AFL - WTF

THE 2009 AFL year is less than a week old with the pre-season NAB Cup and already the tribunal has delivered two puzzling decisions.
Collingwood skipper Nick Maxwell has been handed a three week suspension for a hefty bump in play with the ball in contest.
Unfortunately for Maxwell it was such a hefty bump that West Coast Eagle’s player Patrick McGinnity has been left with a broken jaw.
Replays seem to indicate that although Maxwell never jumped off the ground and that his shoulder collected McGinnity in the chest, the bump was so hard it snapped the Eagle player’s chin down onto the shoulder resulting in the break.
Bad luck for McGinnity and bad luck it seems for Maxwell.
It would seem the tribunal has ruled on not the intention but the outcome.
You could bet your bottom dollar that if there had been no resulting break Maxwell would not have been suspended.
Which is something akin to saying if Lee Harvey Oswald’s shot had missed JFK then he would never have even been arrested.

But what has been more staggering for many was the measly four week suspension handed to Carlton’s Irish recruit Setanta O’hAilpin for his demolition job on team-mate Cameron Cloke.
Well off the ball and behind the play the Irishman went mad and clocked Cloke with a vicious two punch combination and followed that up with a slipper up the backside.
Forget claims that it was a gentle tap with the foot, it was a solid kick and must have gone within centimetres of Cloke’s family jewels.
If Carlton make it all the way to the pre-season Grand Final then O’hAilpin would be clear to play in the first round of the season proper, that is assuming Carlton don’t hand him his marching orders.