Mega Thread 2023 AFL Finals Chat

[Bigger]

You know, I'm not convinced Van Rooyen is much better then Treacy, if at all.

He hits a contest with intensity but he has limited leg speed. Deadset waddler.

I like him but I reckon Trace is the better all-round option. And he knows how to keep his elbows down. You're no good at all if you aren't allowed to play.

 

[mayne iac]

I wonder if Brayshaws brothers and old man will get around Maynard and pray that he will get through the pain and anguish like they did with Gaff

 

[oldgoat]

Lobb has no aspirations. Just wants to get paid and play games.
Otherwise Melbourne would’ve been perfect.

Thats an aspiration...
Prospect of a Flag would have sharpened him up...
It loops back around to the others...
And everyone wants Premiership Player on their CV given the chance!

 

[Taylor]

Not sure what the general consensus is on the Maynard/Brayshaw incident but I personally think it was just a bit clumsy and a result of a player leaping to try and spoil a kick towards goal. I saw Zac Dawson

Zac Dawson

Age

38

Ht

197cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.0

3star

K

3.4

1star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.7

4star

T

1.5

3star

MG

34.4

1star

No current season stats available

D

8.0

2star

K

3.0

1star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

1.4

4star

do the same thing trying to spoil a Selwood handball in the qualifying final game from 2013 on the highlights earlier in the day and that was also not a problem for me.

I don't like that Angus was knocked out but I think it was a genuine football action attempting to smother the ball, similar to if Maynard had taken an attempt at a mark on someone's shoulders and then when he started falling down curled in reflex and knocked someone out when he landed on them.

Happy for someone to convince me otherwise.

 

[Beak_A]

I don’t think in that split second Maynard had to choose his action that he was able to consider the possible outcomes of his choice. That’s fair enough, most people wouldn’t. But he made the wrong choice as a guy was hit high, knocked out, carried off on a stretcher and missing the rest of the game and at least next week as a result. That has to be careless IMO and shouldn’t be let go.

So it’s careless, high and we can argue high or severe impact, I’d suggest severe is appropriate.
With the AFL focus on head injuries and all the talk of duty of care around dangerous tackles can’t see how he gets off. Tho of course the MRO isn’t bound by precedent so who knows.


Tuks is my buddy LFG!

 

[Joao]

It's should be weeks all day long. There is nothing about attempting to spoil that necessitates turning your shoulder mid-air to collect the head.

 

[gungho]

Should be minimum 2 weeks but he will get the Victorian discount. Gone for 1 IMO. At the end of the day he left the ground and collected someone in the head. If brayshaw was fine he wouldn’t be suspended but thems the breaks. Van rooyan will be banned for 1 too

 

[Sweetback]

This is up there with the Darling flop with Suttcliffe:

 

[Outshined]

Cripps was let off before a crunch game last season for a far more malicious action, so if there's any consistency Maynard should be fine...luckily the MRP/tribunal still think consistency is a made-up foreign term, so it's probably 2 weeks.

In all seriousness, he should go for that. The jump to smother is justifiable but turning your body into a player's exposed head really forfeits the 'football action' defence.

 

[Kram]

Looking forward to Carlton v Sydney tonight.

 

[mike91]

Went to the game last night.

Pretty much went how I predicted it. I don't take Melbourne seriously and I'm on record as saying they're enormously overrated

They should've pinched it in the last quarter, but it honestly never felt like they were going too.

Kozzy Pickett.....I'm a fan, but he has to be the least composed small forward when it comes to kicking crumbing goals. Just kicks in hope and tries to kick it too far. Goodwin is far too soft on him and coaches him quite poorly. I see why Melbourne fans in the crowd get annoyed by Pickett.

 

[Outshined]

Went to the game last night.

Pretty much went how I predicted it. I don't take Melbourne seriously and I'm on record as saying they're enormously overrated

They should've pinched it in the last quarter, but it honestly never felt like they were going too.

Kozzy Pickett.....I'm a fan, but he has to be the least composed small forward when it comes to kicking crumbing goals. Just kicks in hope and tries to kick it too far. Goodwin is far too soft on him and coaches him quite poorly. I see why Melbourne fans in the crowd get annoyed by Pickett.

Get similar vibes to West Coast 2018 in that they're a good but not great side that managed to time things perfectly one year.

Nothing at all wrong with that of course, a premiership's a premiership...but you're spot on that it never felt likely last night. Collingwood will be breathing a massive sigh of relief they somehow managed to win being -32 on inside 50s.

 

[Big Animal]

A. Brayshaw must be close to retiring now due to numerous concussions. Famous and well connected AFL family. Long term player and premiership winner for big Vic club. Currently on a relatively big/long contract.

If you were AFL House you would have to be concerned about fronting up to court one day answering why your contempories let Maynard off (cause final, cause Collingwood, cause not malicious) but also arguing how at the same time you were doing everything you could to create an environment that best protected the players heads under the circumstances of a contact sport, particularly when the player was in a vulnerable position.

Given that concussion cases were already made against your business, and most recent decisions earlier in the year resulting in concussions caused by opponents were being treated seriously due to the known science and medical issues, I wouldn't want to be answering such questions in court without being able to show how Maynard and that act was actively being rubbed out.

