They can take it out of my membership donations 
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Essendon supporters taunting the Pies supporters after that decision
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See you all in here Thursday night for when Adams appeals and gets off.
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At least there was some consistency here. Still disapointed that Zach wont be playing.
However, if we can re-appeal id say go for it and find a way better lawyer.
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We’ll appeal and find a way to get Adam’s cleared instead
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But let’s be honest. Both should be playing
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It is! I’m ■■■■■■ about Merrett because they’ve changed the gradings from what they showed clubs at the start of the year, but Hobbs/Davey deserve games anyway so whatever.
But how the actual FARK can we have a tribunal system that classifies the Merrett tackle in the same category as the Kozzi hit & punching a bloke off the ball, leaving him concussed. All “careless”!?
And then they base the penalty entirely around those specific classifications!
Give Merrett a week, fine. But you can’t be having those other acts in the same category of intent - those are dog acts that need to be graded higher.
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clearly the afl need to introduce a ‘potential to cause death’ aspect to their classification’system’.
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Yes! Get into the spirit!
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It’s okay, Ginnivan is still playing
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Yeah, it’s farking nuts. They’re classifying incidents at a much higher level so the Tribunal can make an assessment on whether it had the potential to cause injury. I mean that’s farked, but its the result of the multiple lawsuits against the AFL. They’re scared. They’ve already recognised the link between head trauma and CTE in its official submission to a Senate inquiry, but says the association between head trauma and long-term psychological health is less clear. The latter is key to any civil claim (which will never be tested) but I’m not sure the eliminate approach is the best approach. It’s making the game even harder for players.
It’s not even the current approach though. It is applied ad-hoc and no one is able to predict what will/should be a “dangerous tackle”
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I’m a bit more cynical than that. Knowing that concussions cannot actually ever be eliminated from the game, the focus will be on what education techniques, preventative measures and enforcement tactics the AFL is proactively employing to reduce concussions (and related effects) as much as possible.
This overreaction is just them saying ‘hey yep nah we totally get it look at how super serious we take it’.
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Still can’t believe Caminiti got just 3 weeks for smashing someone behind play in an act that concussed Murphy so badly that he misses a week…and a poor tackle gets 1 week. Wow
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There’s not actually a realistic way to eliminate head contact or concussions (which don’t always involve head contact orillegal contact).
So it’s more a question of controlling & minimising risks, what can be eliminated, Vs what’s just inherent part of a contact sport.
Eg I don’t think anyone really misses the head high hip and shoulders but tackling to the ground…??? Good body on body hip and shoulder, that gives whiplash…???
That’s the question that needs to be decided and clarified (and that might mean a Guinea pig court case).
What is a reasonable risk for the game/league to bear, and what’s not, and hence needs to be rubbed out.
Clearly we can deal with some of that risk.
To me the simplest steps for the league to implement would be the independent doctors and reviews for potential head high contact/concussion. Doesn’t really affect the fabric of the game, just takes pressure off the (club employed) doctors.
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It’s the AFL devising its own Work Safe rules for match day.
Work Safe Victoria doesn’t cover professional sport.
Can Merrett be named in the VFL side (playing Sunday) to serve his suspension then named in the main ANZAC game?
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Genius !
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Can we just turn the game into netball as it’s becoming a joke. Players might as well just not bother tackling.
They’ll still tackle, but there will only be stand up tackles to stop the opposition disposal to a team mate.
AFL have made it too difficult for the Merrett intent of laterally taking his opponent out of the next contest to feature in the game.