Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson says game is worse off for Jack Viney suspension

THE AFL tribunal’s decision to suspend Jack Viney has to be one of the most wrongly assessed incidents in recent memory.

IT’S best not to overreact to tribunal decisions.

But Tuesday night’s decision by the AFL Tribunal to suspend Jack Viney for two weeks has to be one of the most stunning and staggering and, if you could be so blunt, the most wrongly assessed incidents in recent memory.

You can’t totally blame the tribunal, either.

The bump rules forced their finding. The tribunal had to find if it was a bump or a collision, and after they decided it was a bump, the penalty was coming.

Still, given the tribunal members were Wayne Schimmelbusch, Wayne Henwood and Emmett Dunne, you would think their versions of a bump were nowhere near what Viney’s was last night.

It’s a strange, strange world, football.

TRIBUNAL: VINEY GUILTY, HANDED TWO-MATCH BAN

#VINEY: TWITTER MELTDOWN AFTER DECISION

‘TRAGIC’: VOSS CALLS ON DEES TO APPEAL

North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas last year gives Ben Reid concussion after jumping to bump him and escapes penalty.

Adelaide’s Shaun McKernan raises an elbow and gets two weeks. Brisbane’s Merrett gets two weeks for a forearm to the head.

And what about Darren Glass on Chad Wingard?

And then Viney, who argued strongly that be braced himself for contact, gets two weeks.

Two weeks for a young man with more courage than sense, who chased a loose ball into 200kg of oncoming traffic, and who pulled out at the very end and braced for contact.

It’s mind-numbing, quite unbelievable.

News_Rich_Media: Melbourne's Jack Viney has been handed a two-match ban by the tribunal after being found guilty of a bump on Tom Lynch, while Richmond's Brett Deledio walked away from a striking charge with just a reprimand.

Now suddenly new chief executive Gillon McLachlan has another important agenda on his ever-growing plate.

Tuesday night’s decision has made Viney look like a sniping and cowardly fool, that he went after an opponent who couldn’t look after himself.

When instead, it’s the game which is the fool.

In the eyes of the AFL Tribunal, Viney bumped Lynch.

It wasn’t a collision, or a split-second decision to pivot and turn his body to brace for contact, as Viney argued. No, it was a bump.

On the surface, it was a staggering decision, watching it either in normal time or slow-motion, as happened about 50 times at last night’s hearing.

AFL great Dermott Brereton said on Monday it would be a landmark decision to suspend Viney.

Last night it was said Brereton would protest the decision by refusing to attend this year’s Hall of Fame dinner.

It is a dramatic response, and perhaps such a decision requires such emotion.

Maybe, then, the AFL might listen to the people.

Clearly it was a significant decision because it was suggested last night Viney had the capabilities to avoid the oncoming combination of Tom Lynch and Lynch’s opponent Alex Georgiou.

It was suggested that he had time to get out of the way. Fair dinkum. Pirouette was the word.

Yep, players are being urged to get out of the way because they might hurt someone.

LISTEN TO THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE SUPERFOOTY PODCAST BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE IN ITUNES