- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The AFL looks set to be free to use the Devils nickname for the new Tasmanian club after Warner Bros. reached out to the league.
After years of advocating, Tasmania was last week finally granted a licence by the AFL, with a 19th men’s team on track to join the national competition in 2028.
Attention immediately turned to what the newest club would be called, with the Tasmanian Devils emerging as the logical and popular option.
But there was speculation the Devils name would be off-limits because Warner Bros. own the commercial copyright for their world-famous cartoon character, Taz.
Outgoing AFL boss Gillon McLachlan last week said he was confident the issue could be worked through if the club wished to be called the Devils.
Warner Bros. have given a reason for McLachlan’s optimism.
“The Tasmanian Devil (“Taz”) is an iconic Looney Tunes character and Warner Bros. appreciates the AFL’s acknowledgement and respect of our registered rights,” a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson told AAP on Tuesday.
“We have reached out to the league and we look forward to a happy solution shortly.”
The AFL and the Tasmanian government will appoint a board in coming weeks, which will be in charge of choosing the name.
Tasmania’s bid got across the line after the federal government chipped in $240 million for a contentious $715 million new waterfront stadium in Hobart.
The stadium was the final piece required by the AFL before approving the licence, which was unanimously backed by the 18 existing club presidents.
Port Adelaide forward Junior Rioli faces a lengthy suspension after being sent directly to the AFL tribunal for striking Essendon’s Jordan Ridley while he has also been left “distressed” after becoming the latest Indigenous player to be racially vilified.
Rioli was targeted by a racist online post after Sunday’s game against Essendon. “The Port Adelaide Football Club condemns the racial post directed at Junior Rioli last night,” a club statement said. “Racism does not belong in our society and nor in our national game.
“Racist comments like these cause deep distress and harm. We will continue to call this reprehensible behaviour out and use our voice to educate our fans and the broader community.”:
Port said Rioli, his family and all Indigenous people within the club were distressed by the latest in a string of racists incidents in the game.
CLICK HERE for a seven-day free trial to watch the AFL on Kayo Sports.
The vilification came a day after the AFL announced it had increased the penalty for racial abuse from three-year bans to lifetime bans for perpetrators.
Nine racist supporters have already been banned for life this year with at least six others being investigated.
Numerous Indigenous players have been targeted in the past month including Western Bulldogs forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Adelaide’s Izak Rankine and Fremantle pair Michael Walters and Nathan Wilson.
On football matters, Rioli will front the tribunal on Tuesday night after he put on a block on for leading teammate Jeremy Finlayson during the Power’s win at Adelaide Oval on Sunday and threw out an arm which caught Ridley high.
The Bombers defender fell to the turf and had to be helped off the ground before he was substituted out of the match.
Essendon expect Ridley to miss multiple games because of concussion as a result of the off-the-ball incident.
On Monday, AFL match review officer Michael Christian graded Rioli’s actions as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.
Junior Rioli. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
The AFL will argue Rioli should be banned for at least three matches, and possibly more.
The 27-year-old has kicked 10 goals in eight matches in his first season with Port Adelaide following a high-profile switch from West Coast.
It came after a turbulent few years, during which Rioli served a two-year doping suspension and pleaded guilty in court to drug possession.
Rioli’s Power teammate Connor Rozee was offered a $2500 fine making careless contact with an umpire. It is Rozee’s third such offence.
Two rival coaches have joined past greats in calling for Melbourne youngster Jacob van Rooyen to have his two-match suspension for striking overturned by the AFL tribunal.
Van Rooyen was cited by the match review officer over a spoiling attempt in a marking contest that led to Gold Coast’s Charlie Ballard being taken off the field on a stretcher.
Match review officer Michael Christian assessed the incident as careless conduct, high contact and high impact. The Demons will challenge van Rooyen’s ban at the tribunal on Tuesday night.
GWS coach Adam Kingsley and Fremantle’s Justin Longmuir told Fox Footy the 20-year-old should be cleared.
“He’d be stiff to miss. It looks like he’s really trying to go for the ball,” Kingsley said. “The only thing is where are his eyes, what’s his intent? You typically judge a player’s intent through their eyes.
