sporting circumstances, like an Olympic sprint final, for example. FC haven't troubled the top teams for 4 seasons and showed no sign of doing so before or during Gleeson's time at the club. Rule is not only guilty of deception, but utter stupidity to risk his career over a knackered player who wouldn't influence FC's performance or finishing position one way or the other. Personally I would have thought he'd have protected himself better and it surprises me that he didn't.
4) Thank goodness for Adam Pearson's takeover. Can you imagine going into 2012 with Kath and Agar still at the helm, a massive (probably unpayable) tax bill and then this emerging. In this context we're lucky the club still exists.