Quote Originally Posted by liz View Post
Strange comment for Eddie to come out with. I'd be less surprised if certain other players made comments like this, but Betts has never seemed to be the kind of player who relies on these kinds of tactics.

If one accepts that Gaff "isn't the kind of bloke who'd do this" (which seems to be the widely accepted view), surely every player in the competition who likes to get in a little hook now and again should realise that this could so easily have been him.

Him who gets to sit out a finals series, and maybe a grand final. Or has maybe cost his team the chance to play in a grand final.

Him who has to live with the knowledge that they've seriously injured an opposition colleague in a completely unnecessary incident.

Him who, regardless of any goodwill toward him, has lost the benefit of the doubt if they are involved in any future off-the-ball incident, even one with less severe consequences.
I was looking at it in terms of legal ramifications. If the best small forward in the AFL says punching (off-the-ball) is part of the game, then no one could argue in court that punching your opponent off the ball is not. He even provides a defence for Gaff - that he never intended to hit Brayshaw in the head, it was a "normal" behind play punch gone wrong.

You are right that other players take this sort of risk when they hit with a clenched fist. I'd like to see any contact with a clenched fist off-the-ball banned. It would save other players from having to put themselves in Gaff's place and also mean the next Gaff couldn't argue that it's part of the game.