News Injuries & Suspensions

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For mine the issue with JVR is that he does not appear to look at the ball or if he does it is only right on impact. If he had looked up a couple of times to get a line on the ball that would have worked in his favour as he can then argue he clearly had intent for the ball. He came across Ballard almost at a right angle with a straight arm that then bent at impact as Ballard moved forward and his head and the arm met. The footage by CH 7 from behind the goals in interesting to watch. It gives a much different appearance to the vision looking towards the goals I had seen previously.

Crucial vision emerges ahead of Jacob van Rooyen’s tribunal fight as AFL under threat of becoming ‘hostage to litigation’ | 7NEWS

Suspect the AFL were applying the policy of if you initiate contact and hit the head (even accidently) then you go on report. Similar to when you elect to bump and make head contact. If you don't make head contact life goes on. If you do you get reported. However they appear to have made a complete mess of the hearing and the statement of explanation is not any better.
 
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This was my thinking too. I'm no medical expert, but is it possible that 2 impacts on a scale of 3-4/10, that by themselves wouldn't cause concussion, but combined in a short period of time, do cause concussion? If so, why is the 2nd player suspended for causing concussion, when he only partially contributed to it?

Medical evidence suggests that concussions can and do occur just with physical contact to the body. The head may not be touched. But clearly concussion protocols are applied at varying levels. As per the notorious Zak Butters incident.

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Football has pretty much the least enforcement (not just EPL but any league) so both of you are literally comparing AFL to the bottom of the bin for umpire dissent, but there are plenty of sports more precious about their refs than AFL.

NBA refs give out technical fouls all the time for players and coaches getting too in their face. Compare that to how often 50m penalties are paid for the same thing in our game.
We must be watching different NBA games. More often than not, players and coaches are allowed to question and argue with refs without sanction.

I watch a bit of EPL. Soccer has three issues. Umpire intimidation, fake injuries and diving. Diving has been reduced considerably in recent times because they give you a card. Fake injuries make the players look stupid. I played soccer for a couple of seasons and whack in the shin or ankle at full tilt is not fun. But it is not any worse than anything you get in footy. But they just act to get sympathy or a penalty. I have seen guys roll in agony and then get a can of magic spray on the shin (while still wearing socks and shin guards) then jump up an run away as though nothing happened.

The ref thing looks terrible -10 blokes in circle around the ref pulling his shirt, jabbing him in the chest with a finger, getting right up in his face, telling him he is wrong. The players always complain and say they never touched their opponent or the foul is not fair, or any other whinge they can think of. Meanwhile the replay shows they clearly hacked the guy down. When played openly and cleanly the game is a joy to watch but that other BS just drags it down and certainly does not make it any more entertaining for me.
It's the most popular sport in the world, they must be doing something right in soccer.
 
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Clearly JVR is just trying to strike the ball with the straight arm and bicep clips the head. Big Deal, this is football and happens, it wasn't a deliberate action and shouldn't even be looked at in my opinion. All for protecting the head but not on this example. The tackle/bump has already been outed and now they want to ban players for attempting to strike the ball, give me a break. The AFL is lucky we love SC so much as I wouldn't even watch a single game otherwise, game is turning into a frustrating joke.
 
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We must be watching different NBA games. More often than not, players and coaches are allowed to question and argue with refs without sanction.
I mainly watch the Mavs, so am used to Doncic averaging a tech per four games for umpire dissent.

It's the most popular sport in the world, they must be doing something right in soccer.
Only needing some ground and a round ball-equivalent is a big winner. Not sure attitudes towards refs play a big part in popularity anywhere. ;)
 
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it's the most popular sport in the world, they must be doing something right in soccer.
While I agree that the ruling against JVR seems a bit overboard, using the popularity of a worldwide sport as an argument against a national sport like AFL, especially when it has nothing to do with the attitude to referees is a classic strawman argument. Zero relevancy whatsoever.
 
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When you look at the rules in relation to a marking contest, maybe the rules need to be changed.

View attachment 56786 View attachment 56787
I wonder where "rag dolling" fits under 18.5.2(b). Big forwards routinely push players in the chest in a marking contest when the ball is miles away (eg Tom Hawkins on BZT). Is that "unduly pushing"?
 
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While I agree that the ruling against JVR seems a bit overboard, using the popularity of a worldwide sport as an argument against a national sport like AFL, especially when it has nothing to do with the attitude to referees is a classic strawman argument. Zero relevancy whatsoever.
Yeah, I wasn't talking about JVR at all. You may need to follow the convo trail backwards.
 
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Reckon they’re got every call wrong this week, absolutely remarkable.
I think this is what happens though when you go down a rigid judicial type system, it takes all flexibility out of any decision making. I mean the Newman decision was based on incompetence/inconsistency but because of the judicial system in place, commonsense wasn't able to be used to make the correct call.

This is a football game, not a criminal trial. If an act on the field deserves to be charged under the criminal code then it should be trialed accordingly.

To me this is the AFL running scared of future litigation issues like former footballers Gary Ablett SNR and have over-compensated. I mean for my child to do gymnastics I need to sign waivers/indemnity saying they're not responsible for any injuries etc. Why can't an AFL footballer do the same?
 
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