The AFL Match Review Officer has left footy followers seeing purple after handing out his findings from the Easter Monday conflict.
Geelong proved far too sturdy towards Hawthorn, nevertheless it was two sling tackles that captured the eye of Michael Christian.
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Geelong’s Gary Rohan slung Changkouth Jiath to the turf halfway via the second quarter whereas Hawthorn’s Will Day slammed Brad Close to the bottom early within the third quarter.
Both incidents had been assessed by Christian with Rohan being provided a one-week ban whereas Day was provided a two-week ban.
Day’s cost was graded as careless with excessive affect and excessive contact, Rohan’s was graded as medium affect reasonably than excessive.
Before we go any additional, right here’s the 2 tackles in query.
Shortly after the rulings had been handed out footy followers had been perplexed as to how differing suspensions had been provided for successfully the identical motion.
The AFL has been sturdy on attempting to take away sling tackles from the sport with a number of stars handed suspensions in season 2023.
But it was the distinction in bans for 2 sling tackles that had followers fuming over the MRO’s findings.
Former participant Will Schofield summed up the sentiments of most when the punishments had been handed down.
“How on earth have those two tackles been penalised differently? Farcical at the MRP,” he wrote.
The Herald Sun’s Tim Michell wrote: “How can Will Day get double the Rohan penalty?”
Hawthorn nice Dermott Brereton was equally as confused as to why Day obtained a harsher penalty than Rohan.
“He takes him down, there’s no sling there. It does look violent, the end bit of it, but he just takes him straight to ground,” Brereton mentioned on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“I don’t think either are intended to injure the opposition. The second one (Day), and people’ll say ‘ooh Hawthorn and Geelong (the rivalry)’, I couldn’t give a fat rat’s (about the teams involved).
“I just thought with the Rohan one, he (Jiath) got slung 270 degrees. The other one, he (Close) just went face-first. Pulled down hard. There was no sling in it.
“Is it dangerous? Probably is, so it’s a hard determination but I can’t understand how one’s worth two (weeks) – which I thought was the lesser (and one’s worth one).”
The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph spoke concerning the tackles on Monday throughout Fox Footy’s protection, labelling it the definition of what the AFL is attempting to stamp out.
“Gary Rohan’s sling tackle is the absolute textbook definition of a tackle the AFL is trying to get out of the game,” Ralph mentioned.
“You pin the arms, you have a secondary action and then you dump your opponent into the ground – and in this case the ball had gone.
“So the only question really the AFL has to answer is whether Jiath’s head hits the ground. It’s not immediately apparent from that angle there, but I think the secondary angle shows that it is more likely.
“So if Michael Christian can find any evidence there that his head hits the ground, he’ll do what he did with Luke Pedlar when he suspended him last week.”
Source: www.news.com.au
