St Kilda’s Steven Baker is facing a minimum of nine matches and a maximum of twelve on the sidelines after a series of incidents in the Friday night blockbuster against the Cats.
Saint, Steven Baker, and Cat, Steve Johnson, battled it out in the grand final re-match, but both suffered from suspensions handed down by the match review panel this evening.
The AFL match review panel announced that Baker will be on the sidelines for nine weeks if he chooses not to contest the charges: the longest suspension since the introduction of the match review panel system.
If Baker decides to contest and lose, he will be out for a maximum of twelve weeks, depending on the cases he loses, potentially putting an end to his finals campaign. Steve Baker also suffered a black eye following the fierce encounter, posting the picture on his Twitter page.
We must remember Steven Baker was charged on four separate incidents.
Baker’s bad record contributed to the suspension, but more importantly how did these incidents fly under the radar of officiating AFL umpires of the Friday night grand final re-match?
It wasn’t one or two incidents that occurred on the night. My understanding is the umpire not officiating main play has control and should be looking at awarding free kicks for incidents behind play.
Steve Johnson has been charged with two striking charges, which has put Johnson on the sidelines for four weeks, reduced to three weeks with an early guilty plea. Johnson broke his hand in Friday night’s match and is expected to sit on the sidelines longer than his four week suspension.
Former Geelong player and Brownlow medallist, Paul Couch, added fuel to the fire suggesting that Baker “deserved a smack in the mouth” on Friday night.
Geelong Coach Mark Thompson also weighed in on the debate suggesting that St Kilda played with “anger and revenge” driven by last year’s grand final loss. Thompson urged the AFL to look into the incidents.
Critics will continue to compare incidents with those of recent weeks, but the AFL match review panel have dished out the correct punishments.
We do need to set the precedent and unfortunately it wasn’t done on the footy field. If it was, maybe the penalties wouldn’t have escalated to a considerable amount of time on the sidelines for players at both clubs.
Cameron Mooney is expected to serve only a two-week ban, reduced from three if he pleads guilty to striking Saint Jason Blake.
The Saint Kilda Football Club has declined to comment until 11am today.
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