Bone’s beef: Guilty Robbie Gray not worth $10,000 gamble for Port Adelaide
PORT Adelaide’s financial difficulties are clearly a thing of the past, writes Advertiser AFL expert Chris McDermott, if the club is willing to risk $10,000 to challenge Robbie Gray’s one-match ban at the tribunal.
Chris McDermott
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THERE is good news at Alberton. No, make that great news.
Port Adelaide’s financial difficulties are a thing of the past.
What else can you assume if they’re risking $10,000 to appeal Robbie Gray’s one-match suspension for his collision with Jeremy McGovern in last Sunday’s JLT clash.
The incident looked clear cut.
McGovern was head down with eyes on the football.
Gray made contact, solid but not severe to his head, hard enough to send McGovern from the ground and rule him out for the remainder of the match.
A headhigh hit. No malice but high.
Acceptable in a previous time but off limits in the game today.
A one-match ban was his penalty, the Power didn’t accept it and the new MRP system gets its first test.
No longer do players risk an extra week suspension which has traditionally convinced them not to take the risk.
In 2018 it’s a cash deal.
A $10,000 roll of the dice. Gamble responsibly!
You win, you get your money back. But if you lose, the fine falls under the football department’s soft salary cap, presenting a potential problem if ithe club is already close to the limit.
Port will argue Gray had no other option and simply prepared himself for contact.
Similarities have been made to Trent Cotchin’s collision with Dylan Shiel in the 2017 Preliminary Final that ended Shiel’s day.
There are no similarities.
They are not comparable.
Cotchin won the ball, Gray did not go for it.
Is Robbie unlucky? Yes, but the rules are the rules.
The head is sacred. Off limits.
Do the crime, accept the time.
Second chances rarely pay off for AFL coaches
History suggests strongly that if you miss out on a premiership at your first try as a coach, you should not get another chance — unless you’re Mick Malthouse or Malcolm Blight, writes Chris McDermott.
When two tribes go to war
It was the game that stopped a state — the first Showdown between the Crows and Power on April 20, 1997. Chris McDermott shares his memories for Part 1 of The Greatest Showdowns series.