It appears increasingly evident that we have a bunch of untouchables in the AFL. These untouchables never get free kicks payed against them yet get so many payed towards them. Most are deserved but frequently enough you wonder whether the adjudication would have changed had it been any other player. More serious incidents are dealt with leniency by the Match Review Committee and the Judiciary, if it even makes it that far.
West Coast’s Chris Judd is one such untouchable. He was involved in an incident last weekend in West Coast’s loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania. He was reported for eye gouging Campbell Brown after being tackled. Video shows him clearly clawing at the face of Brown near his eyes. Whether he was gouging is hard to tell. One thing is for sure, Campbell Brown is no softie so for him to react the way he did he had to be at the very least contacted in the eye region.
Jeff Farmer from Fremantle got suspended for eye gouging earlier this season for 6 weeks, and I clearly remember Barry Hall a few years ago getting 5 weeks for merely clawing at the face of Port Adelaide’s Matthew Primus.
Judd was given a one-week suspension if he were to take the early guilty plea. He decided to contest the charge and ended up being let off by the tribunal. For Judd to face the tribunal contesting a possible one-week suspension for eye gouging is simply ridiculous. Even taking into account his relatively clean record, a very serious charge of eye gouging deserves at least four weeks as a starting point. I wouldn’t have cared if he got it down to one or two in contesting the charge but from what I saw he deserved to be rubbed out for some amount of time.
It’s one set of rules for some, another set for everyone else.
West Coast’s Chris Judd is one such untouchable. He was involved in an incident last weekend in West Coast’s loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania. He was reported for eye gouging Campbell Brown after being tackled. Video shows him clearly clawing at the face of Brown near his eyes. Whether he was gouging is hard to tell. One thing is for sure, Campbell Brown is no softie so for him to react the way he did he had to be at the very least contacted in the eye region.Jeff Farmer from Fremantle got suspended for eye gouging earlier this season for 6 weeks, and I clearly remember Barry Hall a few years ago getting 5 weeks for merely clawing at the face of Port Adelaide’s Matthew Primus.
Judd was given a one-week suspension if he were to take the early guilty plea. He decided to contest the charge and ended up being let off by the tribunal. For Judd to face the tribunal contesting a possible one-week suspension for eye gouging is simply ridiculous. Even taking into account his relatively clean record, a very serious charge of eye gouging deserves at least four weeks as a starting point. I wouldn’t have cared if he got it down to one or two in contesting the charge but from what I saw he deserved to be rubbed out for some amount of time.
It’s one set of rules for some, another set for everyone else.
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