If they (the AFL) were concerned about it they could have taken action at the time.

Afraid of collingwood.. you bet!

Is anyone really surprised?

Typical AFL manufactured outcome, Just like the Maynard ruling that let him play in the Grannie. Don't rock the boat, don't do what's right at the expense of magpie fans

The AFL boys club is so [censored] predictable, even a 10 year old could guess their next move

It's what will eventually drive me away from the game for good

4 hours ago, Winners at last said:

Maynard is a disgusting piece of filth. Is that going overboard?

The AFL did what they needed to do to get him off the charge. 

My anger remains unabated.

Maynard’s act was horrible. But the AFL are the disgusting pieces of filth. 

The AFL have left a huge out for exactly the same incident to be dismissed:

"Under the new regulation sent to clubs in a memo on Thursday, a player who leaves the ground in an attempt to smother will be expected to take “all reasonable steps to avoid making contact with their opponent’s head and/or minimise the force of any high contact”.

So all Maynard ( and his lawyers) would have to say was he took "all reasonable steps". 

After all he drew in his arms to avoid hitting Angus with his fists and forearm.  And there was little else he could do when airborne that was reasonable........

The next similar case that comes up will have the same outcome.  And the AFL will wring their hands, yet do nothing about it yet again.

All they had to do was "legislate" that any contact with the head as a result of tackle, bump or smother will result in a penalty.

Crock of [censored].

AFL had their chance then and there to make a statement by suspending him and failed to do so.

I cannot think of any sport in the world that continues to make up the rules on the spot each and every year.

Biggest non-surprise of the year.

Play the good Samaritan role and pander to the ‘footy purists’ by letting the good bloke play but then take proper action long after the fact so they can appease the anti-concussion brigade and show that they are (seemingly) doing something about it.

Talk about bending it both ways to suit agendas..
 

Never forget this Demons….

59 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

The AFL have left a huge out for exactly the same incident to be dismissed:

"Under the new regulation sent to clubs in a memo on Thursday, a player who leaves the ground in an attempt to smother will be expected to take “all reasonable steps to avoid making contact with their opponent’s head and/or minimise the force of any high contact”.

So all Maynard ( and his lawyers) would have to say was he took "all reasonable steps". 

After all he drew in his arms to avoid hitting Angus with his fists and forearm.  And there was little else he could do when airborne that was reasonable........

The next similar case that comes up will have the same outcome.  And the AFL will wring their hands, yet do nothing about it yet again.

All they had to do was "legislate" that any contact with the head as a result of tackle, bump or smother will result in a penalty.

This is a good post. It raises the question as to whether the "all reasonable steps" words take effect after the smotherer is airborne or in making the decision in the first place to leave the ground. It needs to be both, not just after the smotherer has left the ground or George's prophesy will come true.

Contact was inevitable once Maynard left the ground, farcical decision and rubbish rule change. 

Reality: It was a deliberate high-impact bump to the head.

AFL:  For important commercial and boys' club reasons, it was an honest smother gone tragically, accidentally, and innocently wrong.

Reality: It was a deliberate high-impact bump to the head.

AFL: Because of how much this was an honest smother gone tragically, accidentally and innocently wrong, we will now introduce new laws penalising honest smothers gone tragically, accidentally and innocently wrong.

Reality: I will now punish genuine accidents.

 

Eddie McGuire: "Justice has been served"

The media pander to Collingwood fans in order to maximise ratings and readership.

If May had done exactly the same to De Goey, he would have been heavily criticised, with pressure on the tribunal to give him 6 weeks.

God I hate the AFL

I'm still angry about this whole " event."

I'm convinced that we would have won that game if this deliberate act didn't occur.

Collingwood won a final from pure thuggery.

Nothing new.

Then got lucky with an incredibly bad umpiring call in the dying stages of the grand final.

So much noise about us losing in straight sets when the real story was a known dirty player took out one of our best.

Nothing new.

And now we get a delayed, vague attempt after the act by the Afl to somehow try and show they care.

Too little, too late.

Nothing new.

If it wasn't the greatest game in the world, I would try and find an alternative. What a shame we have buffoons in charge of it.

 

1 hour ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

The media pander to Collingwood fans in order to maximise ratings and readership.

If May had done exactly the same to De Goey, he would have been heavily criticised, with pressure on the tribunal to give him 6 weeks.

We all know if May had done this they probably would have found a way to boot him from the game

Doing it to De Goey is an unfair comparison btw....the comparison is a fair, best 3-5 22 prime mover who is universally loved by the team and across the comp. Think sidebottom, who incidentally, they would not have won the GF without

I'm still furious about it all, it's such a shame 

Edited December 15, 20231 yr by fr_ap

2 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Reality: It was a deliberate high-impact bump to the head.

