Demons ‘disgusted’ amid fallout from Brayden Maynard hit on Angus Brayshaw
The Melbourne Demons have been left ‘filthy’ and ‘disgusted’ as more shock details emerge of the fallout from Brayden Maynard’s hit.
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The Melbourne Demons are reportedly fuming amid the fallout around the Brayden Maynard hit on star midfielder Angus Brayshaw.
Brayshaw was knocked out cold for around two minutes after the Collingwood defender leapt to attempt a smother, and while in mid-air, braced himself for contact and caught Brayshaw in the head, early in the first qualifying final at the MCG in front of a sellout crowd.
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Nine’s Caroline Wilson revealed that a midweek visit of contrition from Maynard to Brayshaw’s home was not received well.
“Brayden Maynard went round to the house of Angus Brayshaw with a bottle of wine for the player and a bunch of flowers for his girlfriend,” Wilson said on Footy Classified on Monday night.
“The reason he was let into the house I think was because Max Gawn and Christian Petracca happened to be there and Max Gawn let him in.
“It was pretty tense I understand, I’m not sure the flowers actually made it to a vase.
“I think Brayden Maynard also contacted Brayshaw’s mother Deb, I don’t think that conversation went very well at all.”
Brayshaw is engaged to Danielle Frawley, the daughter of much-loved late St Kilda great Danny Frawley, who after battling with depression for decades took his own life in 2019 and was later diagnosed with stage two CTE, a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma.
He has worn a helmet to assuage the fears of his mother Debra after repeated concussions early in his career.
Wilson went on to report that the Melbourne Football Club as an organisation were “filthy” over the situation, particularly given that Brayshaw is awaiting brain scans that could rule the midfield star out of a potential Grand Final.
“Melbourne are absolutely filthy at this, they’re disgusted at some of the excuses that are coming out of Collingwood’s mouths and some of the commentators’ mouths, that the player should get off,” she added.
“They are filthy partly because they lost one of their best players very early in the game.
“They keep saying: ‘This is not a concussion, this was a two minute loss of consciousness.’
“Even if Melbourne win this week, I very much doubt he’ll play in the preliminary final, he’s even in doubt for the grand final.”
It comes after comments from Brayshaw’s brother Hamish, who played one game for the West Coast Eagles in 2020, saying that there was a push from league headquarters in favour of Maynard because the league wanted a Collingwood premiership.
“I think if this happened in Round 3, sweet no worries mate you’ve got weeks, the scrutiny comes under the fact that I think the AFL are desperate for Collingwood to win a premiership,” Brayshaw said on the Shelter FootyCast.
“They want the supporters to go nuts, they’ve got 106,000 members, they want to do everything they can, in my opinion, for that to happen.
“The world wants to see that happen, or the Collingwood fans do anyway and they have a very loud voice so a lot of that is driven by the Collingwood fans and I think a few people at the AFL who want to see Collingwood win.
“But duty of care for a player, whether that comes into account, I don’t know.”
Hamish Brayshaw went on to note that new AFL football boss Laura Kane reportedly unilaterally exercised her authority to refer Maynard directly to the Tribunal after Match Review Officer Michael Christian declined to place him on report.
The issue sparked a butting of heads between hosts on the program, with former Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes saying Melbourne could not expect much more by way of remorse from Collingwood and Maynard.
“I’m not sure what Melbourne think are excuses with what Brayden Maynard could have done differently,” Cornes said.
“We all understand it’s horrific, we’re all feeling for the player...”
Wilson cut him off to note commentary around Brayshaw’s original condition after footage emerged during the week of an accidental collision earlier in the game that saw Brayshaw’s head collected by the knee of Collingwood midfielder Taylor Adams.
“There’s commentators suggesting Brayshaw should have been off earlier, having a concussion test for the previous incident,” she said.
“I think it’s a real pity it leaked out. They’ve both got the same manager, maybe the manager leaked it.
“’Oh, he’s a great bloke, he went round and gave him red wine and flowers.’”
Cornes continued, focusing on the aftermath, and defending Maynard from Wilson’s criticism that the gesture leaked out.
“He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, then you’d be saying he’d shown no remorse,” Cornes said.
Essendon great Matthew Lloyd, who coached Brayshaw as a schoolboy in his time at Haileybury College, agreed with Cornes that the gesture should be taken on its face.
“But what if Maynard didn’t do anything,” Lloyd asked.
“I reckon you’d be into him, that Maynard didn’t attempt to call, he didn’t attempt to go and visit, and he’d get smashed that way as well.”
Maynard is set to face a landmark tribunal case which is anticipated to run well over time on Tuesday, with Collingwood understood to be prepared to appeal any adverse finding.
Originally published as Demons ‘disgusted’ amid fallout from Brayden Maynard hit on Angus Brayshaw
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