AFL to change punching rules midseason.

[John Crow Batty 8,880]

Those morons at AFL House have finally woken up.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-to-introduce-midseason-rule-change-to-crack-down-on-punching-20170523-gwautt.html

Edited May 23, 2017 by america de cali
Spelling

[Moonshadow 17,678]

Another reactive shifting of goal posts by Gill. Next they'll tighten up on hair lengths 

Edited May 23, 2017 by Moonshadow

[FireInTheBennelly 4,101]

Couldn't wait till after the rematch hey.

[censored]

[Sir Why You Little 37,306]

My hatred of Arden St just went up about 30% (if that's possible!!)

so angry. This was a deliberate exploitation of a flimsy rule directed at a "soft" MFC Target

it's time to stand up MFC or i won't be renewing Memberships, grow some balls NOW!

[FireInTheBennelly 4,101]

Zaharakis was suspended last year for a stomach punch. This [censored] AFL line that the MRP didn't have a mechanism to suspend players for stomach punches is a load of crap. They can and they have, in this instance they CHOSE not to.

[Willmoy1947 4,198]

Anyone else getting free voucher from AFL or is this not unusual??

[#11-TonyAnderson 860]

Bet Bernie would have gone if it was the other way round!

[Akum 2,660]

Love the way that Gill comes up with this revelation after, not before, this week's MRP decision.

North targeted our younger players and got off Scott-free. They must be absolutely crowing over there. This is just what I mean about the squeaky wheel getting the grease.

[beelzebub 23,390]

1 hour ago, america de cali said:

Those morons at AFL House have finally woken up.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-to-introduce-midseason-rule-change-to-crack-down-on-punching-20170523-gwautt.html

not really woken up...just decided to put the detour sign up before anyone got ideas about retaliations towards protected species !!

[Vogon Poetry 2,095]

If we'd done it and won we'd be praising the "unsociable" football.  I think the whole issue has gone on far too long but I'm glad it's being dealt with and couldn't give a stuff that North players aren't suspended.  I wouldn't do us any good. It's unbelievable the umpire didn't reverse the free to Cunnington and give it to Vince.  Maybe the MFC doctors followed the Demonland advice and didn't sink Cunnington in their medical report.  Some want it all ways.

Salem must feel unlucky.  Nothing in it beyond a fine.

[monoccular 17,642]

Any guesses from which club the first player suspended will come?

The same club that pioneered the suspension for sling tackle (Trengove v Dungfield, so severely concussed - until the tribunal verdict  - that he was BOG with 6 goals the following week) and the only club to have a player suspended for wrestling if I recall correctly (Jacovich in a practice game).

[Akum 2,660]

9 hours ago, Vogon Poetry said:

If we'd done it and won we'd be praising the "unsociable" football.  I think the whole issue has gone on far too long but I'm glad it's being dealt with and couldn't give a stuff that North players aren't suspended.  I wouldn't do us any good. It's unbelievable the umpire didn't reverse the free to Cunnington and give it to Vince.  Maybe the MFC doctors followed the Demonland advice and didn't sink Cunnington in their medical report.  Some want it all ways.

Salem must feel unlucky.  Nothing in it beyond a fine.

I for one would not be praising if we'd done it and won. That was nothing like "unsociable football", that was thuggery orchestrated by a thug coach taking advantage of a stupid MRP ruling made to justify an unjustifiable failure to suspend a favoured player. Unless you define "unsociable football" as thuggery that you happen to get away with. Clarko always defined it as going right up to the line but not beyond it.

If we'd done it, it would still have been thuggery, and I'd have been disgusted if that's what it took to win a game.

[Vogon Poetry 2,095]

10 hours ago, Akum said:

If we'd done it, it would still have been thuggery, and I'd have been disgusted if that's what it took to win a game.

I'm sure that there are many on here who wouldn't have supported the sort of tactic NM applied to us if the shoe had been on the other foot.  But I am surprised at your comments because you seemed to take a quite different approach with Hogan and Lewis when they were reported for punching Cripps and Rowe.  If I read your comments correctly you defended them on the basis that something happen to cause such a reaction but I note you don't apply the same causation in this situation. Cunnington hit Vince and that he wasn't reported let alone have the free kick reversed is unacceptable to me but lets face it, Bernie has been known to play hard and "yap".  I would assume if you defended Hogan and Lewis you'd by logical extension have to defend Cunnington.

