Huge [censored] flop by Rich, he's the one who should be fined.

The Zorko elbow was way worse. If it results in a broken Jaw then it would be 3 weeks

Will be careless, high contact and low impact. A fine. Pretty simple I’d have thought. Rich didn’t even need medical attention. 

24 minutes ago, Jaded said:

If we continue with the theme of we punish the outcome not the action, this won’t rate a mention. 

This is partially true - the guidelines include potential for injury as an upgrade and that directly affects bumps where a player goes past the ball (Sparrow) and forearm/elbow strikes like Zorko.

If Sparrow gets off, he's a very lucky boy though I think it's caused by inexperience - I can't see Petracca or Oliver doing that.

On a tangent, there was a pretty good segment on 360 a few weeks ago when Hardwick and Longmuir were the guests. Showed Selwood getting a young Richmond player high and all agreed it was the tiger player's fault for poor technique - leading head first while Selwood was collecting the ball side on to protect himself

52 minutes ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

The Zorko elbow was way worse. If it results in a broken Jaw then it would be 3 weeks

if he broke his jaw he'd get 6 weeks

The sort of thing Sparrow did is the sort of action the AFL wants to stamp out. He runs past the ball to bump - if you then make contact to the head, you get penalised.

So, based on that, Sparrow should be cited.

However.

Buddy Franklin did the same thing last week on Newman and wasn't penalised due to "insufficient force". That's in part because Newman got up and carried on straight away.

Based on that, Sparrow should be fine. There was minimal impact to Rich.

47 minutes ago, Kit Walker said:

This is partially true - the guidelines include potential for injury as an upgrade and that directly affects bumps where a player goes past the ball (Sparrow) and forearm/elbow strikes like Zorko.

If Sparrow gets off, he's a very lucky boy though I think it's caused by inexperience - I can't see Petracca or Oliver doing that.

On a tangent, there was a pretty good segment on 360 a few weeks ago when Hardwick and Longmuir were the guests. Showed Selwood getting a young Richmond player high and all agreed it was the tiger player's fault for poor technique - leading head first while Selwood was collecting the ball side on to protect himself

Unless it is Langdon being spear tackled off play but in front of a goal umpire. 
Potential broken neck and quadriplegia - but “nothing to even look at”!

The hypocrisy of Mr Christmas knows no depths. 

2 hours ago, Demonland said:

Here is the incident.

 

The embarrassing thing with this is the umpire gave a free. Clearly acting. My first look was that he was blocking/shepherding and yes he did go past the ball. As others have commented, the MRO cannot make a decision until viewing all media commentary for their assessment. 

i think the only way he will get off a suspension is to argue it was a block rather than a bump

currently if you elect to bump and end up hitting the head you'll get 1 week if impact was low

might have to appeal to the tribunal after christian gets advice from tom browne

 

29 minutes ago, MT64 said:

The embarrassing thing with this is the umpire gave a free. Clearly acting. My first look was that he was blocking/shepherding and yes he did go past the ball. As others have commented, the MRO cannot make a decision until viewing all media commentary for their assessment. 

Some ridiculous truth in that last part.  Ex footballer type comentators trying to concoct a moment of drama to entertain their audience for a few moments, because they can't think of anything actually useful or integent to say, like perhaps just getting on with calling the game.

Having watched this incident again a few times, I'm pretty much in total agreement with you.

Was so incidental it should not have even been a free kick.  Sparrow doesn't elect to bump (he's more back towards him than side on) he barely even shepard's as opposed to just trying to position himself in the area to contest the ball or be in a position to receive it.  I'm not even that sure he was aware Rich was there.  It's hard to see that it was even judged head high contact as an infringement on Sparrow as it's Rich running into his back.

Edited June 5, 20213 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Looking at the footage he’s be very lucky to go for that, it was more of a block than a bump and the impact is minimal at best. Rich seems to go down rather dramatically but he played the entire game. 

A fine at most. 

He got off... can’t believe Zorko got a week.. 

11 minutes ago, SPC said:

He got off... can’t believe Zorko got a week.. 

A fine is getting off?

Insufficient force.

Right decision. Rich should focus his mind on dropping some kgs. Other than nic nat he's the most unfit player in the league.

Good to see he got off with a fine.

26 minutes ago, sue said:

A fine is getting off?

Considering many felt he might get a week, myself included.. yeah I’d say so.

Good decisions all around. 
Zorko is a moron with form. Woeful leadership. 

31 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Good decisions all around. 
Zorko is a moron with form. Woeful leadership. 

Leadership and Zorko are words that don’t belong in the same sentence.

Glad to see that Tom doesn’t cop a week for the silver service he provided Charlie with 

Struck Rich but left poor.

Bad luck any way you look at it.

Really pleased for him. I thought he was a solid contributor especially in the second half and deserves a game next week. 

6 hours ago, demonstone said:

Congratulations to sue for winning this week's "Missed The Obvious Joke Award".  

The genius of you!

Finally just saw the Zorko one, I can't believe any reporter was downplaying it. It's very clearly a deliberate strike to the chin on Tommy, love the fact that TMac laid him out, gave him a gob full, and then helped him up.

A fair outcome for Sparrow I think. Franklin should have copped at least a fine last week for his bump but careless conduct with low impact is right for Sparrow IMO. Glad he's available for next week.

Poor Tommy being a few bucks lighter in the pocket for no good reason. At least he's got all those match payments for games he didn't even play in to make up for it.

More importantly he gets to build some continuity.