DID THE AFL “LET THE GAME DOWN” NOT SUSPENDING ASTBURY AND DANIHER?Andy Maher believes the AFL missed a trick when failing to suspend both David Astbury and Joe Daniher this week.
In Maher’s opinion, that does not line up with the AFL’s stance on protecting the head which saw Patrick Dangerfield banned for three matches for his head-high bump on Adelaide’s Jake Kelly.
“This is where the AFL let the game down a bit when Astbury and Daniher threw the elbows back,” he said on SEN’s Bob & Andy.
“Those blokes knew exactly what they were doing. They knew where the heads of the opposition players were.
“Ok, there’s been more violent elbows thrown in the history of footy than those two, but they knew what they were doing. That was deliberate.
“Deliberately made contact with an opposition player’s head and we’re just lucky that there was no serious damage done to either of the opposition players.
“If we’re going to be fair dinkum, there’s no fines for that. That d---head factor, the imbecile factor. You’re out for being a d---head, you’ve got a week for doing that, automatic.
“Then we’ll grade it up from there. Let’s get fair dinkum about the head.”
Former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy agreed with that sentiment, suggesting Astbury and Daniher both knew exactly what they were doing.
“They’ve created that situation, the game didn’t put them in a situation where it’s, ‘what do you do now?’, split-second, bang, decide,” he said.
“It’s like, ‘get off me’, here we go, whack, cop that.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/03/24/did-the-afl-let-the-game-down-not-suspending-astbury-and-daniher/
