Tom Lynch awaits his penalty, pleading guilty and apologizing but arguing he did not throw a closed fist in anger.
We take you inside the chaos, said Carts and Harry McKay, forced to watch on in difficult times. He's with us at the death tonight on Players Night.
And dorm she bows out of the game, having conjured the iconic moments of a West Coast premiership.
We've talked about. Is this step into it, embrace all of it.
Hit in the room and pat it. It's unedifying for a senior coach to do that. They're on the side of Courtia with the brain tape.
The man on they played the best footy I've ever seen at the start of the season, and injury said the president left the couple over said, of course they do. It is the stuff that legends are made of. What is holding the ball?
I don't think I could answer it clearly right now that I can do something wrong, you know, and I need to get on the board sexually.
The fans lover and with no fans, no through. Sixty year old.
Jordan Lewis back to Players Night where it all started.
Nice to have you here.
It was probably eleven years ago, Jared Long fourteen.
When you were young, and now I haven't chets. This might have been an error. Do you and Raise they have history? No, we're good, okay, yeah, we both will. Do you agree with that? It's funny?
Actually, Steve mcbernie by my young boy Freddie about a month ago, and the runner went past Steve and said, that's Jordy Lewis's little boy, and he said, funny that he hasn't.
Argued with me yet. Noser.
I like Razor because he could give as much as he could take, which for a player that's competitive.
It actually settled you.
Down a lot more when they gave it back to you. I think the thing that I'm interested to ask him, the thing that ruined it for the umpires was the mix. Yeah, then they couldn't Then there couldn't be any any banter had.
To be very clean, all right.
So we have a loaded agenda for you tonight, as the day is developed quite remarkably on a few if for in front, so Harry McKay is.
With us and Nick Blakey.
The SCG has evidently been ticked off for play already on Sunday, despite the rain bomb that's hit the Harburt City. Ray Chamberlain has been deep at work on what happened with Tom Lynch on Sunday and David Zita's sitting through the tribunal as we speak. Midweek Tackle follows us so stacks of news. Lauren would to guide you through that with Corbyn and Ralphie and then tomorrow night it's a special edition with the centenary of the Kangaroo's being celebrated.
John Longmire and Adam Simpson they've been going through their own records of what they've got from the Dennis Pagan premiership years, so we'll see and Dyson Daniels, this is my son's special requests, right, Dyson Daniels.
Joins us is he coming in? He is, He will be here make an appearance.
Then we know that he's a Tiger's nuts and he has told us previously on his program. When he finishes the NBA, he wants to see if he can just sneak in for one year at Roigers.
And this is just in the OUTDT. This is how much he loves his Tiger's Sunday to the g Do you know what Joe I think it was?
It was last year it was a Giants game at Enji Stadium. I'm not even too sure where the rich one were playing, and we had the ISO cam on him and he walked probably two laps around the oval unnoticed.
Yeah, no one even looks sideways.
I don't think you were having those same luxuries now since coming back after a stellar season.
A total superstar. So be great to have him at the.
Desk to talk some footy as well as basketball tomorrow night. All right, let's get into it at the top of the agenda. Right now, Tom Lynch is awaiting his fate. The tribunal jury is deliberating. He has pleaded guilty, apologize, but he's arguing the toss over the semantics of it. The difference here is between three and five weeks on the sidelines.
I remember, he's lost, Mam, he's lost. He's lost his did a lot of trouble. Get the boy, Get the boy. He sense he had the red mist going.
He was right at the fine line, a fine line.
We're not vigil Andy's here. You don't take it into your own hands and break the law back the other way, and that's what Lynch has done.
Lench's gone. This is exactly what we can't have in our game at.
Any level if he allowed.
This at AFL level to be a tool of three week penalty. You watch it to seek through the competitions.
Through the competitions, it is the look and community standards out absolutely, So, yeah, that's an issue.
They're trying to send a message other.
You're reported at the striking.
