Hamish Brayshaw says he expects Brayden Maynard to get off after hit on brother Angus
Angus Brayshaw’s brother has accused the AFL of Collingwood bias, launching a scathing attack on the league’s handling of the Brayden Maynard case.
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Angus Brayshaw’s brother has accused the AFL of Collingwood bias over the handling of Brayden Maynard’s controversial bump.
Hamish Brayshaw, who played one game for West Coast, said there was a push from league headquarters for the Collingwood defender to escape punishment for knocking out his older brother in the qualifying final.
“It will set a precedent for what is going to happen for a long time in football I think, whether he gets off or whether he doesn’t,” Brayshaw said.
“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.
“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.”
Brayshaw, who has starred this season for East Perth in the WAFL, said he was disappointed that new AFL football boss Laura Kane was required to come over the top and send Maynard to the tribunal.
“The MRO (Match Review Officer) wanted to knock it straight away and not even look at it,” Brayshaw told the Shelter FootyCast.
“For Laura Kane to step in and say, ‘Well actually, this is a pretty serious incident let’s have a look’. Good on her, well done, she stepped straight into her role and has gone bang.
“We’ll find out tomorrow night and then that will get appealed and appealed and appealed and we probably won’t find out until Friday but that will be an interesting week.”
He said his brother had been buoyed by how quickly the concussion symptoms had eased and that he was a 50-50 chance to line-up in the preliminary final should Melbourne progress.