Going by the tribunal summary file on the AFL website if we could have got the Reckless charge down to negligent then the penalty would have been reduced the demerit points 325 to 225 (3 weeks down to 2) but I guess you then miss out on the 25% discount for an early plea so as Weaver said it still ends up as 2 weeks
. I presume we needed the tribunal to say the contact was negligent originally for us to then take the early plea to knock it down to 1 week.
CONDUCT - IMPACT - LOCATION - CONTACT - ACTIVATION POINTS - LEVEL - DEMERIT POINTS
RECKLESS - LOW - BEHIND PLAY - HIGH - 7 - 3 - 325
NEGLIGENT - LOW - BEHIND PLAY - HIGH - 6 - 2 - 225
http://afl.com.au/cp2/c2/webi/article/183697aa.pdfI can't argue with the grading which determined the 2 weeks. The thing that worries me in this instance is that it was basically an act of self defence, which doesn't appear to be taken into consideration. Cloke was backing into Hall with the intention of elbowing him with considerable force. The umpire who gave the free was watching closely because Cloke tried a few times and I think that is why he made no report. Surely the review panel would talk to the umpire.
The only non-reportable action I can think of that Hall could have taken would have been to either run away or let Cloke elbow him. Very tough on Ray.
The tribunal doesn't appear to care about provocation unless the its extreme:
MITIGATION
In determining a Level to be given to a Reportable Offence, the Match Review Panel will not take into account any provocation or whether a Player was acting in self-defence. Ordinarily those are matters which would be relevant to any sanction to be imposed and while the Tribunal will generally apply the Level classification of the Match Review Panel, there is power in Player Rule 23.7.1 for the Tribunal to substitute another classification, if it is appropriate in all the circumstances to do so. Extreme provocation as an example, may amount to an exceptional and compelling circumstance which would make it inappropriate or unreasonable for the Tribunal to apply the classification of the Match Review Panel, if sufficient and credible evidence of extreme provocation was adduced before the Tribunal.