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Cotch-in! Tigers captain free to play in AFL grand final

Expert
24th September, 2017
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After 35 years, is it finally the year of the Tiger? (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Expert
24th September, 2017
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2833 Reads

Trent Cotchin is free to play for the Richmond Tigers in the 2017 AFL Grand Final against the Adelaide Crows after the AFL’s Match Review Panel cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Cotchin collided with Dylan Shiel in the first quarter of the Tigers’ preliminary final against the GWS Giants on Saturday.

He collected his opponent high, and though Shiel came back on to play out the quarter, he didn’t continue on after the quarter-time break, suffering from a delayed concussion.

The Tigers ultimately won the match by six goals, though the margin was just two points in their favour at halftime.

The AFL also reviewed incidents this weekend involving Rory Sloane’s contact with Patrick Dangerfield, and Brandon Ells’ contact with Lachie Whitfield.

However, the MRP confirmed that all three players had been cleared, and there were no charges of any kind laid from the preliminary finals.

The MRP found that Sloane braced for contact against Dangerfield, but did not use a bump action.

It was ruled that Cotchin’s direction was in the line of the ball, and not of his opponent, the contact not unreasonable in the circumstances.

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Ellis was ruled to have been contesting the ball, with no further action required to be taken.

Trent Cotchin Richmond Tigers AFL 2017

(AAP Image/Tony McDonough)

All things considered the decisions made are probably the right ones if you want to have the best grand final possible, which is certainly a priority of the AFL’s.

Are they the best decisions to be made for the priority of adequately punishing and therefore discouraging incidents resulting in possible concussions later on? No, probably not.

This was a juncture point for the AFL to show us with actions rather than words which one of these priorities they rate more highly, and the result should not surprise anyone.

As I tweeted during the game on Saturday afternoon: “If you reckon the AFL would ban a big-name Richmond player before the grand final you haven’t been watching this sport very long.”

Perhaps a rule change could be in order to allow the AFL greater wiggle room to penalise events like these without rubbing players out of big finals.

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One of the key factors in the Cotchin decision was that he had already accumulated two fines this year, and under MRP rules, a third strike in the same calendar year triggers an automatic one-match ban.

However even the strictest of invigilators would probably agree that a player missing a grand final for a third-strike fine coming from a minor incident would be a bit farcical.

The AFL could consider amending their rules so that, if a third-strike fine triggers a ban that would rule a player out of a finals match, the ban is instead moved to Round 1 of next year.

But, if a player committed an offence that was worthy of a ban on its own, this would still be enforced.

I’m not going to launch a full-scale Trumpian campaign for the idea, but it’s worth mulling over at the very least.

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