12 minutes ago, faultydet said:

Very real.

I lived in Blackwater, a tiny mining town in central Qld for 8 years and watched the local teams play very often. It was the only name i heard the players call the officials in that time.

I used to chuckle whenever a penalty was paid and a crowd member would shout, "he's been doing it all night Sir" A penalty could be paid against your team if the crowd mouthed off to the Refs in country football also.

True story.

How would this apply to Optus stadium WCE “booooooo” fans?

WCE would not even get to touch the ball. 

Edited August 30, 20213 yr by monoccular

Greene should get at least 4 weeks. Cannot walk into an umpire intentionally. 
Simple, It’s not on. But it wasn’t heated, it was stupid  

But listening to Gerard Whately this morning, was nauseating as he went on and on. Gerard wants to run The AFL his way

Whately should be given 6 weeks as well

33 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Some years ago, I was a member of a tribunal of a junior football league. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise but there were a few cases that we sat on where young impressionable players sought to emulate their heroes playing league football and it landed them in trouble. Fortunately, I didn’t sit on any cases involving attacks on umpires but there were some in my time that were heard by other tribunal members. A suspension of a season or the remainder of the season plus the next were meted out.

I’ve watched the vision and listened to the pundits arguing both ways but to me, this is a no brainer. Forget the argy bargy and excuse making about whether or not there was physical contact (there was). You need to look at the entire incident from beginning to end. Start with the confrontation in Greene’s approach to Stevic, the way the contact was made and the aftermath of the contact. The look of every aspect of this incident was appalling and reeks of conduct unbecoming of a professional sportsperson in this age.

A finding of not guilty or a light sentence in these circumstances would not be well received in the community competitions, whether senior or junior that struggle year in and year out to fill umpiring places. I believe that earlier this season, a number of competitions were struggling and in many cases, umpires had to double up on games over a weekend. 

The AFL Tribunal has a duty to decide this case on its merit but it would serve the sport well if it took a strong stand tomorrow night. I personally would like to see a minimum penalty of six weeks suspension with a stern warning from the chairperson that he is fortunate to have received just that. Hopefully, a severe penalty might influence GWS to not even consider wasting everyone’s time with an appeal as they did a few weeks ago.

Great post.

I do wonder what would have happened if this was a young or expendable player like Thomas Bugg had done this? I think the year long suspension seems more likely.

3 hours ago, Jaded said:

And this guy is meant to be their captain and spiritual leader. How [censored] would you be with his ridiculous ongoing behaviour?

Lucky he plays for a club with no supporters, or the backlash would be massive. He has missed so many games due to his downright stupid behaviour. 

He's actually been 'lucky'. Most of the 22 charges ended in fines, nearly 30 Grand's worth. Maybe that's the problem in itself. A $1500 fine is SFA to a thug on $750 grand a year. Rub them out in the first place, make it a statutory and universal law that every time you get rubbed out you use up a certain amount of credits. When you reach your limit, you get banned for good.

Edited August 30, 20213 yr by dieter

34 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Greene should get at least 4 weeks. Cannot walk into an umpire intentionally. 
Simple, It’s not on. But it wasn’t heated, it was stupid  

But listening to Gerard Whately this morning, was nauseating as he went on and on. Gerard wants to run The AFL his way

Whately should be given 6 weeks as well

Whateley loves to think of himself as an "agenda setter". He leads every AFL 360 episode with a dreadfully high-and-mighty schpiel about whatever issue has got his goat that night, doling out suspensions and lobbying for rule changes left right and centre.

The worst part is, everyone else does actually follow suit. At least Robbo is harmless - Gerard is the real insidious one because people actually listen to him.

10 minutes ago, Chook said:

Whateley loves to think of himself as an "agenda setter". He leads every AFL 360 episode with a dreadfully high-and-mighty schpiel about whatever issue has got his goat that night, doling out suspensions and lobbying for rule changes left right and centre.

The worst part is, everyone else does actually follow suit. At least Robbo is harmless - Gerard is the real insidious one because people actually listen to him.

Because he talks good sense! I AGREE with all Gerard has said on this matter

I’m just here to remind everyone that David King wanted this bloke to be All Australian Captain last week. 
A team featuring Gawn, Bont, Wines, May, Hawkins…

 

Good call, David King call. 

3 hours ago, Pates said:

For me the only sport in the world that treats the officials with less respect is football (hate calling it soccer). When their players get a penalty/free kick they don’t agree with it’s not uncommon for the ref to be surrounded by close to 10 players all getting in his/her face. It’s disgusting, it’s disrespectful, and it’s pathetic. 

AFL is only marginally ahead because I think they have a little bit more of a laugh, the 50m penalty exists as a deterrent, and there’s more transparency with the umpires mic’d up (the players also know this so they know they have to bite their tongue). 

But I would gladly have the tribunal come down hard on Greene if it makes the players show the proper respect the officials deserve. 

Jack Riewoldt should’ve been given a massive fine for his comment to the umpire after the game say that he cost the tigers the win. Pathetic from someone who only a couple of weeks earlier was on his high horse about Pickett’s attitude. 

We complain so much about the standard of umpiring.

Why would you be an ump? It's about as attractive as being an ICU nurse in Sydney.

We have to look after them and start paying them properly to raise the standard.

Just another reason why the grub should go

Worth a week even if he hadn’t bumped him. 
Law states only Captain can approach an umpire and Coniglio was playing apparently 

Gerard Whateley and Jason Dunstall have given their verdict on AFL360. 6 weeks and 4 weeks minimum if Greene grovels on bending knees and crying.

