Twin North Melbourne premiership participant David King has torn shreds off the AFL in the wake of Patrick Cripps’ profitable attraction of his two-match suspension.
Cripps was initially banned for his excessive bump which left Brisbane’s Callum Ah Chee concussed on Sunday.
Watch Cripps converse in the video above
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However after a marathon 4½-hour listening to at the AFL Appeals Board, the Carlton skipper is free to play after his counsel efficiently overturned the suspension.
Christopher Townshend argued the tough conduct cost was “infected with error” and Cripps had been “denied natural justice”.
In a gap assertion that went for virtually two hours, Townshend argued, “a wholesale failure in the lead-up to the Cripps ban should determine it void”.
The attraction decision is a big enhance for Carlton, whose finals hopes rely upon successful at least one in every of the subsequent two blockbuster video games in opposition to Melbourne or Collingwood.
King has lengthy championed the crucial to defend the head, and has consistently criticised the AFL for not doing sufficient to change behaviour.
On Friday morning, the attraction decision had him steaming from the ears.
“It contradicts everything that we’ve been talking about for the past 3-4 years about protecting the head. This, in my opinion, is not as line-ball as what others think,” he mentioned.
“I was staggered by the AFL counsel Nicholas Pane (who) said he was adamant a player could contest the ball while watching with eyes on the ball, and still maintain the action of bumping an opponent.
“I think they’re two different things; you’re either contesting the ball, or you’re bracing or bumping – they’re not one and the same.
“It’s very rare that you can contest for the ball and put a bump on at the same time because your arms tell you what you’re doing. Are you bracing? Are you ready for contact? Or are you reaching for the ball?
“I think Nicholas Pane got it wrong, and he was beaten by the opposing case.
“I think the game’s never been more lost than what it is now.
“No one knows what dissent it, no one knows what holding the ball is, no one knows what protecting the head is any more, no one knows what’s a fair contest and what isn’t. We’ve got no idea on basics of the game that we have always had a clear understanding of.
“To have a case flipped on legalities highlights the ’mare that the AFL has had with all of these things. And throw ducking and lowering your (body) in – that’s bounced around all year.”
King referred to as out AFL normal supervisor Brad Scott for his deafening silence on the problem.
“Why don’t we hear from Brad Scott and those at the AFL about protecting the head?” he mentioned.
“Why don’t they put their head up and talk to us, the fans? Why don’t they? Because they’re worried about the legalities down the track. That’s why. That’s the facts.
“At the start of the year (the AFL said), ‘We’re going to take a stance on anything that’s fractionally late.’ Well, this is fractionally late.
“This is what it looks like in reality, so don’t tell us one thing … at the start of the season and then, four months later, be completely at odds with that because we’ve got two weeks to go before a finals series.
“Put your head up, come and tell us what’s going on with our game because, right now, it’s a mess.”
Cripps informed Channel 7 he was relieved to hear the information after the marathon listening to.
“I’m not a great watcher. The legal team did a great job,” he mentioned.
“Once it gets to the legal stage, it’s well out of my pay grade. Half the stuff they were talking about, I didn’t really know what was going on.”
He mentioned the listening to went for so lengthy he went house from the membership to have a bathe midway by.
“I was at the club, went for a few hours, and then I actually went home and then had a shower and then clicked back on,” he mentioned.
“I just had dinner and put it on in the background. I’d never been through something like that. I think a few boys were following bits and pieces but, by the time it finished, they would have all been asleep.”
He maintained he by no means meant to bump Ah Chee and was solely ever going for the ball.
“You can clearly see on the vision that I went for the ball the whole time,” he mentioned.
“I said that throughout the whole tribunal process. Now it’s just up to getting back on the footy field and doing what I love.”
