League guilty of injuring tradition
Michael Gleeson | February 18, 2009
ADRIAN Anderson (AFL) has been charged by the match review panel with a level-four offence for making forceful front-on contact with the tradition of the game.
Anderson is charged with rough contact in so much as his officers have sought to eliminate an accepted method of play, namely bumping an opponent.
The incident was assessed as intentional conduct (three points), high impact (three points) and body contact (one point). This is a total of seven activation points, resulting in a classification of a level-four offence, drawing 425 demerit points and a four-match ban. An early guilty plea reduces the penalty by 25 per cent and a three-match ban.
The summary of the offence is as follows: regardless of the AFL Tribunal's decision last night, the AFL's match review panel ruled that in its view it was negligent to bump, no matter how legally executed, if contact results in injury.
Anderson, as official custodian of the game, has instructed an interpretation of the rules such that a legal act can simultaneously be deemed an illegal act.
The circumstances of the breach were exposed in the Nick Maxwell case last night. Maxwell challenged player Patrick McGinnity of West Coast, who was parrying the ball near the boundary line.
Crucially, Maxwell opted against tackling McGinnity and chose to execute a bump, a choice hitherto available to the player, and given McGinnity was not in possession of the ball a tackle was not available to Maxwell. McGinnity was knocked over the boundary line and unfortunately will remain there for 10 weeks as his jaw was displaced in the clash.
The action, observed by the umpire, was considered undeserving of a free kick as Maxwell's elbow was down and his feet on the ground, and the West Coast player was in close proximity to the football and thus could have expected the contact.
It was, remember, an action that has been considered not only legal but a worthy part of the game until now. Thus the offence was to have injured.
Anderson's department has decreed that where the player has chosen to bump instead of tackle, he must wear the consequences if a player is injured. It is presumed that a player bumping, not tackling, is invariably seeking to maliciously injure.
Players, we are reminded, must observe a duty of care not to injure another. On that basis it would seem negligence extends to entering any contest during a football game lest an opponent — or teammate — is injured. Even accidentally.
St Kilda player Robert Eddy was also injured last weekend and will now miss a month because an umpire collided with him. The umpire's action was not negligence. It was an accident.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/league-injures-tradition/2009/02/17/1234632812116.html