Whilst I thought Salem was unlucky he was silly to do it and seemed to be the victim in what was a spiteful match from both teams.

[Akum 2,660]

19 minutes ago, Vogon Poetry said:

I'm sure that there are many on here who wouldn't have supported the sort of tactic NM applied to us if the shoe had been on the other foot.  But I am surprised at your comments because you seemed to take a quite different approach with Hogan and Lewis when they were reported for punching Cripps and Rowe.  If I read your comments correctly you defended them on the basis that something happen to cause such a reaction but I note you don't apply the same causation in this situation. Cunnington hit Vince and that he wasn't reported let alone have the free kick reversed is unacceptable to me but lets face it, Bernie has been known to play hard and "yap".  I would assume if you defended Hogan and Lewis you'd by logical extension have to defend Cunnington.

Whilst I thought Salem was unlucky he was silly to do it and seemed to be the victim in what was a spiteful match from both teams.

With Hogan & Lewis, I just wondered at the time what could possibly have been said to them that made them react in such a bizarre way. Every one of Hogan's opponents says things to him to try to put him off. He might complain about not getting frees, but he just doesn't hit back off the ball. I wondered what Rowe might have said to him that made him snap, and the only thing that occurred to me was something about his family. But the club was silent so there's no point in pushing it. The thing about Lewis on Cripps was that Viney, who was within earshot, ran past Cripps after Lewis decked him and pushed him to the ground, so he wasn't happy with whatever was said either. Lewis has a chequered past with the MRP, but not for hitting someone off the ball after they said something (more for high tackles or hits in the course of play). Again I wondered what might have been said to rile him enough to punch him off the ball rather than just throw him to the ground. But again the club was silent. They were both "heat of the moment" incidents where something was clearly said to them that caused them to react, in a way neither of them had done before.

To me, North used illegal physical force as an orchestrated strategy, indicated by Scott saying after the game that Cunnington was safe because of the MRP precedents about jumper punches (and gut punches and throat punches). When Higgins decked Bernie and Bernie got a free, Higgins complained to the umpire, seeming to indicate that it was a throat punch (so, by implication, it shouldn't be penalised). Likewise, Higgins decking Oliver early on wasn't an accident, it was part of a deliberate strategy to target our young players. That they got away with it Scott-free makes me disgusted (as does the failure of the club's leadership to stand up for its players), and I'd be equally as disgusted if we went after young players in any side as an orchestrated strategy, even if we got away with it and won. Bernie was hit not because of anything he said, but to get him to "back off".

[Vogon Poetry 2,095]

4 minutes ago, Akum said:

 Bernie was hit not because of anything he said, but to get him to "back off".

We're going over old ground but really if you defend Lewis and Hogan who inflicted significant damage on Rowe and Cripps it's hard to sink NM in my opinion. NM went hard and frankly while I don't support that it gave us an experience we could well benefit from.

Frankly I thought what Hogan (excused) and Lewis did was very significantly worse than Cunnington and while Cunnington should have been suspended he at least didn't go the head.

Your assertion seems to be that Hogan and Lewis responded to words and Cunnington was supporting his team mate who was copping significant niggle from Vince.  In my book Cunnington comes out ahead.

[Ron Burgundy 8,587]

Cunnington and Higgins should both have been rubbed. The MRP failed to do so - simply pathetic application of the rules by them.

It was a bad look. Hence, the AFL's statement to remind everyone of the 'rules' including the inept individuals on the MRP.

Dead set, a half wit at the pub would get these decisions correct more often than the MRP.

 

[dees189227 12,453]

I just hated the look when cunnington punched Vince in the stomach like that.  I wonder if Melbourne contacted the umps dpt seeking some answers about non free kicks and questionable decisions. 

[Akum 2,660]

45 minutes ago, Vogon Poetry said:

We're going over old ground but really if you defend Lewis and Hogan who inflicted significant damage on Rowe and Cripps it's hard to sink NM in my opinion. NM went hard and frankly while I don't support that it gave us an experience we could well benefit from.

