Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield has gone unpunished for his accidental high shot that knocked out Richmond’s Nick Vlastuin in Saturday’s AFL grand final.
Dangerfield collected the Tigers backman high with what appeared to be a stray elbow after he punched the ball clear at the Gabba, ending Vlastuin’s night before Richmond prevailed by 31 points.
It made for ugly scenes as Vlastuin lay motionless and was slowly taken from the field on a stretcher but, after assessing the incident on Sunday, match review officer Michael Christian deemed Dangerfield’s actions “were not unreasonable in the circumstances”.
Dangerfield was confident he had no case to answer and insisted the incident didn’t weigh on his mind for the rest of the game.
“I didn’t think there was much in it,” Dangerfield told reporters shortly after the final siren.
“I was trying to tap the ball away, there were three Richmond players coming towards me.
“Had it been something there would have been repercussions on the field and for everyone it is just play on, it is a contact sport.”
Victorious coach Damien Hardwick was willing to offer Dangerfield a lifeline when quizzed after the game.
“The hard thing about it from Paddy’s point of view is his arm is up high anyway and there’s a guy coming at him,” Hardwick said.
“Smarter men than me will make those decisions.”
2dogz
Roar Rookie
Poor bugger won’t have any memory of the big day. I believe all of us posters would do the same as Danger did in that situation.
HR
Roar Rookie
I would argue that it wasn't careless. His course of action (punching the ball away) was reasonable in the circumstances, and Vlastuin happened to move left into the path of Dangerfield's elbow. Once Dangerfield had punched the ball, he didn't have time to drop his elbow, and unfortunately he connected with Vlastuin's jaw.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Right decision. Nothing gutless or unreasonable about danger on vlastuin. He hit the ball and instinctively moved his arm to protect his own face in a split second. It was aggressive but defensive and fair. Natural human movement. Shouldn't get suspended for that.
sven
Roar Rookie
agree with u there philby, the situation gave danger a perfect opportunity to clean him up & prob get away with it (not saying he meant to ko him), pretty hard to say definitely deliberate so prob fair call by the mrp
Philby
Guest
It was always going to be an interesting decision. Danger punched the ball first before contacting the player, but then brought his elbow forward to effect a knockout that any Thai boxer would be proud of - and it did appear that his arm and elbow remained strong on the follow through, suggesting it was not so much in defence as attack. However, it looked worst on the super slo-mo. In real-time, the closing speed of the players and imperative to get to the ball first (which he did) meant that realistic alternative options to the contact were quite limited, if non-existent. In the end, this saved Dangerfield from suspension, along with his generally good disciplinary record. It would have been an even more interesting decision had the blow been landed by someone else, e.g. Tom Lynch....
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I thought he was gonna get a week or two, meh.
DTM
Roar Rookie
I understand why Richmond fans don't really care but Christian and the MRP have failed the sport, again. I can see players using Christian's words as a future defence - which will make a further mockery of the system.
sven
Roar Rookie
all valid points dtm, guess no one really cares now its all over, certainly as a tiges man feel its unfortunate vlaustin didnt get to be part of a great game, but long as he's ok its water under the bridge. hopefully nick has a few good seasons left in him & gets to win a few more flags with us
DTM
Roar Rookie
The lack of consistency with the MRP is astounding. Firstly (according to their rules), we determine whether the contact was careless or intentional. I think it was clearly careless. Secondly, whether the contact was severe, high, medium or low impact. Hard to argue anything other than high impact - severe maybe but I would give Danger the benefit here. Finally, whether the contact was high/groin or body. Clearly high. This is a 2 match suspension plain and simple. To not even consider this smacks of favouritism and the MRP should be investigated. I get that Dangerfield is a good bloke, lost the grand final and didn't intend to hurt anyone - but none of that matters if you follow the rules of the MRP. I'm on no witch hunt here - I wanted Geelong to win but they were beaten by a better team. One of my favourite players in the comp is Patrick Dangerfield but we have to apply the rules equally to all players. Imagine the outcry if this had been Toby Greene or Tom Lynch!
sven
Roar Rookie
reckon danger knew what he was doing (not suggesting he meant to ko him), its a cut throat granny & he had a chance to crunch vlaustin & he took it, u would be disappointed if your players didnt take that opportunity to clean a bloke up early in a granny (not saying elbowing to the head is the way to do it, thats just how it went down) ... certainly disrupted our backline for a bit
Circus
Guest
Good onya Pete - trot out the old “you’ve never played footy before defence” ...I’m not going to compare sizes as you seem to want to do, my opinion is he led and connected with the elbow - high, careless and severe....and Trent, don’t need to have super powers to keep the elbow down.
2dogz
Roar Rookie
What was he supposed to do? Teleport? Circus are you the clown?
sven
Roar Rookie
fair call i reckon, danger already having his arm up for legit reason gave them an out, good observation none of the tiges boys arced up so they saw nothing untoward presumably….wouldnt have been surprised if the mrp wanted to look at it further given their past record once theres head contact
2dogz
Roar Rookie
Really Really good news :stoked:
PeteB
Roar Rookie
He punched the ball first. His intention was never the player. Not sure you’ve ever played a game of footy. Perhaps watch in real time instead of slow motion and you might get some idea.
Circus
Guest
Whether it was intended or not it was high and deserving of weeks by any guide... but the MRP/Christian make their own rules
The Brazilian
Roar Rookie
No surprise there.