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No matter what Richmond’s Ty Vickery achieves throughout the remainder of his career, he will always be remembered for the sickening hit he inflicted on retiring West Coast favourite Dean Cox last Friday night.
The punch to the side of the face that sent Cox crashing awkwardly to the ground was little different from Barry Hall’s hit on Brent Staker in 2008 or, going back further, Leigh Matthews strike on Neville Bruns in 1985.
The execution of the various acts may have varied but the intent and level of violence was identical.
Matthews smashed Bruns’ jaw in an unprovoked behind the play incident in a match that had already spiralled out of control. His king hit from behind, on a player who was looking in the opposite direction, saw the Hawthorn hard-man not suspended but deregistered from the competition before facing legal action.
Hall’s knock-out blow on Staker earned him a seven-week suspension and left us with perhaps the most graphic footage of violence seen on a modern day footy field. Once viewed it can never be forgotten. The force of the blow, the rolling of Staker’s eyes back into his head, and the way his body crumpled to the ground, out cold.
Hall, the so called tough-man, would later back away from an opportunity to use his fists legally in a boxing ring, unwilling perhaps to be on the end of some of his own medicine. Even Mark ‘Jacko’ Jackson and ‘Rotten’ Ronnie Andrews gave that a shot.
For all Matthews and Hall achieved – and they were fantastic footballers – Bruns’ jaw and Staker’s rolling eyes are never far away from any conversation regarding the two. Unfortunately for Vickery, his career will now be forever linked with the unsightly image of a dazed Cox plummeting head first into his home turf.
And that is a shame.
But Vickery has only himself to blame and if that is the way he reacts to getting a bit of treatment behind the scenes, then perhaps he has no place in the AFL.
Sure, Cox elbowed him in the chest or stomach region directly before the incident, but fair dinkum, I’ve copped worse from my five-year-old while wrestling on the couch.
I haven’t seen the need to throw a coward punch to let him know who’s boss.
For that is what it was – a coward punch. One blow delivered on an unsuspecting victim, resulting in injury. Do that out on the streets on a Saturday night and you’ll find yourself in big strife.
It is something that has no place in the game. Not now, not ever.
Footballers can wear it if they get hurt in the heat of the action. It comes with the territory. Fans can accept it as well. But getting hurt through pure thuggery is unacceptable and of course it is going to inflame those watching.
That Richmond coach Damien Hardwick was critical of West Coast fans giving Vickery an ear full as he made his way to the interchange area after the incident is astounding.
Yes, you are allowed to support your player, but even if he didn’t see the incident when it happened, he would have seen the umpteen replays that were beamed into his coaches box.
“At the end of the day, if you have a couple of lunatics hanging over the fence, yelling abuse…I don’t know another profession in the world where you can walk into a bank teller and start calling them names like that,” said Hardwick after the game.
Well, there aren’t to many professions where you can just belt a bloke when he is not looking either. Hardwick and Vickery are lucky that the incensed fans actually stayed on their own side of the fence.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson was seething after the incident but managed to keep his cool. He preferred not to comment on the incident after the match but he didn’t have to. His demeanour and the tone of his voice was enough to get some idea of his anger, an anger that he was more than warranted in venting.
Vickery’s apology, however heartfelt, and his subsequent four-week suspension do not give the Tiger big man a clean slate. His reputation is now marred forever.
The fact that such incidents are so rare in today’s football accentuates its atrocity and makes a mockery of the following comments by Hardwick –
“To me, he’s (Vickery) a hard, tough player. That’s what we want at the Tigers. At the end of the day, sometimes you step outside the boundaries, the rules are there. We know the rules. He’s a hard, tough Richmond player and that’s the way we like him.”
Well, if that is the Richmond coach’s philosophy, then perhaps Richmond need a new coach, because Vickery’s actions were neither hard nor tough.
No, like his coach’s comments, they were down right stupid.
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