Frankly I thought what Hogan (excused) and Lewis did was very significantly worse than Cunnington and while Cunnington should have been suspended he at least didn't go the head.

Your assertion seems to be that Hogan and Lewis responded to words and Cunnington was supporting his team mate who was copping significant niggle from Vince.  In my book Cunnington comes out ahead.

I'm not saying Cunnington should have got the same penalty, by the way, but he clearly should have got a week. Higgins likewise.

And I'm not saying that Lewis & Hogan shouldn't have been given what they got, though I think the Carlton doctor did "over-egg the pudding" an extra week in both cases. Clearly, too, when Carlton came out after half time, they clearly had instructions to get under our skin physically and verbally. I'd just love to know what was actually said.

And surely somebody just yapping & niggling & being a pest (which was what Bernie was doing and what Hogan in particular would get every week without punching anyone) is different to someone saying something way out of bounds that provokes a reaction, along the lines of the Marc Murphy sledge which was clearly over the line. I suspect that what was said to Hogan was clearly over the line too, but we just didn't stick up for him at the time the way that Carlton stuck up for Murphy.

Cunnington gut-punched Bernie just to get Bernie out of his face, and because he knew he could, because he believed he wouldn't get penalised or suspended, and because it was a team instruction to gut-punch, throat-punch and jumper-punch (and not go the head).

[Vogon Poetry 2,095]

10 minutes ago, Akum said:

I'm not saying Cunnington should have got the same penalty, by the way, but he clearly should have got a week. Higgins likewise.

And I'm not saying that Lewis & Hogan shouldn't have been given what they got, though I think the Carlton doctor did "over-egg the pudding" an extra week in both cases. Clearly, too, when Carlton came out after half time, they clearly had instructions to get under our skin physically and verbally. I'd just love to know what was actually said.

And surely somebody just yapping & niggling & being a pest (which was what Bernie was doing and what Hogan in particular would get every week without punching anyone) is different to someone saying something way out of bounds that provokes a reaction, along the lines of the Marc Murphy sledge which was clearly over the line. I suspect that what was said to Hogan was clearly over the line too, but we just didn't stick up for him at the time the way that Carlton stuck up for Murphy.

Cunnington gut-punched Bernie just to get Bernie out of his face, and because he knew he could, because he believed he wouldn't get penalised or suspended, and because it was a team instruction to gut-punch, throat-punch and jumper-punch (and not go the head).

You're making a lot of assumptions and I'm still confused how Hogan and Lewis can be defended and Cunnington damned, but we'll just agree to disagree and leave it there.

[Little Goffy 14,750]

I will say changing the rule mid-season is a bit unprofessional.

But it is still an improvement on the multiple changes mid-game last week!

[Tony Tea 2,814]

Cunnington, Higgins, Hogan, Lewis & Salem should have all got a week.

[Willmoy1947 4,198]

As these blokes get older,slower and weaker, our blokes get older, faster and stronger.....

[steve_f 40]

The rules for the MRP need to be carved in stone rather than held in the mind of Gillon's goldfish.The players were jumper punching vigorously10 - 15 years until it was stopped.

[La Dee-vina Comedia 17,014]

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

I will say changing the rule mid-season is a bit unprofessional.

But it is still an improvement on the multiple changes mid-game last week!

I think it would be more unprofessional to see a problem, recognise it, have a solution and not implement it.

But changing rules (or interpretation of rules, which is what we're really talking about) during a season has been going on for as long as I can remember. The only difference is that the AFL has been transparent about it this time instead of leaving it to clubs, players and spectators to work out that things have changed mid-way through the first quarter of the first game of a new round of football. For that alone, the AFL should be praised.

[—coach— 3,496]

So you can't do this:

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-07-05/watch-how-does-the-zaharakis-tummy-tap-compare

But you can do this:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/mrp-kangaroo-ben-cunnington-can-accept-1000-fine-for-gut-punch-demon-christian-salem-rubbed-out/news-story/e2cdf00eaf11935de31d1222e33cfddc

Clear as mud really!