GWS v Swans

[stevoswan]

I can't believe these 2 results. Goodes gets career pilloried for "sliding in" yet here is Fyfe doing nothing different. This rule was brought in when the Collingwood player (cant remember his name) suffered quite a significant neck injury. The North player had his head down going for the ball and Fyfe came from a long way off to "go low". Spare me please.

As for Hodge... he has already gone for a serious offence this season. Doesn't that count for anything. This fine business and softening of penalties is a recipe for a very serious injury to a player. 3 "tough" men of a bygone era officiating on MRP. Maybe they should add some credibility and appoint a 4th... Leigh Matthews.

Agree with you on Hodge, but not on Fyfe. He slid in low because the ball was low, that was his object, not Jacobs, who did his best soccer player impression post contact to milk the free and a fifty. I personally think the 'sliding in/going low' rule is a crock of @@@@, as it discourages bravery at the ball. The brave player gets to the ball first, the second player meekly( or roughly) falls over the top of him, usually head high, and gets rewarded. Madness! I know this isn't so relevant in the Fyfe/Jacobs incident, but it is in so many others situations. On a side note, I thought that rule was brought in after Rohan had his leg broken by Thomas?

[AnnieH]

I don't like the new MRP fine system.
As much as it's killing me to say so, bring back the old system and suspend players where it is warranted.
Fyfe should have gotten two weeks and been out of contention for the brownlow.
(Leaving our young Joey to romp it in.)

[Bloodthirsty]

Hodge - what a joke. Who was it here that said imagine the same incident but Wingard=Hodge and Hodge=Goodes? Exactamondo my friend. Imagine.

[dimelb]

... 3 "tough" men of a bygone era officiating on MRP. Maybe they should add some credibility and appoint a 4th... Leigh Matthews.

Talk about Satan rebuking sin!

[i'm-uninformed2]

Hodge 'careless'. Laughable. The AFL via Mark Evans has the right to appeal these decisions but wait . . . Where's he graduated from.

Every player that ever gets a charge with a grading above careless should contest it and cite the Hodge case as precedent.

I admire Hodge greatly as a player but that was one of the most dangerous things seen on a footy field.

[dejavoodoo44]

Both Hodge and his partner in crime, Mitchell, seem to have an awful lot of accidents, don't they? But what most accident prone people might find a bit strange, is that the injuries from the accidents always seem to happen to other people, not the supposedly relentlessly clumsy, Hodge and Mitchell.

[Ludwig]

I think the Fyfe decision was inconsistent, but the common sense decision. Most similar incidents got a week or a fine, but few got off. The general rule has been is that if you go past the ball and make head high contact of any sort, you are are going to at least cop a fine. But the fans want to see the best player win the Brownlow, and that's Nat Fyfe this year. If he does miss out, it will be due to his Mitchell injury and related drop off in form. Would be ironic if Mitchell beat him for the Brownlow this year. The Swans also got one of these favourable decisions with Barry Hall's tummy tap, which was also orchestrated by the AFL so the top players get to play in the GF.

Generally speaking, the Hodge penalty of 2 weeks was consistent with similar incidents with head high contact where the player involved wasn't seriously injured. Brown on Parker also looked very bad and Brown would have gotten more time had Parker been concussed. So both incidents were judged the same as far as the penalty goes, Hodge getting an extra week due to a poor record.

Dermott Brereton, true to form, said Wingard dropping his head contributed to the impact. I'm surprised he didn't call for Wingard to charged for staging.

[CureTheSane]

I'm OK with Fyfe.

However Hodge had intent to me.
Maybe not intent to do exactly what happened, but his intent was to whack the Wingard, and he did.

My analogy of the AFL would be to doing the wrong thing while driving... "yeah, he was speeding when he had the car accident, but it was only minor low impact bumper damage. For us to throw the book at him, he really needs to have seriously injured someone, otherwise it's not so bad"

[Wardy]

I'm hopeful that Hawks play WC in the first week of finals and they smash the crap out of each other! (I know I shouldn't wish such things but I want someone to give Hodge what's coming to him)

[Mug Punter]

I'm hopeful that Hawks play WC in the first week of finals and they smash the crap out of each other! (I know I shouldn't wish such things but I want someone to give Hodge what's coming to him)

I see no problem wishing for this

[Ludwig]

I'm hopeful that Hawks play WC in the first week of finals and they smash the crap out of each other! (I know I shouldn't wish such things but I want someone to give Hodge what's coming to him)

I'm hoping that Dermott Brereton and Eddie McGuire are the commentators for the game and they smash the crap out of each other.

[Bloodthirsty]

I'm hoping that Dermott Brereton and Eddie McGuire are the commentators for the game and they smash the crap out of each other.

Smashing the crap out of Eddie is a full-time, long-term contract job. It requires a team of hundreds of employees working overtime. When an employee reaches retirement age, he hands over the job to his sons, and his sons' sons. It is a generational committment, requiring infinite man-hours and highly-skilled engineers, overseeing each stage. Documentary series such as "World's Greatest Feats" and "Wonders of Engineering" would feature this process.

Such is the amount of crap in Eddie.