Friday musing – AFL, Match Review Panel, Nathan Fyffe…..

Chris Barwin HillsIt has been a busy couple of weeks and I must say sport has probably been a long way from my thoughts.

One of the bigger AFL issues rearing it’s head at the moment is the prospect of Nathan Fyffe getting the most votes in the Brownlow, but being ineligible. I must say he was most unfortunate to be suspended for the incident that was in essence a head clash, but because of the change in rules and because he opted to bump, he was suspended. If the same thing happened last year he would not have been suspended and if the jungle drums are correct, the rule may be clarified next year which may not result in a suspension which would then not preclude a player from winning the Brownlow medal. So we may have the farcical situation where he misses out on the Brownlow on the basis of a rule which existed for one year. How ludicrous would that be!

You think of the other 2 “winners” who missed out on the Brownlow due to suspensions – Corey McKernan and Chris Grant. Both their incidents under the current Match Review Panel system, would probably only result in a reprimand due to lack of force. The AFL has amended rules in the past to allow winners who lost on a count back to be awarded medals and perhaps it is time that McKernan & Grant’s incidents were reviewed in light of current assessments. In McKernan’s case it would not jeopardise the actual winners as James Hird & Michael Voss had the same number of votes as McKernan, but Robert Harvey polled less votes than Grant and that may be an issue.

As an aside, Corey McKernan also missed out on the Rising Star award because of a suspension which was also lacking in force, but let us leave than one alone.

Have a great weekend!