AFL comments a punch in the gut to players everywhere

perry. the charlie cameron punch on turner doesnt count because it a 1pm sat arvo game in tassie on foxtel, involving two low profile with little media interest back in melbourne. i can confidently say that turner was not staging or acting the slightest. this was not a tummy tap. cameron took a solid wind up and swing.

I think it's poor that the AFL condone this behaviour at all. In other codes such as rugby union if you punch a player on the field it's an immediate yellow or red card, whether it's in the gut or face. It's thuggish behaviour and it's not justifiable. How many kids watch the games on TV and see these acts of violence and replicate their behavour on the field. Personally I believe the AFL should take a system similar to the other codes and bin a player for ten minutes for acts like this. What's to stop a player rubbing out the opposition's best player on grand final day if there's no major consequences.

Bring back the biff

Is it my imagination or has there been a sharp increase in the pushy/shovy, jumper punch, gut hitting, melee stuff? I think the AFL have forgotten that it's a contact sport. Being tackled hurts.....a lot. It is tackle mania with these super fit muscle men on today. It makes opponents angry and frustrated. It's unreasonable for all players to just wear it. They want revenge. Sledging has become the new way of retaliation as the game is so over policed. But peeps get shirty from the sledging, so it's you know.....a bit of sly and not so sublte head hunting, jumper action and whacko to the guts. Melbourne didn't even wait for a catalyst and were into NM early (actually Syd were into them early the week before. NM players will be looking forward to a rematch there). There were a lot of high hits and forearms. Indeed Cunnington's jab was in response to yet another coathanger. I don't think all the players are capable of keeping calm when there is a game on. While king hitting is rightly in the past and I think strikes should be penalised (consistently, they have stuffed it this year) I hope they don't come down too hard. Also stop fining people for melee stuff. Again it's natural reaction given the disencouragement for clobbering people and what the players would really want to do.

that's tops Arky.

If you want a rule changed, make sure some glaring example of a problem in the rule happens in a North game. https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/stuff-north-did-that-we-didnt-like-rulebook-201x-edition.1166636/

The Waite suspension was ridiculous. I couldn't work out what was meant to be wrong with the tackle or what Waite's alternative was meant to be- Lynch was in the middle of trying to kick a goal for crying out loud, Waite had to tackle him off his feet. Seemed like punishing the result rather than the action. That was a football play, Cameron whacking Turner or Cunnington punching Vince (for all Vince seemed like he was exaggerating impact, and the vomiting doesn't make it high impact, these guys are often on the edge of vomiting- or over the edge- from all the exertion without having their tummy tapped) is not a football play. Seeing as the AFL has allowed "jumper punches" for so long, I think it's the right call to allow this round's culprits to get the benefit of the old interpretation but announce they're cracking down from now on, rather than ping guys who had every reason to believe it wasn't a suspendable offence.

oh, I'm not so sure about that Perry, clearly you haven't met Terry Tate, Office Linebacker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tooY9nLezL0

Neale certainly had the last laugh there!

Cotchin should have just tried holding Lachie Neale's jumper in the last 20 seconds of the game.Would have been far more effective than his pathetic attempt at being a hard man.

Tackling a co worker to the ground might not be deemed acceptable either......

Stevie J, when he was with the Cats always got the rough end of the stick ... often he brought it on himself but he didn't always deserve to be treated so harshly. And BT loved to replay anything untoward Stevie J did 1000 times and mention suspension every single time. Take for instance that stupid sideways headbutt he did on ballentyne, any other player would have been classed 'force below' - in fact we saw a headbutt classed that way this year.

Waite was almost certainly rubbed out based on what he had done previously, rather than what he actually did There are certainly different rules for different players

Punching a co-worker in any other workplace in Australia could see you face the sack plus criminal charges. In the AFL you might get fined. DISGRACEFUL! I know some people will say it's sport but in reality for the players it is a workplace.

#Stephen It does seem in some cases that every reason possible is taken to get someone (high profile) off and in other cases (lower profile) the boxes are ticked and that helps set up reasonable stats of punishment. I'm still so dirty about Waite getting rubbed out for what looked like a pretty damn reasonable tackle executer pretty ruddy well - - if that's dangerous then I really don't know the game - - and that got a week while non-footy acts of punching gets just a fine. This is a valid criticism from some outside of the game - about the grubby sniping in our game.

I really just get sick of the media covering games, pre empting that the MRP will look at a particular incident or expressing their belief that someone is likely to cop a suspension. it also seems that your status as a player is often taken into account when penalties are handed out................Seems like we don't want many of the competitions drawcards sitting out games. OR is that just my imagination???? Also seems you are more likely to cop a week if your opponent is injured in one of your tackles rather than by a deliberate "Non Football Act". HMmmm

Do note that the tummy punches ARE outlawed. They just aren't punished with a suspension - but - instead a fine and that's because generally on the table the MRP uses they find it hard to justify above low impact. This was done largely because people didn't want to see players suspended and potentially missing a Brownlow on the back of a largely innocuous tummy tap. However - attitudes are changing. Personally I thought the AFL and MRP missed the ball back in Round 7 when North met Adelaide in Hobart. By far the worse "LOOK" for the game was the whack by Charlie Cameron on Kayne Turner. It was far uglier than the tackler by Waite on Lynch that was classified 'dangerous' due to the outcome.

Good call. Nothing in this game is 'universally agreed'. However, I suspect the vast majority still see jumper/stomach punches as punches (because they are) and would be happy to see them treated as such by umpires and the MRP.

Its always amuses me how the AFL can just up and change rules half way through a season and no-one ever really calls them out on it. How week to week one particular rule will get 'the umpires will be looking for *** this week'' for whatever reason while other rules are simply forgotten about. Some simply because 'it hurts the look of the game'. All rule changes should happen prior to the season start and if it turns out to be a dud, suck it up and change it at seasons end. Same as umpiring, the directive should be to start the season adjudicating the same way as it ends so that any team playing in round 8 has the same severity/leniency as a team playing in round 1. Then start on the complete farce that is the MRP and Tribunal.

I don't understand why we distinguish between different types of punch. Whether you're holding someone's jumper, punching him in the face or the guts, it's still a punch.