Premiership player, Campbell Brown, has slammed the AFL Tribunal for handing down a two-week penalty on Richmond’s Bachar Houli.
Houli was directed straight to the tribunal for his elbow to Jed Lamb’s head, which left the Blue concussed. The tribunal believes Houli’s good personality played a role in the punishment, as the Tigers used Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and Gold Logie winner, Waleed Aly, as character references.
“Richmond should be doing cartwheels out of the tribunal,” Brown told SEN Evenings.
“No one knows more about the tribunal, MRP and incidents than I do. I think the footy world will be gob smacked. You saw Ben Cunnington get a week for slapping someone in the neck. To turn around and throw a back handed elbow that knocks someone out cold, and to only get an extra week, is unbelievably soft and quite pathetic.
“I don’t care who the character references are. We all understand he is an outstanding citizen and has been a fair player. But the incident speaks for itself. I thought three-to-four weeks was appropriate. To get two weeks is quite staggering.
“The AFL goes along and pretends to talk about image for the game and they’ll slap blokes hard when they need to. I think this is a case of preferential treatment. I’m not having a go at Houli, but gee whiz, they’ll be a lot of shocked people out there and rightfully so.”
Brown also had a crack at the tribunal staff, believing their jobs need to be analysed.
“The members of the panel tonight need to be assessed, whether or not they should continue in their role,” he said.