Collingwood's Dale Thomas marks over Sydney's Heath Grundy during the AFL Round 21 match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Sydney Swans at the MCG. Slattery Images
Justin Koschitzke’s head high bump on Nick Malceski will take most of the media focus directed at the Match Review Panel this week, but David Hille’s dismissed report needs a little attention. In this day-and-age, it is hard to know how he got off.
Now I don’t want it to come across that I want to see Hille on the sidelines, far from it after his 2009 season was ruined by a knee injury.
Nor do I think Hille’s late hit on Jimmy Bartel was an incident worthy of a major suspension, again far from it.
But the issue here is consistency. In years goneby we’ve seen incidents similar to Hille’s result in suspensions, so it comes as a surprise to see the Bombers bigman get off.
I dare say I’m not alone in that state of surprise.
Channel Seven’s team of commentators covering the game on Friday night made it clear at the time of the incident they thought Hille was set for another stint on the sidelines, although this time it would be self-inflicted.
And pundits on footy forums all over the internet expressed similar sentiments.
The player himself appeared quite understanding of the umpire’s decision to report him and resigned to the fact he might miss a round or two of footy.
The AFL’s Match Review Panel (MRP), chaired by former Carlton defender Andrew McKay alongside Peter Carey and Paul Broderick, released their official statement on the incident yesterday.
The press release read: “Hille had his eyes on the ball and was attempting to take a chest mark. He turned to brace himself for contact, which was made to Bartel’s body and shoulder. It was considered a legitimate attempt to mark the ball”.
A lot of the above is quite subjective but to claim Hille made a legitimate attempt to mark the ball is quite absurd.
These contests, where one player arrives late to a marking contest, are quite common in footy at all levels.
Coaches always tell their players to ‘make your opponent earn it’ and it appears this is one of those instances but Hille’s execution was crude.
I understand there was a similar incident in Sydney’s Round One loss to St Kilda, when Zac Dawson cannoned into the back and head of Tadgh Kennelly.
I haven’t seen the incident, so it would be wrong to comment, but Sydney’s reaction to no action being taken was another of shock.
Nevertheless, the MRP’s decision will be okay if it maintains a similar stance throughout the 2010 season. All we want is consistency.
This is exactly what confused me, because in the context of years past the Hille decision is inconsistent.
And not once in the AFL’s off-season briefings about rule changes did they mention, or even suggest, a softening of the application of this rule, so Hille’s escape comes as a shock.
But it is only Round One after all, so if the MRP manages to maintain a fair amount of consistency throughout the 2010 season in these instances then there will be nothing to complain about.
Hopefully the MRP can get it right.
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"Just forget your ACL snap and hobble forward!"
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