Anyone a little confused by comments coming out of Sydney (Tom Papley in particular) about Essendon and their behind the ball hits on their players?  I'm confused by some in the media discussing this too.

Two words. "Max Gawn"  If you are so concerned Tom, call out the players that took hits at Max behind the play as he's going from contest to contest. Knocking him over, bumping off the ball 30-40m away from play.

Sydney and Port Adelaide constantly bump, and knock Gawn to the ground. Some media condone it, and saying that because Max is such a good player that every team should do it, even calling out MFC players for not doing to opposition teams or defending Gawn. Can't remember who it was, but someone actually called out the Dogs, and why they didn't do it, yet others are saying it should be stamped out, and I agree. Umpires need to be aware of it, and call frees.

Tom Papley, you can't have it both ways, either you are happy with bumping players off the ball, or the tummy taps, or you aren't, but then don't do it to other teams, or target players like Gawn.

This tactic could easily be eliminated by a post match review. If found to be a persistent tactic a fine against the team escalating gradually to points reduction.

The commentators live in a "tough blokey" bygone world. Like faking it in soccer time to deal with these issues.

 

As it is Sydney the AFL will listen and act

3 minutes ago, Jontee said:

As it is Sydney the AFL will listen and act

But max will continue to get nothing 

Butters

35 minutes ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Butters

Great player but a repeat stager.

1 hour ago, Ouch! said:

Anyone a little confused by comments coming out of Sydney (Tom Papley in particular) about Essendon and their behind the ball hits on their players?  I'm confused by some in the media discussing this too.

Two words. "Max Gawn"  If you are so concerned Tom, call out the players that took hits at Max behind the play as he's going from contest to contest. Knocking him over, bumping off the ball 30-40m away from play.

Sydney and Port Adelaide constantly bump, and knock Gawn to the ground. Some media condone it, and saying that because Max is such a good player that every team should do it, even calling out MFC players for not doing to opposition teams or defending Gawn. Can't remember who it was, but someone actually called out the Dogs, and why they didn't do it, yet others are saying it should be stamped out, and I agree. Umpires need to be aware of it, and call frees.

Tom Papley, you can't have it both ways, either you are happy with bumping players off the ball, or the tummy taps, or you aren't, but then don't do it to other teams, or target players like Gawn.

Sydney are in my top 3 hated clubs no doubt, they are a protected species in the eyes of AFL house.

I propose a system if exponential fines per game for these junk incidents which only detract from the game. We all know some little bumps and 'interactions' will happen over the course of a physical and directly competitive game like ours, but there's no value in letting clubs come out with instructions to rough people up to interfere with their game.

$1 for one incident, $2 for the second, $4 for the third, then 8, 16 etc...

The fines would be trivial and ignorable in any normal run of play, but if you end up with 20 individually trivial incidents you'd be looking at... a bit over a million dollars. That oughta shut it down real fast.

Also Collingwood should be stripped of their 1958 premiership. Obviously. #sixpeat

I wish we'd complain a bit too.  I like to think we'd do it behind closed doors, but I doubt we do.

His complaints will attract more attention from opposition clubs as it has clearly upset them. Watch this space.

He certainly doesn't adopt the "what happens on the field stays on the field " code.The last time that I can recall him being interviewed post game was when he referred to Tom Bugg's hit on Callum Mills as a "dog act " which certainly didn't help Tommy at the tribunal hearing .Anyway Bugg has gone on to bigger and  brighter things .

39 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

I propose a system if exponential fines per game for these junk incidents which only detract from the game. We all know some little bumps and 'interactions' will happen over the course of a physical and directly competitive game like ours, but there's no value in letting clubs come out with instructions to rough people up to interfere with their game.

$1 for one incident, $2 for the second, $4 for the third, then 8, 16 etc...

The fines would be trivial and ignorable in any normal run of play, but if you end up with 20 individually trivial incidents you'd be looking at... a bit over a million dollars. That oughta shut it down real fast.

Also Collingwood should be stripped of their 1958 premiership. Obviously. #sixpeat

we'd need a 5th umpire for looking at behind the scenes stuff... and we know how well they are going with the review system and the boundary umpires keeping things in bound.

