Ford Fairlane
Moderator
- Feb 21, 2002
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- #2,701
I really hope that they are successful in changing it to careless, and then the Tribunal still imposes a 4 week ban, just like it did against Sam Powell-Pepper and Peter Wright for careless, high contact and severe impact.
The AFL really should've just graded it careless, especially considering they were matching the penalty given against two other players who were graded careless. He's laid a bump, but the high contact has come from the careless nature of the bump causing a clash between the top of Rankine's head and Starcevich's chin.
For rough conduct, the AFL is trying to argue that Rankine intentionally committed a reportable offence.
Its like they've set up the Crows for a "win" with a three game suspension after dropping it to careless.
I suspect their thinking is that if the bump had happened in the course of play, it would be graded careless. But Rankine has intentionally crashed into Starcevich off the ball.
The AFL definition of intentional states that, For example, a strike will be regarded as Intentional where a Player delivers a blow to an opponent with the intention of striking him. And they can argue that's what Rankine did.