Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says club has to appeal Jacob van Rooyen’s suspension

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says the fabric of the game is at stake after confusion over Jacob van Rooyen’s suspension.

Jacob van Rooyen was suspended for this spoiling attempt on Charlie Ballard. Picture: Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says the “fabric of the game has been challenged” and the “outrage” in the AFL community after Jacob van Rooyen’s two-game suspension demanded the club appeal the decision.

The comments came after premiership-winning Demon defender Jake Lever said he was a “little bit confused” given the mistimed spoil was deemed a football action but still penalised severely.

On Tuesday night, the AFL tribunal upheld the match review officer’s grading of careless conduct, high contact and high impact for the young Demon’s mistimed spoiling attempt on Gold Coast’s Charlie Ballard.

Melbourne argued that van Rooyen’s sole intention was to contest the ball, at no stage did he intend to cause harm to Ballard and the incident was merely a football accident.

Goodwin on Wednesday morning said the decision was “disappointing and frustrating” and it was up to Melbourne to challenge it on behalf of the rest of the competition to get “clarity”, and van Rooyen would be picked to play this week.

“Clearly, it’s disappointing and frustrating. There’s no doubt about that,” Goodwin said.

“And I think when you see the outrage in our supporter base, you see the outrage of the footy community, clearly you look at that and it’s either unjust or the fabric of the game is getting challenged.

“And, you know, for us, it’s important that we probably go down that path of looking at why that’s the case and take (it) a little bit further and we’ll look at all avenues about how we go about doing that and get all the information that we can.

The spoiling attempt that earnt a two-game suspension. Picture: Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“But clearly there’s a level of frustration, level of disappointment for a whole range of different reasons.

“Clearly, the laws state that you can contest the ball, and Jacob’s only thing that he was looking at was contesting the ball. The fabric of the game has been challenged, clearly.”

Lever, who has to spoil countless times during a game, said he was unsure what the decision meant for other players put in the same situation as van Rooyen.

“It did look like a bit of a football accident and as much as he got him in the head, I think Charlie Ballard was fine,” Lever said on SEN.

“But I think (I am) a little bit confused, absolutely, because I am probably caught in that situation three or four times throughout every game where you are in front, the ball is kicked over your head and you are going to have to go and try and make a contest otherwise your opponent is just going to stand there and take a mark and kick a goal.

Melbourne will appeal the decision made by the AFL Tribunal, in relation to the sanction made against Jacob van Rooyen.

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— Melbourne Demons (@melbournefc) May 10, 2023

“You never want him (van Rooyen) to change the way that he’s played because that’s why we love him and I hope that he is not as confused as a lot of people out there would be.”

Goodwin said everyone was conscious of protecting players’ heads but “there’s always going to be incidental incidents” and that included in aerial contests.

“We also coach and teach our players to contest the ball if they think they can make the contest,” he said.

“Jacob’s only focus was to contest the ball, so clearly there’s been a shift and we need to get to the bottom of it as a game.

“We don‘t want our players confused or players throughout the competition being confused.

“We certainly feel it’s an important process to go through to help build that clarity. As I said, it’s either to the unjust or it’s the fabric of the game being challenged and we need to get to the bottom of what it is.”

Jake Lever’s job is to spoil. Picture: Michael Klein

AFL Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson delivered his verdict after the jury deliberated for more than half an hour and his reasons for the suspension only added to the confusion.

He conceded it was reasonable for van Rooyen to spoil the mark, but he should have also known that his actions could have led to an injury.

“We find his objective at the moment of, and prior to impact, was to spoil the mark. However, we also find that a reasonable player would have foreseen that in spoiling the way he did, it would have almost inevitably resulted in a forceful blow to Ballard’s head,” Gleeson said.

“The force of the blow was considerable, it caused immediate pain to Ballard who expressed immediate concern about his neck. He was stretchered off and assessed for a spine injury; thankfully there was none, but the potential for it was real as evidenced by the nature of the impact, the complaint by Ballard and the medical investigation. He suffered residual neck pain and stiffness. We assess the impact as high.”

Originally published as Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin says club has to appeal Jacob van Rooyen’s suspension