We will see if AFL House is playing the short or long game.

Also, if it was a Port player doing the same this weekend, it would be safe to assume he would get 2-3 weeks.

 

[DeanS]

One thing I think we'll all agree on is that his helmet thingy is next to useless.

 

[pK75]

One thing I think we'll all agree on is that his helmet thingy is next to useless.

Only if you line him up to hit him exactly where the helmet isn’t, ie his face!

 

[King Tenz]

A. Brayshaw must be close to retiring now due to numerous concussions. Famous and well connected AFL family. Long term player and premiership winner for big Vic club. Currently on a relatively big/long contract.

It's harsh but we might have dodged a serious bullet here.

 

[noise36]

Not sure what the general consensus is on the Maynard/Brayshaw incident but I personally think it was just a bit clumsy and a result of a player leaping to try and spoil a kick towards goal. I saw Zac Dawson do the same thing trying to spoil a Selwood handball in the qualifying final game from 2013 on the highlights earlier in the day and that was also not a problem for me.

I don't like that Angus was knocked out but I think it was a genuine football action attempting to smother the ball, similar to if Maynard had taken an attempt at a mark on someone's shoulders and then when he started falling down curled in reflex and knocked someone out when he landed on them.

Happy for someone to convince me otherwise.

People get weeks for football actions all the time. i.e. dangerous/sling tackles

Thing that I dont get.

Two players running towards each other to collect the ball, a "football action" , for what ever reason they are going to collide nothing either can do at that point, and one player braces for impact and their shoulder hits the other player in the head.

People have no problem calling for weeks.

Have the exact same thing happen with Maynard jumping in the air and suddenly its all fine just a "football action", nothing he could have done right? Well he could have not jumped directly into the head of a playing running towards him for starters. After he did that he could have put his hands out to brace and not tucked the shoulder.

 

[DeanS]

Only if you line him up to hit him exactly where the helmet isn’t, ie his face!

I beg to differ. Concussion and getting knocked out comes from the brain sloshing around inside the skull. Helmets have limited effectiveness preventing that. They help to minimise getting a fractured skull or some such but have very limited use against concussion etc..

 

[Bigger]

Funny you should have mentioned Zac Dawson

Zac Dawson

Age

38

Ht

197cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.0

3star

K

3.4

1star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.7

4star

T

1.5

3star

MG

34.4

1star

No current season stats available

D

8.0

2star

K

3.0

1star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

1.4

4star

's very similar hit on Selwood, Taylor. Zac made a career out of finely calibrated acts of "clumsiness".

Maynard can't play the same unco card Zac could play, but both those blokes knowingly converted attempts at smothering into hits. If you are jumping up to smother a ball, arms outstretched, what part of that includes wrapping up for a hit?

It wasn't his initial intent, but he took the opportunity and the result was a bloke gets hit in the head and is concussed. Gornski and it, for mine, is a direct measure of the AFL's integrity.

Which they will, no doubt, fail because there's a ****ing fairy tale.

 

[Big Animal]

People get weeks for football actions all the time. i.e. dangerous/sling tackles

Thing that I dont get.

Two players running towards each other to collect the ball, a "football action" , for what ever reason they are going to collide nothing either can do at that point, and one player braces for impact and their shoulder hits the other player in the head.

People have no problem calling for weeks.

Have the exact same thing happen with Maynard jumping in the air and suddenly its all fine just a "football action", nothing he could have done right? Well he could have not jumped directly into the head of a playing running towards him for starters. After he did that he could have put his hands out to brace and not tucked the shoulder.

i agree. i'm just curious how AFL House plays it.

 

[oldgoat]

I don't think the "footy act" defense works anymore. If the afl has taken a stance that tackles that are dangerous are no longer allowed and breach duty of care, then it isn't much to extend that to other acts like smothers.

Agree.
We are only really talking about "footy acts" at this stage because "non-footy acts" are no longer defensible.

We have to drill down into the category, "footy acts", because if they are too dangerous, they are too dangerous!

Sling tackles, driving into tackles, high tackles that start low, late bumps, feet off the ground bumps, unrealistic early marking attempts, blocking, and kicking in danger are all in the borderline zone between legitimate/illegitimate footy acts.

Proposition: When a player leaps into the air at speed, putting their body on a collision course with another players head, they are committing a dangerous act! Even if there is a ball to be won between them. A smother is the act between the player and the ball.

Whether we like it or not, we are entering the period where the "footy act" defence will not be accepted in head injury litigation.

I argue we need to lead on this...
How about we act as if "the head is sacrosanct "*

* Sacrosanct. (especially of a principle, place, or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Maynard should not be rubbed out IMO. It’s a contact sport and it looked like a legitimate football act to me. 5 years ago it wouldn’t have even been a discussion. Give it another 5 years and the game will be slower than super glue as the players try to play while wearing helmets, padding, shin guards etc.

 

[DragoDelph]

Want the Swans to win.
Expect the Blues to destroy them. :/

 

[noise36]

Want the Swans to win.
Expect the Blues to destroy them. :/

Blues are us last season, will win the first game lose the second.

 

[Kram]

Don't really care who wins, don't like either team.

Carlton losing would be funnier though.