A clear AFL message

by LES EVERETT

THE dust has settled. Adrian Fletcher's appeal has been dismissed and after more than a decade of fair play he now has a record.

The original penalty seemed almost apologetic, a way of not making the umpire look too silly while also not imposing a heavy penalty on the player.

It seems a sterner view was taken by the appeal tribunal and the player was lucky the suspension wasn't increased.

This saga is part of the AFL's attempts to send out a clear message to clubs and players that umpires can't be touched. But as with many clear messages from the AFL this one looks a bit blurry.

How come, for instance, no action was taken in the case of West Coast's Ben Cousins who made contact with an umpire in the same round? Now my memory of that incident - I was watching the game on TV - was that Cousins ran back as though he believed he would get a free kick. There can be two reasons for this, he might have been trying to con the umpire or perhaps he'd been pushed into the umpire and thought his opponent would be penalised.

Either way this seems a potentially serious case, but it wasn't closely examined. Cousins, by the way, is, like Fletcher, a complete ball player who certainly shouldn't have his time wasted by tribunals. But times have changed.

And let's consider this hypothetical case. It's preliminary final day. There's a scramble after a bounce down. Essendon's James Hird runs into an umpire.

Fair, courageous, skilful, wonderful James Hird. Will the tribunal give him a week and make him miss the grand final?

And if it doesn't will there be compensation for Todd Curley, Adrian Fletcher, the Western Bulldogs and the Dockers?

A clear message from the AFL? Just watch it fog up.

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