I have raised this question on the Geelong board and I am unsure if anyone there knew the answer. If there are any police or law experts here, feel free to post.
The question is do police have jurisdiction to charge a player with assault if the action is deemed to be outside the natural course of the game? If the answer is yes, then Leigh Matthews has been the only player to have a criminal conviction next to his name in the last 23 years - yet there have been numerous behind the play king hits and incidents since then that police have not investigated. Secondly, is it the victim who needs to susbtantiate the evidence to proceed with the charges or is this simply the Crown presenting prima facie evidence to validate the case going ahead?
Now I am sure police saw the footage of the Hall incident yet there was no police involvement whatsoever. So how is this incident different to what happened with Matthews and Bruns? Now I am not trying to condone what Matthews or Hall has done - just need some explanation of the law in regards to this matter.
The question is do police have jurisdiction to charge a player with assault if the action is deemed to be outside the natural course of the game? If the answer is yes, then Leigh Matthews has been the only player to have a criminal conviction next to his name in the last 23 years - yet there have been numerous behind the play king hits and incidents since then that police have not investigated. Secondly, is it the victim who needs to susbtantiate the evidence to proceed with the charges or is this simply the Crown presenting prima facie evidence to validate the case going ahead?
Now I am sure police saw the footage of the Hall incident yet there was no police involvement whatsoever. So how is this incident different to what happened with Matthews and Bruns? Now I am not trying to condone what Matthews or Hall has done - just need some explanation of the law in regards to this matter.