This, so much this. Zac Jones got a fine last week for throwing a left hook which glanced instead of landed. You have to punish the action not the outcome and remove the grey from the rule.
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I’ve got no doubt that the AFL will toy with the idea, and will wait for the inevitable backlash before shelving it, then they’ll come back with a sin bin idea and it will likewise be panned
My first reaction to the idea of a sin bin was that it wouldn’t be so bad.
Middle road, kind of thing.
But on a little reflection I think it would, in fact, be bad.
I can see the countdown on the television screen, the anticipation in the crowd, the anticipation from the other team…
I think it would be worse than now and solve nothing.
Too much subjectivity involved. The weekly debate about the penalties awarded (or not) by the MRP and the Tribunal show that there’s always margin for (perceived) error or bias. And if a 4th ump can’t tell when a point is not a goal then how can he/she determine if a big whack crosses the send-off threshold?
I wouldn’t be opposed to a send off role for incidents like the gaff, Hall wild strikes.
There couldn’t be any grey area in its application though. I would think it should involve a video review and the consensus of the field umpires. The review could happen at the next interval.
More needs to be done in general to wipe out striking from the game.
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I could agree with a send off if all it meant was that the offending team was down a man on the bench. After all, the victim’s team is down a man for the game. It’d want to be crystal clear though…Dipper on Walsh, Dipper on Stoneham, Brereton on Essendon (x 6), Bugg, Hall etc.
I wouldn’t even send off Matthews for the hit on Bruns. Bruns copped his whack for being a spiteful little sniper his entire career. And Jacko started that whole kerfuffle by sniping Ayers (who had his own share of victims through his career).
And it should be through video review, whether at the time or at an interval. During the last quarter, a time-off could be instituted to investigate.
The issue with putting a rule in is that it would eventually be subject to function creep and would likely be applied badly / inconsistently.
I don’t think anyone disagrees that the Gaff/Hall ones would be appropriate for a send off. But what about the Jeremy Cameron one from a few weeks ago? I think reasonable minds could disagree on that.
I reckon if introduced it would be likely to cost a team a big game via an inappropriate or unwarranted send off. The AFLs record on farking up the implementation of new rules does not fill me with confidence.
The better alternative I think, to stamp these things out, is simply to dramatically increase the penalties for intentional hits like Gaffs. Why should a hit like that, or Hall’s, only get 5-7 weeks? There should be zero tolerance for intentional punches to the head, and in cases where there is injury incurred like this one, the perpetrator should get a year off, minimum.
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Look what has happened to the sliding rule, brought in because a player broke another player’s leg. Now it’s morphed into any contact below the knee.
I don’t trust the umpires to get this right
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Also don’t like the ‘bin’ option for these exact reasons. It would become a circus.
And those points you made earlier about this being a creation of the AFL’s weakness on striking anywhere except the head is right on the money.
Thank fark that culture didn’t exist back in the day because there would have been very few ammo games that lasted to full time let alone the first siren.
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To be clear, I’m not even talking about suspensions.
Any punch, any swinging arm to the body of an opponent, as happens at every stoppage in the game right now: free kick.
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I’ve never respected it, personally.
Show me you’re tough by going hard at the ball.
Being a hero by punching a bloke in the chest while he’s not expecting it…
shakes head
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Agree with all of that but how to diffuse emotions on and off the field?
I don’t think a coaches convention to self regulate by willingly withdrawing a player from the contest would pass the practicality test.
Very lucky that violence didn’t erupt in the crowd yesterday.
Not a fan of knee jerk reactions at all. But it seems to be the way the AFL operates, so it will probably be implemented next season.
Absolutely not
Should never ever be brought in. Too many ways it could be interpreted badly during the game
But what about these clear as incidents that are beyond any doubt?
Gaff shouldn’t have remained on the field.
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What if there circumstances that caused it, say he was racially vilified or the freo player spat on him.
Too many things that can go wrong
“He called me a name then spat on me, Your Worship so I took it upon myself to rearrange his face and change the way he consumes food for a while”…
Please.
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So anyway gaff - 8 weeks?
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In my time watching football I’ve only ever seen one guy break his leg because another bloke went in lower and harder than he did.
The dickheads running the comp love changing rules. They’ll probably make all players wear boxing gloves off the back of this.
Yep.
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