Joey Montagna has raised concerns with the reasoning from Jacob van Rooyen’s tribunal decision, saying ‘the fabric of the game will change’ under its interpretation.
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“I think where the fabric of the game is challenged is the way it was interpreted by Jeff Gleeson,” Joey claimed on the Midweek Rub.
“It was said that ‘A reasonable player would have foreseen that in spoiling the way he did would have almost inevitably resulted in forceful blow to Ballard’s head’.
“My concern is if you change that ‘spoiling’ to ‘marking’… now you’re opening up a can of worms.”
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van Rooyen was suspended for two weeks after appealing to the tribunal, but the Demons are now set to take the verdict to the AFL Appeals Board.
“If you’re now going to apply that potential to cause injury for a spoil, why would it not apply to a mark?
“So if someone’s backing back and you know you’re going to drive your knee into their head to take a mark, they could apply the exact same law to that situation now, and that it why the fabric of the game will change.”
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