Hall & Roos to front media at 5.00 today

[Mark Busuttil]

Hall and Roos: Incident Unacceptable

Hall and Roos: Incident Unacceptable

Sydney Swans forward Barry Hall has apologised for striking West Coast defender Brent Staker

[MagpieGreg]

What's with all the conspiracy theories about the impact Hall's comments or injuries will have on the sentence he gets? Give him some credit. He has apologised because it is the right thing to do. He knows he has become a role model as a reformed troubled and angry young man. At least he didn't read a statement prepared by a lawyer or use the word "regrettable" instead of "sorry".

[bloodboy]

OK, though I don't think Bazz should have done what he did and by no means am I someone who gets off on the idea of punch ons, I think this has all been blown out of proportion a fair bit. The way people are carrying on, you would reckon Bazz has clocked some old sheila in the crowd with her own walking stick. It is footy...this stuff happens. Staker, you wanna hang on and try to get under Bazz's skin, watch out bro. Same thing goes for Kirky, or Stevie Baker or whoever is out there trying the niggle. The game is so sanitised these days, it is a tad disappointing that I am reading things from people saying the game is ruined because of this and that it gives kids a bad example...oh puh-lease. It's football, it's life, people make mistakes, @@@@ happens and who ya gonna call?

Nah, ok, seriously, Hally deserves 6 weeks for what he did...he can cop that on the chin (no pun intended) and get on with it. It is really evident that there is absolutely no big issues at footy in the moment that the filth mongers in the media think they can make bucks out of. First that whole blown out of proportion Caroline Wilson issue last week and now this...

[Mark Busuttil]

If it's 10-12 weeks it'll be an absolute farce!

Are you for real - in the whole time I've followed AFL, I reckon when Locket (as a Saint) took Peter Caven's face off is the only worse incident I've seen.
He will get 6-8 weeks minimum & he'll probably get extra because it's Barry Hall.
I'm glad he's sorry - he should be. Don't show sympathy because it's he's only been reported twice since becoming a Swan - it was a mindless & bloody stupid thing to do. Can we afford to be without him for 6-8 weeks? This severly impacts on the Swans ability to finish top 4 - we are up & going & he has shot the Swans in the foot. I hope I'm wrong, but if we make finals & miss top 4, every supporter can quite rightly blame Barry Hall.

I was gutted when I saw it - our own player has sabotaged our season.

The club should suspend him for 8 weeks regardless of what the AFL does to show him the club has a zero tolerance to thuggery. He should spend the first 2-3 weeks of that suspension away from the club too - just so the message sinks in properly. (or tell him if he does it again, he'll be sacked).

I'm not gutted any more - I'm angry He was a co-captain. He was our captain in 05 & held the cup. Would Paul Kelly have done this?
He nearly snapped in round 1 this year too. The guy needs anger management help. I think he has a low tolerance threshhold (I have that - maybe he's a bit autistic like me)

He deserves our distain & needs to earn our respect.

[Mark Busuttil]

Bloodboy - are you for real. This is about as bad as it gets. You obviously haven't followed AFL very long (I followed the Swans in 1980 when they were South Melbourne).

[mcs]

I would be very disappointed and saddened if it was 10-12 weeks- would be very excessive if you ask me. For a punishment like that I think it would need to be far worse then that- as bad as it was. I think 6-8 fits the crime much more fairly. To lose him for 1/2 the season, no matter how bad it was would be a piece of poor judgement and an overeaction from the judiciary, but again it wouldnt suprise me.

[Bas]

What's with all the conspiracy theories about the impact Hall's comments or injuries will have on the sentence he gets? Give him some credit. He has apologised because it is the right thing to do. He knows he has become a role model as a reformed troubled and angry young man. At least he didn't read a statement prepared by a lawyer or use the word "regrettable" instead of "sorry".

I agree.

People forget that aussie rules IS A CONTACT SPORT!

Sooner or later a player will have a brain explosion when heavily tagged. Even Matthew Lloyd has done it. Get over it.

Barry will cop hopefully only 6 and be bag for the run into the finals. He will probably have the opportunity now to sue the AFL for allowing a dangerous workplace. Don't bet letters of negotiation don't get run across the Fat Controllers desk about that one. Less weeks and we don't sue.

