Daniel
Senior List
Isn’t it great? After what seems like seasons without one, we have suddenly seen three melees in one round: a decent conflagration between Essendon and the Bulldogs, a minor scuffle that hardly qualifies between Melbourne and Geelong and a genuine brawl between West Coast and Fremantle.
How can anyone say this is bad for the game? It’s thrilling to watch, gets the crowd involved, and when no punches are thrown is totally harmless. If the game is in progress then an umpire can quickly disperse the melee by bouncing the ball, making the players accountable to the coach if they don’t start playing. Melees would only be a problem if they became prolific, but that has never been the case. It is wrong to punish players and clubs for this kind of aggression when it is non-violent and universally loved by the public.
The melee in the western derby was what you could call a genuine brawl. From what I saw, punches were actually thrown, which was a total shock. How long has it been since that happened in an AFL game? Although this is not to be condoned, I hope the AFL don’t punish the player responsible too harshly. We don’t know what his opponent may have done to incite the aggression.
In my opinion, what John Barnes did was worse, IF he intentionally lined up Johnson while he wasn’t looking. That kind of sniping is a lower act than attacking someone who can see it coming and may in fact have deserved it.
How can anyone say this is bad for the game? It’s thrilling to watch, gets the crowd involved, and when no punches are thrown is totally harmless. If the game is in progress then an umpire can quickly disperse the melee by bouncing the ball, making the players accountable to the coach if they don’t start playing. Melees would only be a problem if they became prolific, but that has never been the case. It is wrong to punish players and clubs for this kind of aggression when it is non-violent and universally loved by the public.
The melee in the western derby was what you could call a genuine brawl. From what I saw, punches were actually thrown, which was a total shock. How long has it been since that happened in an AFL game? Although this is not to be condoned, I hope the AFL don’t punish the player responsible too harshly. We don’t know what his opponent may have done to incite the aggression.
In my opinion, what John Barnes did was worse, IF he intentionally lined up Johnson while he wasn’t looking. That kind of sniping is a lower act than attacking someone who can see it coming and may in fact have deserved it.
