Saturday night will be the night that everyone will remember in the AFL. With big milestone moments everyone asks “where were you”, “what were you doing” and the same will be asked “Where were you during the Barry Hall king hit?”.
The AFL is currently celebrating its 150 years through a book and other means and this is the last thing the powers of the AFL would want to see. The last time something like this happened was Leigh Mathews. These incidents damages the games reputation and gives a reason for parents not to allow their kids play the game. Currently as I am writing this all the talk is would you allow your kid play the game?
Not only does this damage their reputation but what about the Sydney market?
As you can see this a HUGE incident and the ripples of Barry’s actions will be felt for many up coming weeks. Is there room for the red card with incidents like this?
Now the big question is, how long should he be suspended for?
There currently is a betting market for how long he should be suspended for. With money for over 4.5 weeks and under 4.5 weeks.
Kick2Kick opinion
Technically by the law of the game with high impact, behind the play and being purposeful he gets enough ‘points’ to receive 4 weeks with an early guilty plea. Now I personally do not think that is fair but the AFL does have the power to scrap that and direct them directly to the tribunal, which they should (edit: and did). However does the AFL powers have enough guts to be serious with incidents like this and throw the book at him?
Does Karma exist in the AFL?
We all hate seeing players injury themselves but did anyone actually have any pity for Barry Hall when he ran into the fence? I personally did not. News of him breaking his wrist and he missing up to six weeks could actually be longer than the result of the king hit.
Your opinion on the Barry Hall hit on Brent Staker
Gives us your opinion, how the AFL should handle the situation and how long he should get.
All tribunal news and other news will be listed and updated hear.
Update 15/04/2008: Barry Hall got suspended for 10 weeks and with a guilty plea got it reduced to 7 weeks, which surprisingly will mean that the last game he misses will be the reply against the West Coast Eagles in round 11. Video of the press conference is below in the comments section.
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April 14th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
WOW! One thing which was raised above but has not been raised elsewhere has been: is there a place for cards in the AFL?
I reckon there is, we saw a situation in the 2004 Grand Final were Lynch was aiming hay makers at Port Adelaide’s Waklin. What if he connected? Would Brisbane have won 4 Grand Finals instead of just 3?
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April 15th, 2008 at 8:57 am
This sure has brought up many peoples opinions with both sides of the family saying stuff as well as ex-players:
Stakers Dad: “He is a weak mongrel”
Halls sister: “He’s a better role model for the kids than Ben Cousins – at least he’s not a druggie”
Sam McFarlane: “This is not new. He’s been doing it for 10 or 11 years”
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April 15th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I’m thinking he will go for 8-10 weeks.
I know at junior level and i think at W.A.F.L level, they have the red and yellow cards and they are an effective way of neutralising a situation like Barry Hall’s incident.
They only problem I have with red and yellow cards is that the umpires making the decisions sometimes should just reward a penalty but send a player off (e.g Soccer) and this can terribly affect the outcome of the whole team not just the player. I guess there are pros and cons for both side of the argument. Maybe they could trial this idea in the pre-season games.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Barry Hall suspended for seven weeks
April 15, 2008: Barry Hall has been suspended for seven weeks by the AFL tribunal.
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April 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
It looks like that apart from a very small number of people (mainly the Eagles) no one is supportive of the cards system which like Johnnytruent said, is in every other league.
Andrew Demetriou comments
Leigh Mathews reflections
As they both say it only happens once every 10 odd years, so surely it wont hurt to have the team suffering because of one of the team mates selfish behaviour.
I personally remember how in junior footy the team got really angry at the guilty person and they threaten to not let him play and guess what? The team suffering caused him to clean up his act. It works and the card system should be in.
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