He has said sorry, bring on next week

[DeadlyAkkuret]

This whole incident is being blown out of proportion and quite frankly I think the media is making things worse. The ammount of articles on one hit is ridiculous, these things do happen and I've seen worse incidents in NFL and NHL matches but the player usually isn't forced to apologise to the entire country.

He snapped, will cop 6 weeks or so and that's all this case deserves. Australia as a sporting country is so precious.

[goswannie14]

This whole incident is being blown out of proportion and quite frankly I think the media is making things worse. The ammount of articles on one hit is ridiculous, these things do happen and I've seen worse incidents in NFL and NHL matches but the player usually isn't forced to apologise to the entire country.

He snapped, will cop 6 weeks or so and that's all this case deserves. Australia as a sporting country is so precious.

I agree, and there has been an overreaction on this site too IMO.

It wasn't what you want to see every week, but it happens, it also happens in NRL, Super 12's, Soccer, basketball etc etc.

No excuses, it happened, let's all move on as the team has too without Hall for the next 6-10 weeks.

The only real disappointment is that Hunter wasn't on the receiving end.

[bloodboy]

Bloodboy - are you for real. This is about as bad as it gets. You obviously haven't followed AFL very long (I followed the Swans in 1980 when they were South Melbourne).

Hahaha...you obviously weren't watching too many games then Mark. I have followed the Swans and the game my whole life and a punch, whilst not on, has never been front page news. The reason you think this is as bad as it gets is because you have been sucked in to all of the media hype...

[anne]

What hope has Hall got when even supporters of his own team have hung, drawn and quartered him. OK, he did it, has admitted it was wrong and that he is willing to take his punishment. Under the current tribunal system, using the gradings available it is a 4 week suspension. Why are people calling for more? The system used now must be implemented and cannot suddenly be ignored or tampered with just because his punch actually connected! That would threaten the integrity of the system and set a dangerous precedent. It cannot change mid-season just to suit a specific incident.

[stellation]

What hope has Hall got when even supporters of his own team have hung, drawn and quartered him. OK, he did it, has admitted it was wrong and that he is willing to take his punishment. Under the current tribunal system, using the gradings available it is a 4 week suspension. Why are people calling for more? The system used now must be implemented and cannot suddenly be ignored or tampered with just because his punch actually connected! That would threaten the integrity of the system and set a dangerous precedent. It cannot change mid-season just to suit a specific incident.

I haven't really paid too much attention to the media hysteria surrounding it, but from what I can gather the figure of 4 weeks would be about the verdict from the Match Review Panel unless they feel the incident falls meets pre-determined criteria in which case it will be refered to the tribunal and may attract greater than 4 weeks.
I believe the debate about the criteria it may meet that would force the MRP to send it to the tribunal is around whether Staker was "unsuspecting" of the incident, which is fairly open to interpretation; either of course he was suspecting because he had been niggling with Hall or of course he was not suspecting because a punch on the chin was so out of line you would never expect it.

[NMWBloods]

4 weeks is under the MRP system. The tribunal can give him whatever they like.

[Damien]

4 weeks is under the MRP system. The tribunal can give him whatever they like.

Mike Sheehan said that if it wasn't referred and Hall pleaded guilty, it could be 3 weeks lol Obviously that isn't going to happen!

[goswannie14]

4 weeks is under the MRP system. The tribunal can give him whatever they like.

Which as Rohan Connolly points out could make a farce of the whole MRP system. It really is a bit silly having two parallel systems in place.

But back in the real world, the issue now is how the match review panel system survives this. Under the MRP guidelines, even a ruling of an intentional strike, high impact and high contact on Hall's strike, given his lack of a conviction in the past five seasons, means four games, and with the guilty plea he has already offered, just three.

That clearly isn't going to satisfy the masses. But to refer an incident directly to the tribunal, the MRP has to conclude it was severe. As dramatic as the Hall-Staker footage appears, the West Coast player hasn't had his jaw broken, and may even play next weekend. If this goes straight to the tribunal, so, logically, will every incident in which the player offended against suffers some serious physical damage.

An MRP-imposed sanction will bring inevitable "soft on crime"-type cries. But a tribunal hearing and the inevitable media circus won't exactly be music to an image-conscious AFL's ears either. Ears that are already surely burning from a tide of hysteria, and the bleatings of self-appointed moral police who, as usual in these matters, shoot first, ask questions later.

Article already quoted elsewhere.