Melbourne Demons not guilty of tanking Former Melbourne coach Dean Bailey and his football lieutenant Chris Connolly have been suspended Source: Herald Sun THE AFL has suspended former Melbourne coach Dean Bailey and the club's ex-football operations manager Chris Connolly as result an investigation. Connolly has been suspended for 12 months, while former coach Dean Bailey, who has been an assistant coach at Adelaide since late in 2011, was suspended for the first 16 rounds of this season. The Demons were also fined $500,000, the third-highest ever handed out by the AFL. But the league ruled that the club did not deliberately set out to lose games during the 2009 season. All parties have accepted their sanctions. Bailey may remain employed by the Crows, but he cannot have any match-day role or any role working with players in any capacity rasing questions of his future at the club. Connolly is not allowed to perform any function for or on behalf of the Melbourne footy club, including attending matches or training sessions until February 1 next year. He has held a marketing role for the past 18 months. In announcing the penalties, AFL acting general manager of football operations Gillon McLachlan said the penalties came after an extensive investigation by the league's integrity department from the end of July to December 23. McLachlan said there was no directive from the club's board or executive management for the team to deliberately lose matches in any game throughout 2009. He said the club did not set out to deliberately lose any game. McLachlan said Connolly had acted in a manner, concerning pre-game planning comprising comments to a football department meeting, was considered prejudicial to the interests of the AFL. The probe uncovered that Bailey, having regard to Connolly's comments, had acted in pre-game planning, in a manner considered prejudicial to the interests of the AFL. Earlier the wife revered former Melbourne president Jim Stynes defended her late husband. Stynes, who died nearly a year ago, was president during the 2009 season. There has been debate about whether Stynes knew about the tanking, but Sam Stynes said she did not think the saga would tarnish his reputation. "He wasn't working 24/7 in the club, he did the odd thing when he was needed and he didn't know what was going on all the time," Sam Stynes told Fairfax radio. She said she had received great support during the AFL's five-month investigation.