- Dec 26, 2010
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Don't think there's any intent to cause injury in Ablett's jump at the player. Even though what he does looks like a silly show of bravado he was coming in from the side and his leading arm is across his body, not coming through with momentum and its his wrists that make the initial contact to the shoulder chest area. Pay a free kick downfield and 50m (if that behind the play rule is still in effect).
Fyfe's looks a little more dangerous, but the contact starts with the forearm on the Lynch's shoulder, slides up and contacts Lynch's head (looks more like neck) as Lynch is turning it away. He's about to go in for the ball, reaching to tap it forward with his left hand and then puts that same arm up to protect himself from the kind of head on head contact he had 5 weeks earlier.
You can freeze frame both incidents and show at a particular point that the forearm is in contact with the head, but in both examples that point of contact is during the untangling motion when the players are separating.
There's always a potential of more serious injury because the elbow is part of the arm, and when the arm is raised the elbow is raised, but people saying elbow to the head are way off the mark, and the fact that both opponents got up straight away and unscathed is evidence of that.
The MRO officer has correctly judged them both as being insufficient force.
Fyfe's looks a little more dangerous, but the contact starts with the forearm on the Lynch's shoulder, slides up and contacts Lynch's head (looks more like neck) as Lynch is turning it away. He's about to go in for the ball, reaching to tap it forward with his left hand and then puts that same arm up to protect himself from the kind of head on head contact he had 5 weeks earlier.
You can freeze frame both incidents and show at a particular point that the forearm is in contact with the head, but in both examples that point of contact is during the untangling motion when the players are separating.
There's always a potential of more serious injury because the elbow is part of the arm, and when the arm is raised the elbow is raised, but people saying elbow to the head are way off the mark, and the fact that both opponents got up straight away and unscathed is evidence of that.
The MRO officer has correctly judged them both as being insufficient force.