‘No consistency at all’: Tigers great stunned as Soldo brushes mediaBen Waterworth
FOX SPORTS
May 22, 2019
Richmond has been left stunned by the AFL Tribunal’s decision to uphold ruckman Ivan Soldo’s one-suspension, with a club legend saying punishments for similar incidents were now “impossible to predict”.
The Tigers on Tuesday night attempted to reduce Soldo’s one-game striking ban, handed to him by AFL Match Review Officer Michael Christian to a fine.
But after 14 minutes of deliberating, the three-man jury ruled it was intentional conduct and so Soldo will miss Saturday night’s Dreamtime At The ‘G clash against the Bombers.
Soldo, Richmond and his team brushed past the media without comment after the hearing. But Tigers football manager Neil Balme made the club’s displeasure clear, shaking his head immediately after the verdict.
The Tigers accepted Christian’s original gradings of high contact and low impact, but attempted to reduce the ‘intentional’ grading to ‘careless’.
Soldo testified he was only trying to shield himself when he put up a forearm up and caught Hawks midfielder James Worpel high, but AFL advocate Jeff Gleeson GC called it an “impulsive fit of frustration”.
The upholding of the suspension has frustrated Richmond after three separate results for four similar incidents.
Unlike Soldo, Geelong and Gary Ablett successfully argued their case at the tribunal last month, with Ablett escaping with a fine for his contact with Bomber Dylan Shiel in Round 7 after originally being handed a one-week ban with the same gradings as Soldo’s hit on Worpel.
A week later, Ablett and Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe weren’t charged by the MRO for two more similar-looking incidents. Christian deemed that the force of their strikes wasn’t sufficient enough to warrant a reportable offence.
But Tigers legend Matthew Richardson said he was “genuinely surprised” by the tribunal’s call on Soldo, considering some “high profile precedent in the last few weeks”.
“No consistency at all and impossible to predict from week to week,” Richardson wrote on Twitter.
Genuinely surprised Soldo’s 1 week ban was upheld tonight. Considering some high profile precedent in the last few weeks. No consistency at all and impossible to predict from week to week.
— Matthew Richardson (@mattricho0) May 21, 2019Richmond star Jack Riewoldt thought his teammate would be available to face Essendon.
“I just thought we had a good case, because there’s been some recent form on this,” Riewoldt told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“I don’t agree wholeheartedly with whether this one or the last two should’ve been suspensions — I don’t think there’s a real spot in the game for high elbows — but if there’s a stance that’s been set, there’s a stance that’s been set.”
Melbourne veteran and Fellow AFL 360 panellist Jordan Lewis agreed.
“What we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks has probably set a precedent with these sorts of acts,” Lewis said on Tuesday night.
“It doesn’t look good … purely from the eye test, you would think it’s a report. But by what we’ve seen over the last two or three weeks, we are a little bit surprised by that I suppose.”
Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson said he was “staggered” by the tribunal’s call, but 360 co-host Gerard Whateley said the circumstances around Soldo’s hit were different to the others.
“You’re staggered by it? You can obstinately pretend that this is the same as Ablett and Fyfe — and I’ve heard people do that all day long — except this is different: One is stop play and one is in play,” Whateley said.
“That was never coming back any other way.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2019-ban-for-ivan-soldo-leaves-richmond-legend-matthew-richardson-stunned/news-story/5b7e6fbaffcd7d3936def922385c0ca3
