Former Melbourne star Shaun Smith slams AFL after Brayden Maynard cleared at the tribunal for clash with Angus Brayshaw

The father of a current Melbourne player has launched a barrage of abuse at the AFL after Brayden Maynard was cleared to play following his clash with Angus Brayshaw.

Brayden Maynard was not suspended after his clash with Angus Brayshaw. Picture: Getty Images

A former Melbourne star who was left “totally and permanently disabled” from brain injuries acquired during his playing career has lashed the AFL after Brayden Maynard was set free by the tribunal on Tuesday night.

Shaun Smith – who was awarded a landmark $1.4 million insurance payout in 2020 and whose son, Joel, is teammates with Angus Brayshaw at the Demons – was left seething by the not-guilty verdict as ex-Collingwood president Eddie McGuire openly celebrated that “justice has been done”.

Brayshaw, 27, spent two minutes unconscious after he was knocked out by Maynard during last week’s qualifying final at the MCG.

Smith posted on Facebook: “AFL you are an embarrassment and an absolute joke!!!!”

The man who took mark of the century in 1995 then spent Tuesday night replying to several comments as his post went viral in the hours after Maynard’s rough conduct charge was dismissed.

The clash and the aftermath.

“Absolutely disgusting …. The AFL are a disgusting organisation,” Smith, 54, wrote.

Smith replied to one commenter defending the decision: “I’m sure you would say the same thing if it was your son…”

“This thug KOs (knocks out) someone, potentially ending their career, and he gets off.”

Former Magpie Brodie Holland – who was banned for six matches for knocking out Western Bulldog Brett Montgomery at the start of an elimination final in 2006 – also commented on Smith’s post.

“Definitely an accident and he hit a bloke with a glass jaw,” Holland, who coached VFL outfit Northern Bullants this year, said.

“He’d be incredibly unlucky if he’d been suspended.”

Smith, the former high-flyer who played 109 games for the Demons and North Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s, has previously linked the repetitive concussions he suffered when playing to having suicidal thoughts.

“It did cost my marriage,” Smith has said.

“At one stage there I was sleeping in my car. I (didn’t) know where to stay, just a lost soul. Getting into trouble, getting arrested, which is not me.

“But I was finding myself just getting angry at the drop of the hat ... from zero to nuclear.”

Meanwhile, McGuire toasted Maynard’s freedom with fellow Magpies.

“Ladies and gentlemen, justice has been done,” McGuire exclaimed to a full room of people while holding a wine glass in footage posted to Instagram by 2010 premiership star Dale Thomas

“Brayden Maynard is free to play for the Pies!”

Concussion campaigner Peter Jess urged the AFL to rewrite its own rules on the back of the Maynard verdict.

“The tribunal’s decision is flawed in so many aspects that it begs the question whether a complete reset of the process and rules need to be urgently undertaken to firmly enforce safety,” Jess said on Wednesday.

“To allow a player to collide at force to create an event that leaves the victim unconscious and potentially brain damaged is simply unacceptable on all levels.

“Sport cannot be isolated from societal expectations of how you treat your fellow human beings. Maynard’s behaviour outside the football field would be totally unacceptable.

“The tribunal justified the action to create the potentially life-altering consequence as reasonable. Change is needed now. Eliminate the loopholes for this behaviour on the football field.”

Originally published as Former Melbourne star Shaun Smith slams AFL after Brayden Maynard cleared at the tribunal for clash with Angus Brayshaw