Nope. I was always of the opinion that shouldn't have been a charge. Can't say finals footy is tough contested footy and then have players rubbed out for contesting the footy, glad to see that there was no stupidity by the MRP.
Plus it would have been all week, "whinge whinge whinge, why was the second coming suspended?" Now they can just get on with the Richmond rubfest and we can go about it in silence
Depend on what you mean by 'should be a charge'. If you don't want to see that sort of thing result in a suspension and think it 'shouldn't be' in that sense it is one thing. If you're talking precedent and consistency then it completely should have been.
I didn't think Sloane's attempted spoil last year was worthy of a suspension and if Cotchin had hit a player in an identical manner to that one on Saturday it wouldn't have been. We know it wouldn't have been.
If it was mid-season, Cotchin's incident would have been a fine to 1 week, Ellis would have been 1 week to 2 weeks and Sloane would have been no case to a fine.
As far as preferring he play to avoid the whinging, I wouldn't mind them having that distraction. I couldn't care less if we won it against their reserves team TBH, there's no notes added to the Cup. Win this and we have it forever. Will anyone give a crap that we'll be without Smith and Gov if we lose? Will that cheapen a Richmond flag? We already have to play the lower ranked side on their home ground in front of a hostile crowd. I'll take any advantage.