Oppo Camp Viney

[Underdog]

Viney pretty severely pulled back on his momentum. If he was going the bump, he would have kept momentum and run through him, that would have been utter chaos.

I'm in the camp that he did all that he could. He's a midget, got low, pulled back momentum and braced for contact. Avoiding contact was not possible IMO.

The most unfortunate thing for him is that whilst he is small, got low and faced a much taller player, Lynch was brought to his knees in a split second at the very last moment.

 

[Underdog]

The jury shouldn't be allowed to watch any incident in slow motion. It gives the illusion he's got about 45 options and he chooses the wrong one. Viney has 0.5 of a second. Life happens in real time unless inebriated. So decisions should be made with real time footage.

This. The game isn't played in slow motion so judging incidents based on slow motion is pretty absurd other than to determine specific impact.

 

[Matera92]

Rosa would

And we have seen how that has panned out!

 

[Beutbrute]

The AFL are hell bent on avoiding any more players ending like Greg Williams, and i applaud them for that.

Applying forceful contact to an umpire???

 

[Beutbrute]

I've seen a still photo from behind the two players that certainly looks like Viney's right shoulder has connected with Lynch's jaw. The break in the jaw was on the left-hand side which also indicates it was caused by Viney's shoulder and not by the head-clash with Georgiou.

Edit: ah, found it.

So if that's truly the case, how could the MRP constitute that as a medium impact?
If the contact was hard enough to break someone's jaw, surely that would be high impact.

Never should have been suspended though

 

[Eaglemaniac]

One of the beauties of our game is watching two players contest a loose ball at speed, or players fly for a ball not knowing what else might be coming but knowing they might get hurt. Taking one for the team so to speak

We want players to want to win the football and to do so without regard to their own safety. It's part of what makes our sport special

Viney attacked the football in the manner we hope to see (and wish some of our players would) but at the last moment realized he wasn't going to get here first and braced himself for the impact he knew he risked and was now inevitable. At the same moment lynch collected the ball he was taken down in a tackle which lowered his body such that his head collided with vineys shoulder

It was an accident and they happen in football. Doesn't automatically mean someone should get suspended for it.

The decision goes against the spirit that we want to see our game played in - fierce and fair contests where players put their body on the line

This is spot on. He didnt choose to bump Lynch high, he just stood his ground and Lynch was brought forward under the tackle. Anyone who has played the game at high level & high speed knows you dont have ten minutes to make a decision to get out of the way or consider exactly what angle his head will be at in .02 nanoseconds from now. You just go for the footy, and sometimes accidents happen. AFL is supposed to be a full contact sport. When you enter other full contact sports like kickboxing you sign a waiver to say you are aware that you could get hurt and you waive your option to sue. Maybe the AFL needs to bring in those types of clauses into contracts to avoid litigation and to give players who dont want to take that risk another option for a choice of career. The bump is a great part of the game, and should be kept in it. As long as you dont deliberately aim high or jump into someone recklessly then it should be play on.

 

[Wosh]

Common sense prevails in the end but what an embarrassing farce of a process

 

[Eagle87]

Good decision

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2014-05-08/viney-appeal-result

 

[The Falcon Strike]

Hard to think the appeals board wasn't influenced.

The upholding of the appeal seems somewhat contrived.

The AB didn't give a reason did they?

It's the right decision, but i'm cynical that due process was followed.

 

[Quinz]

Hard to think the appeals board wasn't influenced.

The upholding of the appeal seems somewhat contrived.

The AB didn't give a reason did they?

It's the right decision, but i'm cynical that due process was followed.

I don't think due process was followed at any step of the way.

But it's an important decision they've reached, because it says that injury can be caused in a legitimate football collision without incuring a penalty, and that's vital for the spirit of the game, and how we want players to attack the ball without fear of punishment.

 

[Captain Awkward]

I agree that it was an accident as Viney was bracing himself and the right decision was made. I'd feel fairly aggrieved if I was Fyfe though.

I can't say these past few days haven't given me a few laughs though. So many hysterical, mouth frothing responses: "AFL's dead"; "bump's dead"; "players should strike"; "watch rugby instead". It reminds me of supporters adopting a mob mentality with our situation regarding free kicks and ducking. There were and still are many supporters out there that drive themselves into a frenzy believing the AFL has instructed umpires to favour us; that we pay off umpires etc.

To me this incident has illustrated how ye average AFL fan can get worked up like a little girl throwing a tantrum more than anything else. I do wonder how the general public would've felt if Shuey/Glass/pretty much any other Eagles player had been in the same situation .

 

[southjoy]

Ok. Fair enough. Although that pic suggests that the reason it was "high" was impact of a tackle and interestingly Viney appears in that pic to be slightly leaning away which is consistent with a brace for contact not a bump...

Anyone suggesting he had "metres" to make a decision or "never had eyes for the ball" needs to watch it all at normal speed. You're having a laugh.

Remains an awful decision, not because of the netball/soccer comments but because Viney did everything we would ask a fair player to do. Anything less and he'd be getting "soft" comments. He braced, tucked everything in and lowered his body height. And a bloke barely in possession was being carried forward by another player.

If you want to know what a bump is see John Worsfolds highlights. Viney did nothing wrong and circumstances beyond anything reasonably in his control caused a bloke to get hurt ...

Guys wanting 4 weeks scare me ...

This post is absolutely CORRECT

Viney had to go at the contest, the fact that 2 100kg plus players are also coming at the ball with good speed meant that Viney(once realising he wouldnt get to the pill first) had to brace for contact.
The first thing we teach/learn in footy is how to protect ourselves when putting the body in harms way.
This wasnt a bump, if it was then he could under new interpretations of been banned BUT he wasnt bumping - he was bracing for contact.
I'm so glad this got overturned otherwise it would of been a massive blight on our game.

 

[Matera LeNui]

This. The game isn't played in slow motion so judging incidents based on slow motion is pretty absurd other than to determine specific impact.

A little bit of success on this today;

Evans/Afl
He said an important issue was when the Match Review Panel assesses a player's intention in an incident.

"A part of that might be to reinforce to the Match Review Panel that when you're judging a players' intent, you're better off doing that at normal speed," Evans said.

"While you might have slo-mo vision and look at various parts of it, you should judge a player's intent at normal speed."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-05-09/afl-happy-for-jack-evans

 

[Jootube]

This is a really hard call, at the end of the day Viney was the one that made contact and was 99% responsible for the injury that followed. BUT, it wasn't done with malice or even real intent, its like getting suspended for taking a speccy on someones head. I'm glad I wasn't responsible to make the decision.

 

[ziad]

an PR stunt- nothing to do with footy. melbourne need charity and regularly get it from the awful

 

[JCHolmes]

Honestly as long as its accidental, I don't see a problem. I think its good that they are trying to stamp out thuggery(which barely exists now anyway). I Really hate the argument that yesteryears players were tougher. Alot of them were more malicous in a very uncouragous way. Byron Pickett layed alot of big hits yet he squibed more contests going back with the flight than anyone. Gutless coward. Thats what they should be stamping out not accidents of two players going the ball.

 

[Jootube]

Honestly as long as its accidental, I don't see a problem. I think its good that they are trying to stamp out thuggery(which barely exists now anyway). I Really hate the argument that yesteryears players were tougher. Alot of them were more malicous in a very uncouragous way. Byron Pickett layed alot of big hits yet he squibed more contests going back with the flight than anyone. Gutless coward. Thats what they should be stamping out not accidents of two players going the ball.

Yeah, comparing that hit to some of the crap from yesteryear really puts it into perspective. Im beginning to lean towards the "no-malice, no-suspension" side of the argument.