‘Cut the crap’: Great fumes after AFL ticks off play continuing over ‘unconscious’ Tiger Dion PrestiaMax Laughton
Fox Sports
June 27th, 2022 7:09 pmMelbourne great Garry Lyon was left baffled by the AFL’s explanation regarding play continuing when Richmond’s Dion Prestia was concussed against Geelong.
The Tigers midfielder was collected by Cats defender Tom Stewart - in a bump likely to earn the All-Australian a month-long ban - but play continued for another two minutes as Prestia was helped off the field.
As Lyon flagged on Fox Footy’s On the Couch, that saw being kicked “over Prestia’s head” even as trainers attended to the concussed player.
“When we have a look at this sequence ... the trainer puts his hand up straight away. Play in the vicinity,” Lyon said.
“One of them is trying to work out (what’s happening), Tom Hawkins goes across (to Prestia), the play is right there. Stop it right there. You’ve still got players in the area. Ball goes back (over him).
“How they can say that’s not in danger - it’s gone over his (Prestia’s) head! We’re not making light of this, it goes over his head again. We’ve got a Richmond player and a Geelong player there again. So why didn’t they stop the game?”
As St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt pointed out, Prestia and the trainers were in the protected area for a Tigers teammate as play continued.
“The umpire’s right there telling them to get out of the protected area. Guess what, he can’t, he’s unconscious!” Riewoldt said.
Herald Sun AFL reporter Jon Ralph said the league had ticked off the way the umpires handled the situation.
“They’ve said the umpires department is comfortable with how it played out, and that the ball moved away from the stoppage,” Ralph said on On the Couch.
Lyon interrupted to add: “No it didn’t. No it didn’t.”
Ralph continued: “They say there wasn’t a stoppage that would’ve allowed for the game to be stopped.
“That’s the AFL’s response, I thought, let’s cut the crap. Let’s go to (Richmond senior club advisor) Neil Balme.
“He says you’re right, the club was thinking about the player rather than the big picture. In hindsight we absolutely should’ve taken the stretcher out, which would’ve officially stopped the game. 20 minutes off for Prestia who was never coming back anyway.
“So he says that’s probably on us (Richmond), but all of us believe they should’ve stopped it.”
But Lyon suggested it shouldn’t be up to the club involved to work around the rules to force a stoppage of play.
And he pointed out the lack of stoppage meant Richmond was down a man, through no fault of their own, which directly led to a Geelong goal.
“Balmey’s a pragmatic, sensible man who says yeah, it’s our fault,” Lyon said.
“To try and deny culpability - the other issue is, and this is why Richmond would be reviewing it I would imagine, is for two minutes it’s 17 v 18.
“We have a look at the play here. Dion Prestia who’s obviously a midfielder, we see him being walked off the ground, but have a look through the middle of the ground - Joel Selwood was his nominal opponent (and he’s free).
“And then they’re out everywhere (leading to the Stengle goal), in a game decided by less than a goal.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2022-dion-prestia-concussion-tom-stewart-play-continues-richmond-vs-geelong-reaction-video-on-the-couch/news-story/575eac5482f6543d2905e144bca6cb3c