I wonder where there was a frustration about his own for how he was playing.
I think whether there was a sense of embarrassment.
And frustration that he couldn't touch the footy and it just got too much for him and he lashed out, and he washed out, and think you cry the level of accountability being called to front the tributal and then the necessary penalty both as a punishment and to terrence. David Zita has sat through the case, David, welcome, Hello.
Jerry and Geordie.
How has it unfolded?
Yeah, so deliberating at the moment, so we should have a verdict before the end of the show. Very confident about that.
Now.
The AFL wants a five match penalty and Richmond wants a three match band, so they say this should be high impact rather than severe impact. That's where the majority of this is boiled down to they have pleaded guilty to the other aspects of the charge. So Tom Lynch gave evidence. He said that he was contesting the ball. He was trying to get the mark Jordan Batz was holding onto him. He wanted to get him, get him off him as quickly as possible.
He got it wrong.
But the little things they always become big things in these cases. And the big thing here was the dispute over whether this was a closed fist or an open hand. So Tom Lynch says he has a fused joint in his middle finger on the right hand that prevents him from being able to close his fist entirely, even demonstrated to the tribunal. Now the AFL almost called his bluff.
They brought up two still images and said, well, look, you may not be able to close your fist fully, but you can still spoil the ball and you can still perform actions that require.
A closed fist. For one of a better terms.
So look, as this is one of the still images here, you can see now right the middle finger is still out slightly, but he's still spoiling the ball, or attempting to spoil the ball. He can perform pretty much close to a closed fist. So he does admit that he got it wrong, and again lots of chat about the finger and the closed fist and whether it was He was adamant this was a swipe rather than a punch. He was adding for the upper back of Jordan Butts.
He knows he got it wrong. He told Jordan Butts that after the game, and Butts accepted it and they moved on. But again the AFL says, this is very simple. It is a blatant, forceful, swinging arm. It is the type of action of a bygone era and there is no place for it in the game. The Tigers had six reasons, as they often do these days at the defense hearings. They said that there was no injury here.
There was no swinging, clenched fist. There was the front part of Lynch's hand that made contact, which is less likely to cause significant injury. It was more of a swipe than a punch, as Lynch said, it was close to the ball rather than an off the ball hit, and the potential for injury was not greater than what was realized. So the tribute on now deliberating Geelong Essendon West Coast, Collingwood, Gold Coast. That is what awaits Tom
Lynch on the sidelines. He won't play those games if he is found guilty on the AFL's front, which is five matches. If he's able to get what Richmond wants, he'll be free to face Collingwood and Gold Coast.
David, thank you, will be back with you shortly. So a bit of law and order.
I think they got the Do you think they got the inside word on the defense?
It could have been able to rebut that so quickly bangs straight away. I sort of have a bit of sympathy. I mean, I sort of can't close my fist either.
But I think it was important, knowing that this was coming up tonight, to go back and watch. So I watched the first three quarters from behind the goals. For me, it was a pattern of behavior, So I don't buy into the fact that this was a one off. He was frustrated four minutes into the game. He was, so this is this is behind the ball. This was four minutes into the game. Yep, Jared, So he was. He was in the combatitive and combative mood anyway, So you know,
was he frustrated right from the start. I think he was watching watching that vision, so this is unacceptable. And I think the when I was watching the vision, he really wanted backspace, but Jordan Buts did a really good job on keeping him in front, which then I think fueled his frustration because he couldn't get the position that he wanted. But I reckon there was four or five times where you could have said Tom Lynch could have been fined in the first half, and he went to
the umpire and complained about not getting free kicks. I saw one that wasn't paid. Everything else to me looked fair, So this was this was unnecessary.
You can't have a rogue force, you can't have a loose cannon out on the field. And Bucks's use of the vigilante justice was pretty apps last night. So the AFL is right to ask for five that the steps in the legal system are interesting to get tested tonight, because this is literally medium impact and then the potential to cause injury raises it to high and then the
stretch target is to take it two categories. I do recall a case about three years ago which was the one time they tried two categories and the tribune or knock them back, and so you can only have the next one.
