O'Hailpin - the luck of the Irish.

'The AFL tribunal is a complete disgrace'

One of the aims of this blog is to present a rational, thoughtful reaction to the current issues surrounding AFL football. Something in contrast to some of the disposable opinion pieces that are regularly published in our daily sports pages. No sensationalism. No ridiculous, fanciful, provocative statements. No controversy. (And with my reader base, believe me, I cold stir up some controversy). With these core values (decided by my 'leadership group') in mind I have made the above statement.

Let's give the tribunal a clean slate. I can forget about the past. Its first serious decision this year was to give Setanta O'Hailpin five weeks. This got reduced to four because he admitted it (hahaha), then the tribunal in its unpreparedness and stupidity said he could serve it during the Panasonic cup. Even though four hundred preseason games are not worth one real game. They probably knew Setanta wouldn't be playing many regular season games anyway. The footage of the incident is damning to say the least. Setanta belted his own teammate and then kicked him while he was on the ground, defenceless. Mike Sheahan suggested he would get 12. How, in 2009, can a player get just four games (pointless ansett cup games) for doing this?

The glorious AFL is a highly political institution, driven by an insatiable public and media. February is the feel good time of the year. Every player has done their first ever pre-season. (Those that are still injured have been exiled and banned from media contact). Every club has a full list ready to play for the first time in a decade. Membership levels are at record highs. And before the real games begin, the commentators,for some reason, are happy to fill the sports pages with feel good stories of football players and coaches finding goodness in the football community. See human interest stories on Dean Laidley, Alan Didak, David Zaharakis, Shaun Higgins, Jarrod Harbrow, and every player at Richmond (their PR man is good).

All very lucky for O'Hailpin. He is a fringe player at best. Some suggested Carlton take this opportunity to delist him. Others suggested delisting him would be 'hanging him out to dry', as Carlton had recruited him from Ireland and owed him something. They have paid him enough I'm sure. What Carlton choose to do with O'Hailpin is their business. But the tribunal does have a responsibility to enforce the rules and punish players suitably for breaking the rules. The tribunal does, in my mind, have a responsibility to be consistent. The biggest problem it has had for so many years is a blatant lack of consistency from week to week. If the tribunal did work on the core value of consistency (I don't have a nobel prize so I don't understand the points system) then the O'Hailpin judgment is a joke. As the season goes by, can all reported players point to this precedent of extreme leniency and escape with light penalties? Could it lead to a new era of AFL violence??? (You wish...) No. Because the AFL tribunal pays no heed to precedent. It has no interest in consistency. The tribunals judgments are decided by a points system that comes up with decisions that are completely random and sometimes quite ridiculous. And that is a rational appraisal.

PS... I ordinarily refrain from representing Collingwood's interests in any way, but one only needs to look at the penalty Nick Maxwell got for his good old fashioned hip and shoulder to agree with the sentiments above.