- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Opinion
The AFL tribunal has always made polarising calls, but this week has simply put the cherry on top of the proverbial inconsistency sundae.
Willie Rioli was let off for a sickening hit on Matt Rowell that, while appearing accidental, was still careless and dangerous.
On the other hand, Mitch Robinson was suspended for another sickening collision with Xavier Duursma in an act that a couple of years ago would’ve been dubbed ‘just putting his head over the footy’.
Rioli’s hit was just shocking, and the fact that the play didn’t result in a free kick is an injustice in itself, but that’s a whole different argument. At the end of the day his representation argued that it was unavoidable and that his intention was just to win the footy at all costs, which in itself is a terrible excuse if winning the footy results in what could’ve been a major concussion for Matt Rowell.
Rowell committed to the footy thinking he would be protected by the umpires. He wasn’t. Rioli committed to the footy with a massive leap, but at a certain point he took his eyes off it and made not even a small attempt to mark the ball once he realised it couldn’t be done. He created frontal contact that is a free kick in all sense of the rule.
It was careless and, according to AFL head protection guidelines, warranted a suspension.
(Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
It was controversial when he was let off, but at least common sense would prevail and Robinson would also be let off to provide some consistency – or so one assumed.
Wrong.
Even though Brisbane presented the same argument that Robinson was simply committing to the footy, saw what was coming, braced and made accidental dangerous contact, unlike in the Rioli case, the judiciary did not buy it and the suspension was upheld.
Simply laughable.
Whether or not they deserved to be suspended in the first place is irrelevant. It is just simply disgusting that the tribunal is able to look at two extremely similar cases with almost exactly the same defences less than a few hours apart and yet make different decisions.
This comes just six months after the tribunal made another controversial call suspending Toby Greene for making inappropriate contact with an umpire. When the original call of three weeks was not enough in the opinion of the AFL, they stepped in and sent a message to the league by doubling it to six weeks. The act clearly conveyed that the league itself had a zero-tolerance policy for disrespecting umpires and touching them at all, let alone shoulder barging them as they walk past.
So in turn, if the AFL is serious about protecting players’ heads and concussion in general, then they must step in and appeal this. One player sits on the sidelines while another gets off scot-free despite committing a seriously careless act that resulted in dangerous contact to the head – and again I will restate that according to AFL head protection guidelines actions such as these result in suspension, no ifs or buts about it.
If the AFL doesn’t step in and do something, the whole system will have been exposed as a joke.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.
As a Carlton supporter, this is probably Sam Pang's idea of Hell!
Sometimes after 120 minutes of blood, sweat, tears and momentum swings, our game makes it so that none of that really matters. With three…
Luke Hodge certainly thought so!
Was the big American unlucky?
