For AFL fans, Monday is a day most can’t wait for. Not because we are closer to the next round, but because we can’t wait for the Match Review Panel to hand down its findings from the weekend.
Come 3:00 on a Monday afternoon and the AFL releases its findings. Social media lights up with debate as it dissects the very findings from the weekend.
If you follow it with interest, the hashtag #MRPlotto will be used quite frequently, indicating that no one really knows what will be handed down due to inconsistencies handed out previously.
As funny as some people’s reactions may be, no one thinks it is funny when verdicts such as the Tyrone Vickery swinging arm to the face of Dean Cox and then teammate Reece Conca’s blatant and deliberate elbow to the back of Devon Smith’s head as he was walking off the ground can be given a guilty or good behaviour discount.
Under its definition, guilty is determined if someone has committed an offence, crime, violation, or wrong, especially against moral or penal law.
In AFL terms, it constitutes an action that can be found guilty of suspension.
Both cases were deliberate and high contact. There was no grey area for conjectures, merely the force in which they were delivered.
Yet in both cases, the force should not be factored into the end result. The fact they were deliberate acts that were meant to cause harm to a player mean that there should be no discount warranted.
In Vickery’s case, he was sent directly to the tribunal, therefore not being able to plead either way before the case being heard. Even though the tribunal found him guilty, he was still gave a 25 per cent discount as a result of not being able to plea, reducing his suspension from five to four matches.
The question that must be asked is how can a deliberate act get a reduced suspension? A morally wrong action should be not treated with leniency or good favour. Instead, the full punishment should be served.
Had this same act occurred outside the boundary of an AFL match and in the streets on a Saturday night, Vickery would be facing a court hearing. Had Cox hit his head on the concrete and not the soft grass of Pattison Stadium, who knows what the end result may have been.
On Saturday, just a week after the Vickery incident, Reece Conca decided that it was okay to run up behind someone and throw a swinging elbow into the back of the head.
This was again a deliberate act in which the player, Devon Smith, had no way of defending himself or be expected to think contact would be made.
The MRP deemed that it was a three week incident, yet with a good behaviour clause, was reduced to two matches.
The question again should be asked in the same way it was for Vickery. How can a morally wrong act that was deemed to be deliberate without questions be handed leniency because of a good record?
The incident was even bought into questions by David Galbally QC, who believes Conca’s hit should be deemed bad enough to be charged with assault.
The MRP has handed down some shocking findings this year and the rule changes that have occurred may see Nathan Fyfe miss out on a Brownlow for incidental head contact.
His suspension caused him to miss two matches, the same length suspension that Reece Conca faces.
One was for incidental head contact by laying a bump to the head which is deemed to be sacrosanct.
The other, a deliberate elbow to the back of the head (remember that it is sacrosanct), off the ball without the player having any reasonable thought of contact was to be made.
We all know what was worse, however with Fyfe’s bad record, he was unable to get it reduced, despite being a complete accident and in no way done to cause damage to the opponent.
With an overhaul of the MRP to be done at seasons end, there will be no doubt changes that will appease many AFL fans.
Without questions though, the one that must be changed for the better of the game and for the AFL’s image, any player found guilty of a deliberate act should not be given a guilty plea or good behaviour discount.
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