Gary Ablett has again escaped suspension despite hitting an opponent high with an elbow for the second week in a row, while Nat Fyfe also avoided sanction for a similar incident.
Conversely, North Melbourne’s Sam Durdin will miss a match after accidentally clashing heads with Gary Rohan in a seemingly fair bump to the body.
Are players getting suspended for otherwise legal acts just because their opponent happens to get hurt? Why hasn’t the transition from a Match Review Panel to singular Match Review Officer made this process any easier to understand?
Roar AFL Expert Adrian Polykandrites joined us on the Game of Codes podcast to try and make sense of this MRO madness.
Listen to the debate:
Gary Ablett, who has never been suspended in his career, has narrowly escaped a stint on the sidelines two weeks in a row now after the tribunal downgraded his strike on Dylan Shiel from intentional to careless last week.
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Fyfe famously finished second to Matt Priddis in the 2014 Brownlow medal count by one vote, with fears a controversial suspension in Round 2 would make him the third ineligible ‘winner’ of the award.