Bachar Houli Suspension

[Matty10]

Bachar Houli Suspension

It may well have been the case.

I feel like George Constanza arguing for an 'I'm sorry" statement after stretching the neck hole of a cashmere sweater.

Maybe the tribunal did not think it was necessary, maybe they had no reason to doubt. All the media took it as an apology. Mark Robinson said it was the best apology he had ever heard (for the first time on AFL 360), and while the audio indicated a great deal of care and concern, he did not actually utter the word 'sorry' or 'apology'. I think Houli was being very careful in what he said.

In any case, the Tribunal took Houli at his word. I just don't think the actions on field match the assessment.


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[Danzar]

It's all a moot point now: Appeal upheld: Houli cops extra whack for strike - AFL.com.au

[Matty10]

It is all very arbitrary.

It seemed to be a four-week act on the day (to many, but not all), but then the whole process became a convoluted mess.

I really hope Houli is not the subject of any crowd agitation from here on out. Leigh Matthews made the comment that a harsher penalty would help his cause in that regard, but what a sad indictment on our sporting public for that to even be a consideration.

From what I heard (but have not read) the comment sections of our national newspapers were full of xenophobic (or anti-Islamic / racist) rhetoric when responding to this issue.


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[Industrial Fan]

Turned into a witch hunt sadly.

My parents don't follow afl and they were aware of it and had heard it was like Barry Halls hit all those years ago.

First suspension in his career. Hall, Hodge or Campbell Brown he is not.

Clumsy brutal hit that deserved weeks but there was an added unnecessary element to the case.

[Thunder Shaker]

Both the character references and the response to those references, which on the optics of the referees, sets a precedent.

It's tough, but you have two extremely high profile people giving a character reference in a sports tribunal hearing that leads to a big reduction in a penalty. We can debate penalty all we want, but this brings in an element into sport that we haven't seen at this level. I'm not saying there has never been referees from high profile people, but the PM, even Waleed? How well do they know Bachar such that it warrants them providing a reference, knowing full well it would attract such attention?

It doesn't sit well and opens the pathway to other players to secure high profile referees to back character in a hearing.

This is probably why the AFL decided to set its own precedent when appealing the sanction. If external character references were ever to become a part of Tribunal deliberations, far fewer suspensions would be imposed because the majority of footballers have a fundamentally good character. This would be a dangerous precedent and the AFL was right to squash this.

What else would be admissible? Someone's got a few convictions or a poor driving record, so let's add a week or two to the penalty?

The only applicable character reference for the Tribunal is the previous conduct history on the football field. External character references are irrelevant and the AFL got this one right in the end.