2 minutes ago, Ouch! said:

we'd need a 5th umpire for looking at behind the scenes stuff... and we know how well they are going with the review system and the boundary umpires keeping things in bound.

Isn't that why they brought in the 4th umpire?

We already have four umpires who seem blind and or oblivious to the vast majority of these off ball elbows, belly jabs and bumps.
Surely they can see these, and if not maybe OPSM could replace SpecSavers  as their sponsor. 
A few more off ball free kicks and or 50 meter penalties, with reports and suspensions for striking, and elbowing, would stop this immediately.  Repeated belly jabs / elbows are not trivial. 
Maybe the boundary umpires could also call the most blatant of these. 
 

PS the regular repeated unpunished deliberate elbows to Max’s head (and knees to his back) just exposes the utter hypocrisy of the AFL and their insincere “protect the head” stance.   If anyone hoped that a change at the top would ease the hypocrisy got it wrong. Gentle kicking is ok and bumps involving the head only apply to certain teams. 
 

The only thing that they care about is $$$$$ - so until the class action bankrupts them, including their payouts, nothing will happen. 

Edited March 25, 20241 yr by monoccular

I thought the Hawks targeting of Oliver was unsporting.

But it was funny they gave him all their focus while Tracca had a day out.

 

Edited March 25, 20241 yr by leave it to deever

In what world should it be legal to put a player down who is in no way contesting the ball ? Needs to be stamped out.

10 minutes ago, Ouch! said:

we'd need a 5th umpire for looking at behind the scenes stuff... and we know how well they are going with the review system and the boundary umpires keeping things in bound.

Off topic but on the subject of reviews the IPL is now allowing a review of wides. Madness.

Some of the reviews from this weekend were madness

17 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Isn't that why they brought in the 4th umpire?

But the 4th umpire tends to look at the play and pay frees they think other umps didn't notice in the play.  How about an umpire in the stands told to not focus on the play and not able to give free kicks for anything but well off the ball infractions?

21 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

I thought the Hawks targeting of Oliver was unsporting.

But it was funny they gave him all their focus while Tracca had a day out.

At least the Hawks were targetting him near the play of the ball. Gawn is getting dropped sometimes 30-50m off the play. Those hits, body checks and bumps are the ones that are poor because he's not expecting contact, nor should he.

14 minutes ago, Ouch! said:

At least the Hawks were targetting him near the play of the ball

Some of the hits on Oliver were when he relaxed after the ball had just left the area, and unexpected.

Glad he just laughs at them, and goes in again as courageous as ever.

Edited March 25, 20241 yr by kev martin

4 hours ago, Ouch! said:

Tom Papley, you can't have it both ways, either you are happy with bumping players off the ball, or the tummy taps, or you aren't, but then don't do it to other teams, or target players like Gawn.

Well said. Not only did they target Gawn off the ball a few weeks ago, but I remember their game against Collingwood at the MCG last year where Clarke and Papley himself tried to rough up Nick Daicos off the ball, sparking a melee in the first quarter.

Very hypocritical from Sydney.

1 hour ago, kallangurdemon said:

He certainly doesn't adopt the "what happens on the field stays on the field " code.The last time that I can recall him being interviewed post game was when he referred to Tom Bugg's hit on Callum Mills as a "dog act " which certainly didn't help Tommy at the tribunal hearing .Anyway Bugg has gone on to bigger and  brighter things .

You’re not wrong. I just looked up Tom on Wikipedia!! No wonder he retired. 
Good luck to him 😉

10 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

You’re not wrong. I just looked up Tom on Wikipedia!! No wonder he retired. 
Good luck to him 😉

Ironic... there's more money in business analytic tools than the businesses they analyse

11 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Ironic... there's more money in business analytic tools than the businesses they analyse

Yes indeed 

look at “influencers”

That’s when i fully realised i was getting old!

2 hours ago, kallangurdemon said:

He certainly doesn't adopt the "what happens on the field stays on the field " code.The last time that I can recall him being interviewed post game was when he referred to Tom Bugg's hit on Callum Mills as a "dog act " which certainly didn't help Tommy at the tribunal hearing .Anyway Bugg has gone on to bigger and  brighter things .

I am interested to know what T Bugg is doing.