Daniel Jackson cops 3 weeks for headbutting

[1965]

Tigers let down by Jackson
3.19PM  20-5-2010
 Richmond has counselled Daniel Jackson about controlling his on-field aggression as the Tigers' most improved player in recent times prepares for his second stint on the sidelines as a result of suspension this season.

Jackson, runner-up in the Tigers' best and fairest last season and one of their best players during last week's heartbreaking loss to Hawthorn, will serve the first of a three-match ban for headbutting Campbell Brown this week and will miss Saturday night's 'Dreamtime at the G' clash against Essendon.

The 24-year-old, a member of the club's leadership group and incredibly one of the Tigers' most experienced players even though he has played just 76 games, also missed the Round 5 loss to Fremantle in Perth after he was suspended for one match for striking Melbourne captain James McDonald in Round 4.

Richmond assistant coach Daniel Daly admitted on Thursday the inexperienced Tigers, who remain winless after eight rounds, simply could not afford to be without key players like Jackson due to suspension in their current predicament.

"We spoke about it with Jacko during the week and he knows what he has to do as a leader from here on moving forward," Daly said.

"It (the Brown headbutt) was one of those things in the spur of the moment but he made a wrong decision and it's all about your decision making (under pressure)."

"So we spoke about that and he will learn from that moving forward but we are a little disappointed in him."

With Jackson out, the Tigers are hoping that veteran on-baller Ben Cousins will return from a back injury to give the club some much-needed experience in the middle of the ground against the Bombers with Cousins having played just four of the first eight games this season due to injury with his last appearance being back in Round 6 against Geelong.

http://www.sen.com.au/display-article/Tigers-let-down-by-Jackson/9250

 

[one-eyed]

Patrick Smith in yesterday's Australian

Sadly, the AFL match review panel was informed more fully after it made its decision than before it. Simply an unacceptable situation.

Like the week before when the match review panel cleared Hawthorn's Campbell Brown of high contact, the true situation was revealed the day after the panel deliberated. Brown had bumped Jackson but Richmond, not wanting to be deemed dobbers, naively denied contact had been high when contacted by the panel.

However, the next day as Jackson sought to clear himself of a charge of head-butting Brown, the club doctor not spoken to before the Jackson hearing said the Richmond player was fuzzy after being struck in the head. Jackson lost his case. How inept. Saving an opponent, Brown, cost them Jackson, their own player.

One week, one bullet dodged, two bullets found their mark. The illicit drugs policy and the tribunal system are bleeding to death. Slowly but inexorably.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/nrl-aims-straight-as-afl-takes-the-bullets/story-e6frg7mf-1225872751572