Blues Brothers trip to the tribunal

[flyboy77]

Disgraceful decision that totally ignored the AFL's own rules for how a successful appeal should be assessed....

"Hocking said the AFL had appealed both of the financial sanctions on the grounds that:

* no Tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it
* the sanction imposed was manifestly inadequate."

As a matter of law, I would presume that both elements are necessary, not either.

As to the first requirement, well it appears the Appeal Board (or whatever they're coined) simply ignored this entirely - and it is strongly refuted by the May decision, let alone common sense.

The second arm - was it "manifestly inadequate"? Well, hard to argue that one too in the light of the May decision (which I gather the Appeals Board managed to ignore entirely too)  and in light of countless other incidents of contact that were never even taken to the Tribunal.

Conclusion? Carp decision with no legal or administrative basis.

I can only presume given CFC's lame response, they were spoken to ahead of time and were told to take it on the chin for whatever reason.