Suspensions...

[RogerC]

Look, I'm pretty sure this must have come up before, but it's back in the news now so I guess it's topical. Does everyone agree that suspensions incurred in the Grand Final can be served in the Ansett Cup? Because I don't. Michael Long can front up in Round One after that horrific (sorry Essendon fans, I shudder to think how you interpreted it) crunch on Troy Simmonds. Given that the Ansett Cup and the season proper are unrelated, surely this can't be fair. Where's the disincentive to rough house in the Grand Final? Surely Long couldn't care THAT much about missing a few games of the pre-season comp? It never used to be this way. I can recall suspensions that carried over resulting in a player missing the entire pre season AND what ever he had left to serve.

Personally, I wouldn't care if Long played the Ansett Cup and then served his suspension. But the way it is is wrong in my opinion.

 

[dees01]

Yes this has been done before. I have always believed Long should have got a heavier penalty, i.e senior games, but it is all in the past now and we may as well get on with it. I am sure Essendon supporters would think he is hardly done by. We will have to agree to disagree.

 

[sandie]

What is wrong with you Hawks fans, what the hell have the Bombers done to you to come out with all this rubbish.

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Frodo does not exist outside of Tolkien's imagination

 

[Grendel]

Sandie, just because the most recent player suspended from a GF happens to be Long, doesnt mean that the question Roger posed was directed at him or at the Bombers personally.

I think its a good question. The point about the lack of incentive for any team not to go the bash in a GF can largely be ignored if they are going to cop a 'soft 2/3/4 weeks on the sidelines in the following years pre-season competition.

In the biggest game of the year, the need to showcase the actual skills of the game should be paramount above all else. These skills include how to legally take out a player through a hip and shoulder, or direct attack at the ball. Last years GF in my view, really was pretty soft. Soft that is on GF's ive personally seen in the past.

Yet the modern game now dictates that softness should be the pre-requisite for all future GF's. (All Games really) If the league isnt prepared to hand out comparable penaltys to those that break the rules in the most important match of the season. Then thats just another example of chronic mis-management of the AFL where it counts most, the actual onfield game as its being played.

If any player does do something that warrents suspension from an act in a GF,then i think that suspension should be served in the main draw for next years home and away series.

 

[RogerC]

Geez sandie, what have I ever done to you?

 

[Darky]

Suspensions should always be served in terms of senior games, and probably also include whatever Ansett Cup games fall in-between.
With the Michael Long instance, what's to say the 31 year old with the bodgy knees wouldn't have been rested anyway.
Now that the Ansett Cup is a round-robin format, anything up to a three match suspension is served ENTIRELY in Ansett Cup games. If its a 3 match suspension and the player's team makes the Ansett Cup finals, he is fresh and gives the team a boost coming into the finals series. Not much of a punishment really, is it.

[This message has been edited by Darky (edited 14 February 2001).]

 

[McKenna for PM]

I agree. The Ansett Cup is a separate tournament to the premiership season. The AFL should respect that fact and keep EVERYTHING separate. Including suspensions. This sort of loophole allows such attrocities to occur. An opposition player is hurting your team - easy, you hurt him and send him off injured. We need better punishments to stop this from happening on GF day.