David King has taken aim at the AFL’s judicial system for not “changing behaviour” when it comes to high elbows and head-high bumps.
Multiple head-high incidents have gone unpunished this season with the likes of Bayley Fritsch, Lance Franklin, Luke Shuey and David Astbury all escaping bans for stray elbows.
“No one’s changing behaviour. Don’t tell me one person’s listening to the MRO or the Tribunal … it is a complete shambles,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“What do you do at the end of the year? Why doesn’t ‘Chrisso’ (Michael Christian) come out and say, ‘I don’t agree with half of these rulings’.
“Something is broken here. Either he has a horrific read of the game and legislating actions like head-high bumps and elbows out of the game – we’re getting more of them than we’ve ever got – because he’s ballsed it up. It’s a complete balls-up.”
GWS star Toby Greene will face the Tribunal this week to challenge his two-match ban for striking Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield.
The Match Review Officer graded Greene’s elbow on Dangerfield as careless conduct, high contact and high impact.
Given Fritsch and Franklin both had their recent suspensions for similar incidents thrown out at the Tribunal, Greene could follow suit given the precedent has been set.
“We’re wasting our time sending Toby Greene to an appearance that we know he’s going to get off,” King said.
“I find that ridiculous. I find that stupid.
“It’ll be the only governing body on the globe that would say, ‘we’re going to suspend you for two weeks, but we know on Tuesday night you’ll be fine’.
“We all know he’s getting off, yet we’re going to waste everyone’s time and go to the Tribunal tomorrow night and put the planning of GWS in a bit of a haze.
“This is not a Toby Greene rule, this is slightly different, but it was the perfect storm for Chrisso, for it to be Toby Greene.”
Geelong captain Joel Selwood was fined $3000 for a high bump on Giants defender Sam Taylor in Friday night’s match.
The MRO graded the rough conduct incident as careless conduct, high contact and low impact with Taylor avoiding injury to play a key role in GWS’ upset win.
“The Joel Selwood bump annoys me more than anything,” King said.
Gerard Whateley replied: “This is the problem with the set-up. We knew on Crunch Time on Saturday that this was going to be a fine … it shouldn’t be.
“The action should be a suspension.”
It’s the third time Selwood has been fined this year.