Tigers, Saints in Off Field War

wrennyboy

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A livid Richmond coach Danny Frawley last night described as "absolute crap" a declaration by his St Kilda counterpart Grant Thomas that his onballer Steven Baker had been targeted by the Tigers and lacked his "full faculties" when he was reported for striking Kane Johnson behind play.

Frawley accused Baker of targeting "every opposition player" and pledged to defend his team against any sort of "innuendo and insinuation" levelled at it by the opposition coach.

His blast came after Thomas claimed Baker had been felled off the ball about five times and was suffering from a "a very big whack" from Tiger forward Shane Morrison when he was booked by the emergency umpire.

Thomas said Baker was so groggy that he did not know after the match what he had done.

"That's absolute crap. Just go and watch the tape," said Frawley, who believed St Kilda players delivered a few "cheap shots" during their 45-point win.



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St Kilda forward Aaron Hamill, accused during the pre-season of making behind-play attacks on unsuspecting players, was reported during the first quarter for tripping Ty Zantuck a few metres off the ball.

St Kilda utility Jason Blake was taken to hospital during the half-time break for X-rays on his injured back, after Richmond ruckman Greg Stafford appeared to slide in to him with his knees in the first few minutes of the match.

Baker, suspended for one match last year for kicking, made a beeline for Johnson midway through the third quarter, forcing the Richmond onballer from the ground with a bleeding head.

"Baker targets every opposition player," Frawley said. "I'll defend my player until the cows come home.

"I'm not getting involved in it. Obviously I already have, but the judiciary will look after it. We can make comments, but if the opposition coach said that, I'll defend my player to the hilt.

"All I'll say is, just watch the video and let the AFL look after those incidents. But if there's been innuendo and insinuation and the opposition coach has had a crack at our players, we play the game fairly and squarely. If they want to mouth off while they're winners, that's great, but don't be bringing us into it. Let the AFL look after it. End of comment."

Thomas could not say where or when Morrison collected Baker and had not seen the incident involving Johnson, which happened almost in front of where emergency umpire Stephen McBurney was sitting.

He said Baker had not had his "full faculties" at half-time, but defended his decision to put him back on the ground for the third quarter, saying the midfielder had been cleared by medical staff and was a "very tough young guy so I kept backing him".

Baker was taken from the ground immediately after his report, but Thomas said this was more to do with checking on his health than disciplining him for an "uncharacteristic" incident.

"I've spoken to him after the game and he really didn't know what he did," Thomas said. ". . . So we've just got to make sure we sit down and work out what's happened. I'll have a look at the video and we'll take it from there."

Thomas, who said the young Saints had adopted a "bring-it-on" approach to the physical batterings they had received from opposition teams and would not "complain or whinge" about it, accused Richmond of paying deliberate off-the-ball attention to Baker, who was minding Tiger star Nathan Brown.

"Brown's important to them and they probably said, look, Baker's going to be on him so don't miss an opportunity to let him know that you're there, and they didn't," he said.

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2004/04/12/1081621895316.html
 

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