I tend to think that we saw in quick succession, two aspects of one person. That is, in his actions, it seemed like he did want to maliciously inflict some damage, but almost instantaneously, he realised what he did and was genuinely sorry for his actions. Which can happen, if the sections of a person's brain that are responsible for moral reasoning, such as the prefrontal cortex, are not fully engaged and are not effectively inhibiting more primal areas, such as the amygdala. Then once somebody sees the result of their actions, morality can immediately kick back in. And playing a high intensity contact sport, it is more likely that a person will be running largely on instinct. Though of course, people will vary greatly, in their propensity to inflict damage.
Anyway, even though I haven't re-watched the footage, my initial impression, was that his aggression and remorse, were both genuine.
Titus O'Reily's view on the matter.....(before the verdict).
"With Gary Ablett confined to punching and elbowing people off the field this week, it was nice to see Tom Hawkins pay him homage with a weird strike to Jordan Dawson’s head.
Will Hawkins get suspended? Well, given the consistency of the Match Review Officer, he could be offered anything from life in jail to the Nobel Peace Prize."
He got the peace prize.....
https://www.titusoreily.com/afl/the-...l-round-eleven
Wasn’t much in it Re Hawkins
Stupid - yes
Dumb - yes
Careless - yes
Not much intensity nor ferocity to it though
I appreciated the posts of Markwebbos, Ralph Dawg and Hotpotato in this thread. Thanks guys!
Not so much the whinging about umpires. What's the point? All it does is making everyone feel worse without changing anything. And every supporter group does it almost every match (noting for instance that he had the impression that Geelong had been hard done by the umpires this match based on being surrounded by their supporters and hearing their reactions).
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