AFL:  For important commercial and boys' club reasons, it was an honest smother gone tragically, accidentally, and innocently wrong.

Reality: It was a deliberate high-impact bump to the head.

AFL: Because of how much this was an honest smother gone tragically, accidentally and innocently wrong, we will now introduce new laws penalising honest smothers gone tragically, accidentally and innocently wrong.

Reality: I will now punish genuine accidents.

 

Eddie McGuire: "Justice has been served"

Goffy - yes I believe it was deliberate / intentional but at very least it was reckless / careless which would also have put that piece of 💩out for the finals. 
But , true to form, the AFL weaseled their way out to appease Collingwood.  

I would love to audit the AFL. Millions will have vanished into the ether. Tricky Gil learned everything from his dodgy predecessor.

The media have constantly watched his back and  celebrated him as a great administrator.  F...off.

Still not sure i will be tuning in next year. The disgusting behaviour of the media and AFL towards Brayshaw/MFC after the Maynard incident will linger for many years.

I didn’t think it was possible to hate and despise Collingwood any more than I already hated and despised them, before September 2023

It is Possible….

39 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

I'm still angry about this whole " event."

I'm convinced that we would have won that game if this deliberate act didn't occur.

Collingwood won a final from pure thuggery.

Nothing new.

Then got lucky with an incredibly bad umpiring call in the dying stages of the grand final.

So much noise about us losing in straight sets when the real story was a known dirty player took out one of our best.

Nothing new.

And now we get a delayed, vague attempt after the act by the Afl to somehow try and show they care.

Too little, too late.

Nothing new.

If it wasn't the greatest game in the world, I would try and find an alternative. What a shame we have buffoons in charge of it.

 

Pretty sure you will find plenty of people who feel the same way Deev 

50 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

I didn’t think it was possible to hate and despise Collingwood any more than I already hated and despised them, before September 2023

It is Possible….

Got it in one mate. 

I'm not thinking about it anymore, trying my best to move on. 

Let's just be glad that Gus is on the track. 

2 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

I'm convinced that we would have won that game if this deliberate act didn't occur.

Collingwood won a final from pure thuggery.

 

Putting the Maynard incident aside, we came out as flat as a pancake for a final, barely went inside 50 and lost the contested possession count by 10 (a key KPI for a final) before the incident occurred. 

Collingwood set the tone before the Maynard incident and it just wasn't our night whichever way one looks at it.

Edited December 15, 20231 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

5 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

This is a good post. It raises the question as to whether the "all reasonable steps" words take effect after the smotherer is airborne or in making the decision in the first place to leave the ground. It needs to be both, not just after the smotherer has left the ground or George's prophesy will come true.

The meaning of "all reasonable steps" will depend on whether the player is from a big club, and/or is a star player,  and/or is a "good bloke who wouldn't have meant that".

More long winded court cases coming up, involving lawyers hijacking a sporting tribunal and turning it into a criminal trial, quibbling over the meaning of "all", "reasonable" and "steps", until the tribunal members' heads are spinning and they don't know where they are or time it is, or indeed their own names.

30 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Putting the Maynard incident aside, we came out as flat as a pancake for a final, barely went inside 50 and lost the contested possession count by 10 (a key KPI for a final) before the incident occurred. 

Collingwood set the tone before the Maynard incident and it just wasn't our night whichever way one looks at it.

If we were that off-key, amazing that we lost by only 7 points.  

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Putting the Maynard incident aside, we came out as flat as a pancake for a final, barely went inside 50 and lost the contested possession count by 10 (a key KPI for a final) before the incident occurred. 

Collingwood set the tone before the Maynard incident and it just wasn't our night whichever way one looks at it.

I agree, and yet, we kick straight and we don't lose Gus out of the midfield rotation in the first five minutes, and we win that game.

Pies came out hard, but losing Gus absolutely stuffed us through the middle. Clarry was hampered by a knee, and without Gus we were essentially a rotation down for the entire game in the most important part of the ground. 

 

11 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I agree, and yet, we kick straight and we don't lose Gus out of the midfield rotation in the first five minutes, and we win that game.

Pies came out hard, but losing Gus absolutely stuffed us through the middle. Clarry was hampered by a knee, and without Gus we were essentially a rotation down for the entire game in the most important part of the ground. 

 

We will never know what impact that hit on Gus made to our over all team dynamics.

The closest summation you can make as to what sort of impact Gus might have made in that game would be his previous finals games for the club.

Which to say the least have been fairly impactful to our end results.

3rd best GF day 20 plus possessions crucial slips catch mark and goal at an important moment in the 3rd quarter.

His replacement has 2 possessions for 3.5 quarters of football, huge imapct on the game.