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PRICHARD: Ridiculous that Smeltz has escaped suspension

19th October, 2015
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The Jets travel south to take on Sydney FC. (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Expert
19th October, 2015
80
1247 Reads

It is plain wrong that Shane Smeltz won’t be made to pay with a suspension for the incident that left Mark Birighitti with several dislodged teeth, cuts to his bottom lip and chin that needed 30 stitches.

There was a duty of care that the Sydney FC striker did not meet and as a result of that the Newcastle Jets goalkeeper sustained a nasty injury.

I’m not saying Smeltz meant to cause Birighitti harm, but had he taken more care the incident could have been avoided.

That is the bottom line here.

The Newcastle Jets goalkeeper went to ground and got to the ball first and Smeltz then made contact with his right boot.

I’ve watched the incident numerous times on replay, both in slow motion and at normal speed. I’m well aware there was only a small fraction of a second between Birighitti getting to the ball and Smeltz connecting with his face.

People make the point that incidents like this often look worse on slow-motion replay because it gives the false impression that there is more time for the player who is about to make contact to pull out.

But in this case I don’t think the normal-speed replay looks any better for Smeltz than the slow-motion one does.

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Birighitti is always going to get to the ball first, however slightly, and Smeltz should have realised that and tried to take evasive action, but he left his boot in there.

People talk about the predatory nature of strikers and I get all of that. They are there to go all-out to score goals, but if a player gets hurt like Birighitti did in the process and it is clear another player is responsible than that other player should face some penalty.

That’s all. No need for anyone to get hysterical. It’s just the way it should be. But it wasn’t in this case.

Smeltz faced no action from referee Peter Green on the field on Saturday and the incident didn’t go any further because Green confirmed to the A-League on Monday that he had clearly seen the incident and believed it was an accident.

Under those circumstances, the league’s match review committee did not take the matter any further.

So that is where it ends. Unsatisfactorily, in my view, but Smeltz didn’t invent the system so no-one can blame him for that. We move on and he will be a key man in the first of the season’s Sydney derbies on Saturday.

After a first round that didn’t provide the buzz the A-League needed, the second round included the first of the Melbourne derbies that attracted a tick over 40,000 fans and resulted in a terrific clash between Victory and City.

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Victory led 2-0, City came back to 2-2 and then Besart Berisha rose to the occasion to provide a late winner for Victory. He is a big-game player and it was another great derby moment.

That game gave Melbourne the buzz. Now, hopefully, the game between the Sky Blues and Western Sydney Wanderers will do the same for Sydney.

Wanderers weren’t nearly as sloppy in defence against Adelaide United on Friday as they were against Brisbane Roar in the opening round, but they still managed to come up with an own goal in the 1-1 draw.

Sydney FC is still working its way into the new season as well and it was very late in the day before it came up with the only goal of an ordinary game against the Jets.

The derby, between two teams not in the groove as yet, could be one of those games where Sydney and the Wanderers strive hard to produce something special but it isn’t quite there yet and we see flashes of brilliance rather than a continuous spectacle.

It may only be the third round out of 27, but already this is a bit of a crunch game for the Wanderers, who had a massive player cleanout after finishing ninth last season and have collected just one point from the first two rounds.

They will tell you that they are still feeling good about themselves, but we would know for sure that was the case if they managed to knock off Sydney at Sydney’s home ground, Allianz Stadium.

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