The first para relates to intent and I agree there is no case of attempted murder if you hit someone with a feather.
Re the second para, the potential is not that you might have gone harder and that could cause injury, but rather when you cause someone to fall to ground then the process of falling and what part of their body hits the ground are both outside the control of the tackler and hence there was potential for harm connected to that act.
You can say - but what if they did control the fall eg laid the player gently on the ground - but this is not the action that is being discussed or sanctioned.
Where I think you are wrong is that you are saying the act has occurred therefore there is no potential for another outcome. This ignores that the same act will in other circumstances outside the control of the tackler lead to different outcomes.
Decision makers are evaluated based on what was known or knowable at the time of the decision. Unfortunately Zack is not playing because that tackle can in some cases cause harm.
It seems that they need to start suspending every player that applies a sling irrespective of outcome or extenuating circumstances.
The act itself needs to be banned.
It’s mere existence has the possibility to cause injury if you rely on a player’s ability to control the action once it is put into motion.
You could possibly argue that a bigger bodied guy doing it to a smaller guy might have the physical strength to pull off a roll to prevent contact, but that could easily get out of hand if not executed properly and still creates potential for harm.
Well Gerard comes across as a special man who would love netball. I bet he would of never played a contact sport in his childhood days. His mummy wouldn’t of let him
Is he as self-righteous and pompous about this when Tom Hawkins punches someone?
Admittedly I think all punches should cop a minimum one week, including jumper punches. Sick of seeing guys get off with careless and medium impact. It’s never careless.
Jye’s fist could have slipped up his jumper and hit the little daikon in the head therefore there is the potential for concussion.
Surprised he wasn’t given 4 weeks.
edit - just realised we’ve already played pies so no need to suspend our players until b4 next time.
If they didn’t fine players for that, it would happen 700 times a game and get very tedious. A fine is more than enough for a little punch like that. I still laugh about Merrett breaking Silvagni’s glass ribs though.