“It feels like, to me, he was trying to compete and get the ball to ground. Did it look like it was suspendable? Probably not in my view.”
Longmuir agreed with his coaching counterpart.
“The thing that hurts him in that case is the fact that he took his eyes off the ball, but usually that’s just a free kick,” Longmuir said.
“I do like the way the AFL have looked after the head and concussion in particular. But I think we can draw the line that it’s probably a footy act and he was trying to make a play on the ball.”
Ballard hurt his neck in the incident but was not concussed and is expected to play in the Suns’ clash with West Coast on Friday night.
Collingwood great Nathan Buckley said slow-motion footage will help Melbourne prove van Rooyen was contesting the ball, as opposed to trying to strike his opponent.
Brisbane legend Jonathan Brown said a suspension for van Rooyen would mean the game has “become a hostage to litigation” amid ongoing legal battles around concussion.
“That is a football accident and if that is where we are going as a game, that is concerning,” Brown told Fox Footy. “That is taking nothing away from people that are suffering long-term injuries to the head and all those sorts of things.
“But we cannot legislate everything out of our great game, otherwise we are changing the fabric (of it).”
Apart from van Rooyen and Port Adelaide forward Junior Rioli, Carlton’s Nic Newman will challenge a one-match ban for striking Brisbane’s Lachie Neale and Geelong’s Brad Close will contest his one-match ban for rough conduct over a dangerous tackle.
Neale was given a free kick for the third-quarter incident as Brisbane players rushed to remonstrate with Newman, whose action was graded as intentional conduct, low impact and high contact.
Close was charged with rough conduct over a dangerous tackle on Adelaide’s Jordan Dawson in Saturday’s match at GMHBA Stadium.
Hawthorn’s Tyler Brockman accepted his own one-match ban for a dangerous slinging tackle on Fremantle’s Brandon Walker at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
The Close and Brockman incidents were both assessed as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.
Nine Collingwood and Sydney players were fined for their roles in a melee during Sunday’s MCG thriller.
The group included Swans small forward Tom Papley, who was charged as the instigator and can accept a $1500 fine.
North Melbourne co-captain Jy Simpkin can accept a $1000 fine for misconduct against St Kilda’s Mattaes Phillipou at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
Richmond defender Nathan Broad feels for some rival players banned over dangerous tackles and believes he still owes his AFL club after missing four matches through suspension.
Broad served the longest ban of the season to date following his two-motion sling tackle which concussed Adelaide’s Patrick Parnell in round two.
A growing number of players have been rubbed out amid a crackdown on slinging and dumping actions that put opponents at risk of injury, in particular concussion.
But Broad believes many of the incidents that have attracted match review officer scrutiny have contained elements of bad luck as players navigate their way through tighter rule interpretations.
“Mine was a bit different because it was a second motion (in the tackle) and you should know (not to do) that,” Broad told AAP.
“But I really do feel sorry for some of these blokes when they’re getting weeks because it’s a split-second thing in the moment. The game’s going so bloody fast and these things are going to happen.
“We know they’re going to happen, we sign up for it, it’s a 360-degree contact sport so they are going to happen. But it’s getting harder to umpire and it’s getting harder to play. We’ll keep going and keep trying.”
Broad was a key contributor in Richmond’s much-needed win over West Coast last weekend, in his second game back from suspension.
He blanketed dangerous forward Jack Darling as the Tigers snapped a five-match losing streak.
The 30-year-old defender will be important to Richmond’s chances of upsetting Geelong on Friday night and is desperate to repay his teammates after missing a month of football.
“One hundred per cent (I still owe the team),” Broad said.
Patrick Parnell is tackled by Nathan Broad. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
“It (the Parnell tackle) was an action that I knew as soon as I did it that I was done.
“I was more disappointed firstly for what I did to him (Parnell) and you don’t like to see him knocked out, but what I did for the team too. I let them down and we went on a losing streak and you can’t be there to help them out.
“I was very disappointed but now I’m just trying to make up for it as much as I can.”
Broad said limiting Eagles forward Darling to one goal from four disposals gave him confidence to take the fight to Geelong superstars Tom Hawkins and Jeremy Cameron.
© AAP
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.