Edited August 30, 20213 yr by John Crow Batty

1 hour ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Greene should get at least 4 weeks. Cannot walk into an umpire intentionally. 
Simple, It’s not on. But it wasn’t heated, it was stupid  

But listening to Gerard Whately this morning, was nauseating as he went on and on. Gerard wants to run The AFL his way

Whately should be given 6 weeks as well

Just watching Whately on 360. He just spoke about it for 20 minutes then at the end suggested a six week suspension. Far out he can waffle on. 

31 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Just watching Whately on 360. He just spoke about it for 20 minutes then at the end suggested a six week suspension. Far out he can waffle on. 

 He’s constantly flabbergasted.

Which can’t be easy.

38 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Just watching Whately on 360. He just spoke about it for 20 minutes then at the end suggested a six week suspension. Far out he can waffle on. 

Imagine it when he is at home, on & on & on & on, yes he has an opinion, but others are allowed to see things differently. 
Diesal Williams was angry 

Toby Greene was stupid 

There is a difference 

54 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

Gerard Whateley and Jason Dunstall have given their verdict on AFL360. 6 weeks and 4 weeks minimum if Greene grovels on bending knees and crying.

Well it's settled then.

1 hour ago, Deestroy All said:

I’m just here to remind everyone that David King wanted this bloke to be All Australian Captain last week. 
A team featuring Gawn, Bont, Wines, May, Hawkins…

 

Good call, David King call. 

To be fair to King, he’s also stated that Greene should cop weeks for this incident, unlike others in the media who think Greene shouldn’t be suspended “because he’s a great player”, King at least is looking at the bigger picture, I’ll give him credit for that.

9 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Diesal Williams was angry 

Toby Greene was stupid 

There is a difference 

Wasn't Diesel angry at Sean Denham, the umpire was intervening and Williams then pushed umpire out of way

Toby Greene was arguing with the umpire, and deliberately walked into him during his rant.

Agree there's a difference, but not that it softens Toby's incident, arguably more intent

9 minutes ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

Wasn't Diesel angry at Sean Denham, the umpire was intervening and Williams then pushed umpire out of way

Toby Greene was arguing with the umpire, and deliberately walked into him during his rant.

Agree there's a difference, but not that it softens Toby's incident, arguably more intent

In some ways. I still think Williams was far more aggressive, he was ready to punch 🥊 on. 
Greene was just stupid, and let his team down dreadfully

9 hours ago, Ouch! said:

I was listening to SEN (I think) and the comment was that this type of thing is a 6 week ban in the lower leagues, so the AFL needs to put a message out if they are serious about the fact that intentionally making contact with an umpire is an absolute no go.
Agree with the previous comment from one of the people here that if it was one of the female umps, or imagine it happening to a junior is a lower league, there would be outrage. 

I would hope that the GWS are furious with Green internally, and TBH they should plead guilty and move on, that is their best chance of a 2 week fine. If they plead not guilty here I reckon the tribunal will go harder. Green chose to walk and talk to Stevic at the break and was fired up, there is absolutely no way that encounter was anything other than intentional regardless of the contact.  I love Green as a footballer, and I honestly think without him, GWS are going to struggle against Geelong, but thats no excuse for what he did, and he's cost his team a great shot at getting through to a prelim I reckon.

As it’s been sent straight to the tribunal I don’t think he can submit an early guilty plea on this one?

For Hawkins’ contact in 2018 they didn’t mount a defence and used their time to apologise. IMO that’s exactly what Greene should do. No justification, no defence, apologise and cop it.

Footy Classified… god why do I bother with getting sucked into the shows. Wilson for all her “faults” the only one to say Greene needs to be out for some time. Cornes was just arguing that she wasn’t vocal about Neale needing to be suspended for weeks. Lloyd just blankly staring into his own brain and Hutchy thinking about cake.

2 hours ago, Males said:

To be fair to King, he’s also stated that Greene should cop weeks for this incident, unlike others in the media who think Greene shouldn’t be suspended “because he’s a great player”, King at least is looking at the bigger picture, I’ll give him credit for that.

King always virtue signals, always wants a suspension. Just because he’s chosen the logical side this time in comparison to the idiots that want him to get off, gets no brownie points from me. 
 

The big picture of wanting a bloke that’s been fined or suspended in half the finals he’s played as AA Captain was just a stupid call. And it was rammed home by Toby’s shoulder this week. 

He's pleaded not guilty.

Not the strategy I would have taken, but OK.

5 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

He's pleaded not guilty.

Not the strategy I would have taken, but OK.

Pleading not guilty feels like they’re playing a game of chicken where they’re daring the tribunal to give him weeks. 

Can't believe he has pleaded not guilty, this will be minimum of 4 now. I reckon he could have got away with 2-3 with an early plea.

An arrogant, angry, egotistical 2L.  Hope he gets weeks.

Can play football though.

18 hours ago, faultydet said:

Say what you will about our sporting cousins in Rugby League, but they are all over us when it comes to referee (umpire) respect.

Even in the country leagues the players call the ref "sir" when approaching them. And there is almost zero abuse such as we saw from Mitch Robinson as it results in penalties.

I know some will think I've become all soft and woke but it's something I really would like to see creep into AFL football at all levels.

I agree with what you're saying, but it's not being 'woke' or 'soft' to treat people with respect.