From Australian Associated Press this afternoon ...
SYDNEY, May 8 AAP - The AFL has moved swiftly to stop any debate on sledging after Essendon's Mark Johnson was wrongly slapped with a 50m penalty for calling Sydney's Amon Buchanan a "weak dog".
The incident occurred midway through the tense final quarter of the Swans' narrow win over the Bombers at Telstra Stadium at Saturday night, 13.16 (94) to 14.4 (88).
Johnson had been penalised for a tackle on Buchanan on the back edge of the centre square and the young Swan stayed down after being accidentally poked in the eye.
A furious Johnson stood over Buchanan, told him to get up and called him a "weak dog" for staying on the ground.
With the match in the balance, umpire Martin Ellis imposed a 50m penalty after telling an astonished Johnson: "You can't call a player a weak dog".
Buchanan kicked a point from the resulting play.
The AFL today reacted quickly to Ellis's decision and said he had blundered despite umpires being allowed to award a 50m penalty for players abusing opponents.
"The umpiring department met this morning and deemed it was a mistake and it should not have been a 50m penalty," an AFL spokesman said.
Bombers coach Kevin Sheedy was bemused by the decision, assuming that Johnson must have sworn at Buchanan.
The four-time premiership-winning coach felt that even swearing shouldn't have resulted in a 50m penalty.
"You would not want to give a free kick for every time a person swears on the footy field, they are not at the nuns' convent if you understand what I am saying," he said.
"We don't want to take our game to the nuns' convent so as far as I am concerned there are areas of the game which need to be looked at."
Sheedy couldn't help delivering a cheeky dig at the AFL for the incident.
"At the end of the week, it has been an ugly week for the AFL and for Sydney, so maybe it was a nice present," he quipped.
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