At the weekend I saw a perfect example of the VFL / VAFA getting things wrong on this issue.
A player is lying on the ground face down after a contest, and an opponent ruckmen drops his knees into the players legs and punches him in the back of the head driving his face into the turf. That's gutless Paul Gallen type activity!
The umpire saw this and ran over whistle ready, in the meantime the punched player jumps up and jobs the ruckmen on the chin! So the umpire red carded the punched player for retaliating, even though the umpire witnessed the original events right in front of him!
So the VAFA suspended the player who retaliated for two weeks and left the ruckmen play on! And then fined the team for starting a melee!
And they wonder why fans are sledging the officials, tribunal and the umpires?
It was all caught on video by the way, even the first incident with the umpire in the background looking directly across the players towards the camera!
A player is lying on the ground face down after a contest, and an opponent ruckmen drops his knees into the players legs and punches him in the back of the head driving his face into the turf. That's gutless Paul Gallen type activity!
The umpire saw this and ran over whistle ready, in the meantime the punched player jumps up and jobs the ruckmen on the chin! So the umpire red carded the punched player for retaliating, even though the umpire witnessed the original events right in front of him!
So the VAFA suspended the player who retaliated for two weeks and left the ruckmen play on! And then fined the team for starting a melee!
And they wonder why fans are sledging the officials, tribunal and the umpires?
It was all caught on video by the way, even the first incident with the umpire in the background looking directly across the players towards the camera!
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"