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Elbows into the ribcage. Shoulder blades and elbows into the spine. Fist punches into the body. Palm punches all over the body bar the face.
Slinging players off the ball into the ground. It must be within the laws of the game right? These off the ball incidents occur right in front of the Umpires, they are frequent, very rarely do they get reported.
Enter page four of the 2017 Tribunal Guidelines where multiple criteria need to be ticked for players to be punished.
Let’s start ticking the boxes?
Rough conduct? Tick.
Intentional? Tick.
Impact? Medium or Low. Tick.
Body? Tick.
Should players be punished? Yes. Are the rules being enforced? No. So the rough conduct is condoned. This means players are not protected from rough conduct and it will happen again until rules are enforced.
Some players careers may end sooner as there injured body parts are constantly attacked in off the ball events.
Here are some other problems. Kids are watching these games. Emulating their hero’s in games and at home. Parents watch the game and think to themselves, Aussie rules or Soccer. Pretty clear cut choice for some of the mums and dads out there. Why should little Jimmy be a boxing bag on an Aussie rules footy pitch?
And what of the two punches to the face of players in the past two weeks. Just coincidence? Take Tom Bugg’s head punch on Callum Mills. Bugg will probably get 6-7 weeks from the AFL and rightfully so. But what of Callum Mills part in all this?
The off the ball elbow to the rib cage is an interesting one. Must have hurt or at the very least aggravated Bugg. Without this rough conduct off the ball, there is no retaliation head punch from Tom Bugg.
To get rid of the severe incidents, a mature organisation cracks down on the medium-low incidents.
If I were king, that is exactly what would happen, a far tougher line would be taken for off the ball rough conduct.
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