A four-week suspension in the VFL is a big punishment, especially for an out-of-touch footballer such as North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas.
After an up-and-down 2016 season, Thomas came into this year looking to prove he still belongs in the 22-man squad at North.
He started in the senior side for the first five games, but only kicked two goals and six behinds.
Thomas has been given every opportunity at senior level through his career, but has been one of the most inconsistent small forwards of the past 20 years. What has gone in his favour is that after a bad year or two, he has a standout year and proved to Brad Scott that he deserves to be in top flight.
But Thomas has not had a decent year since 2013, when he booted 53 goals, nearly earning an All Australian honour.
Now North are going through a semi-rebuild phase, having turfed club legends Brent Harvey and Drew Petrie, solid 13-year veteran Michael Firrito, and gun recruit Nick Dal Santo.
This year, saw small forwards such as Jy Simpkin and Kayne Turner have proven themselves main stayers, leaving Thomas out of the mix.
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Give every opportunity this year to prove his worth, Thomas has made a meal of it, getting dropped and then suspended for four games in the VFL. Even if Scott decided to drop either Simpkin or Turner, he wouldn’t have the luxury of calling upon Thomas to fill the void.
To put salt in the wound for North, in his comeback game from suspension, Thomas found himself in strife once again, getting suspended for an annoying one game.
This has seen North Melbourne change from a three-man tall forward line, to having Jarrad Waite and Ben Brown surrounded by the likes of young medium-forward Mason Wood, and small forwards Simpkin and Turner.
But even if Simpkin or Turner were dropped or injured, I would not recall Thomas. You would get more competitiveness from yet-to-debut tall half forward Ben Mckay or overlooked big man Majak Daw.
Daw is good around the ground, can do 30-40 per cent in the ruck and genuinely contest in the air. He creates a great target but also a good decoy for Waite or Brown.
Another choice would be the young brute-force Brayden Preuss, who could walk straight into a full-time ruck or full forward position. This would also free up Todd Goldstein to play some dangerous time up forward.
With the Kangaroos going through a rebuild, and a lot of free cap space at the end of this year, as well as numerous draft picks, the club will be looking to land a few big fish.
At 29 years old, Thomas offers only inconsistency and hot-headed acts.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Yeah he should have just sucked it up like his people had for decades. I had no issue with it. It illustrated to people this wasn't just aged recalcitrants doing this sort of thing, it's also young people who are too stupid to know better.
Winston
Guest
Obviously inappropriate, but I can't help but think that's not just people being racist, it's also people feeling he was a goodie goodie for pointing out the 14 year old girl. Nobody likes teachers' pets.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Keep telling yourself that. Everyone who says that is too scared to admit they allowed themselves to participate in overt racist behavior.
Tom M
Guest
Goodes was booed because he exploited the rules for years and the afl stood back and allowed it to happen.
Pope Paul VII
Guest
Selwood is a way more prolific ducker. He is a virtual saint. Rancey pants a stager who parties like it's 1999 getting away with chronic scragging and sneaky tunnelling. Cotchin another AFL pet. Best part of Lin's latest incident was Daw putting away the Carlton bloke who came in late to have a go at Lin.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Goodes was booed because he was an aboriginal man showing pride in his culture
anon
Roar Pro
In between the sliding into players, ducking for free kicks, stinking it up in games that count, cheap shots off the ball, what's not to love. What gets me is why he wasn't booed like Goodes was? Goodes was booed because the AFL wouldn't act on his sliding into players legs and general gamesmanship. The crowd took it into their own hands and used targeted booing as a corrective mechanism. A concerted booing effort of Thomas could have eliminated the ugly aspects of his game from the sport far sooner.
Winston
Guest
So glad to see him gone. Didn't he also slide into Gary Rohan to break his leg a few years back? Good riddance.
spruce moose
Guest
Would you say his career has taken a dive?
Arky
Guest
Suspension or no suspension, Thomas was done. There's no reason to continue hoping for Thomas to regain form and goalkicking accuracy when North can be pumping games into the likes of Simpkin, Turner, Garner, Wagner etc.
Josh
Expert
Disagree with the suggestion he hasn't had a "decent" year since 2013. 45, 34 and 37 goals in the last three years have all been above average efforts compared to other small forwards in the league. He is contracted until the end of next year so has a solid eighteen months in which to potentially work himself back into the best 22, and I wouldn't be surprised if he does, being a tenacious player. Likely to finish up at the end of that contract though you'd expect, given he'd be 31 at the start of 2019 and North are unlikely to keep him on unless he's in rippingly good form at that point.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I saw the elbow incident and he was lucky to get a week. Shades of Les Boyd on Daryl Brohman