Healy: The AFL lost the plot on this oneBy Gerard Healy
SEN
3 July 2025I must admit this year there appears to have been more head-shaking moments and more decisions of disbelief that I can remember for a long time.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m getting cranky.
On Tuesday night I couldn’t help shake my head when I compared the five weeks given to Tom Lynch because of, essentially, the capacity to cause injury - to the two weeks given to Sam Durham for an incident so much more likely to cause a life-threatening injury.
The comparison is a joke.
For me this was simply the greatest head-shaking moment of the season.
And my head nearly twisted off through the next morning when I read that CEO Andrew Dillon had come out swinging with a warning for all players to be careful of umpires because some were being knocked over too regularly. Some had even been concussed.
So, the warning was appropriate, even if the likelihood of a suspension to Matt Rowell ahead of a finals campaign is so far-fetched it’s bordering on laughable.
They’d be in court before you know it.
The warning made me ask myself, ‘Where the hell was it following the potential para or quadriplegic bump to Adam Cerra?’.
That’s when the warning should have applied.
If Andrew Dillon was going to step up to the plate and wade into footy issues, the umpires getting bowled over is a very late start, given there was one much more important issue that needed addressing.
Maybe you, like me, will have a suggestion for Andrew Dillon to get involved in given he’s now crossed the line into the football department.
And can I say, not before time.
If the umpires’ safety was so important to act then what about the players’ safety? What about Cerra’s safety? What about every other kid who plays the game at all levels?
Football at al levels needed a lecture on what was appropriate and what was totally inappropriate when you attack the ball and bump a player.
Can we remember Ben Johnson getting six weeks for a similar incident about 14 years ago?
The AFL unfortunately was so busy with the Hall of Fame they lost the plot on this one.
But it’s not too late. It’s never too late for something so important.
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2025/07/02/healy-the-afl-lost-the-plot-on-this-one
