Never waste a season where you won't make finals, develop kids, send guys in for surgery early, get a better draw (22 round season) pick up better draft picks, all helps for next season :-)
But we may suddenly turn it around albeit so far this year we've only beaten the likely Wooden Spooner by three points!
The AFL is changing the wording for the sling tackle to take into account the potential to cause injury. We have been saying this for years. They knew the Burgoyne decision was wrong. He was very lucky.
I think this is a bit of a cop-out to avoid criticising the MRO.
I reckon he could have graded impact on the Burgoyne tackle higher on the current words had he chosen to do so. The words already said (and continue to say) ‘strong consideration will be given to the potential to cause injury’. And also ‘The absence of injury does not preclude the classification of impact as Severe.’
They have now amended the examples by replacing ‘Spear tackles’ and ‘Driving an opponent into the ground when his arms are pinned’ by the words ‘Any dangerous tackle'.
So now it it is a tautology: consideration will be given to potential to cause injury from a dangerous tackle.
We will still be left with the subjective judgement of the MRO of what is a dangerous tackle
The horse (not ours) has bolted. Leaving aside Hawks supporters, 99% of thinking football followers knew that was a one game suspension, including all bar one person at AFL House.
After letting off Hawthorn, the AFL decides the wording of the crime is too loose - well it was loose all pre season! These HQ guys are on eye watering salaries and can't do anything right! Reduce their numbers and pay packets substantially and save players from list size reductions.
I just had a good laugh. McGovern appealed his suspension saying he was trying to grab Sexton's jumper. So he tried to grab his jumper with a clenched fist to his face!
Yes, by about six months old, most babies have learnt that to pick up an object, you leave your hands open until you reach the object and then close your hand on arrival. A highly trained professional athlete, claiming that he hasn't mastered the art of grasping, didn't seem to be the most sensible tactic.
Actually, I was a bit disappointed that he didn't also cop a fine for staging. While Sexton did seem to make some sort of contact, it looked like the impact was greatly exaggerated by McGovern.
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Maybe he's also had a coffee with Clarkson.
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