You can only have high.
So Richmond had nowhere to argue other than that tonight. And then Lynch gets to say his piece, which includes accepting responsibility and apologizing whilst arguing the semantics.
Which you are forced to do.
So the AFL will be well served with a five week suspension. Even if they got rolled at three or four. The fact that they pushed so hard for it serves the code well, So we'll put raised to work on this is he has gone right through the first half.
There are fifteen different incidents involving the forward and the defenders and the methods that were used against him, just to see how he was unpired on the day, and then the question about how do the umpires handle a player who is totally out of control.
So that discussion, that's exactly what it looked like to me.
He was out of control, and I thought, magine, if I was in Butts's position, I would have felt relatively unsafe because he was erratic and he was arguing with the umpires, he was throwing his fist.
Back once again.
Fallants into the game, they sort of nearly came blow to blow.
So yeah, I thought, and.
Jonathan Brown said last night it could have been an opportunity for the coaches to get him off early, really early and settling down if they had have seen those behaviors.
So out of headquarters today regarding the umpire contact to the implications of this, which have been a fairly minimal fine, but they have had no impact in curtailing player behavior. In fact, even more so the crackdown that came, clubs were written to, fines were handed out, and instances are continuing to rise. So this year sixty three instances through sixteen rounds of fines frompire contact. Last year it was fifty six across the whole year, and in twenty twenty
three it was twenty. So the AFL is clamping right down on this. Once you reach four times, you will now be referred directly to the tribunal. Now the likelihood is that becomes a more severe fine, but there's also the possibility of suspension for that.
So who are the players?
This runs over a two year period, so this dates back now to a rolling two year cycle. So from round seventeen, twenty twenty three to this weekend is your two year cycle. I've done this from the start of twenty twenty four, so this is incomplete, but these are the six players who are immediately in jeopardy. Matt Row's on four, George Hewitt's on four, Jack McCrae with four, and Harley Read, Adam Cherrah and Willem Drew with three a piece. There's a bunch of players on two, which
may well be three. Clubs have been notified tonight on the standing of their players. It's to where they sit in this sliding scale. But if Matt Row, George sure, if any of these six players do it again on the weekend, they are bound for the tribunal and then we're in the margins. Is that the complete discretion of the tribunal as to whether they hike up the fines or whether they say, no, you're not treating this seriously.
You can sit for a week.
So as you're understanding that they go through every single umpire contact that that player has been guilty of and see whether it's their fault or someone else's fault, the umpire's fault.
So that's unjudged on so far.
So the ones that you get fined for are your fault, and that stands and you accept your fine and you pay, so you are guilty on that front. No contest there the fourth or the fifth one that will now see you before the tribunal, do they consider it? Your whole body of work is do you keep doing the same thing?
Are you a recidivist or are you unlucky? And is it going to be up with the fines or are you going to you can have a week because you keep using the umpire as a shield or you have no regard for the space that's designated for the umpire. So very gray, but clearly necessary. The players, if you just look at the raw numbers, the players aren't treating this seriously.
Yeah, so let's say Matt Row players have just got the information today. Is my understanding that an accumulation of umpire contact will then either ask for a bigger suspension or a or a suspension play a bigger fight. Players haven't known that, So does matt Raw go back to zero? This is a rolling two year cycle.
That's I think that's unfair, and it's not.
A demerit points system. So if you get suspended, it doesn't clear you hold. So every time Matt Row's date two, round eleven, twenty twenty seven, so he's going to be on this short leash right now all the way through to round eleven, twenty twenty seven.
So matt ral has found out round seventeen on the verge of playing their first final series. If he runs into the umpire in the last game of the season, he could potentially miss the first final. Yes, and he hasn't had any idea whatsoever that an accumulation of umpire contact could end up in him being suspended.
Nobody does an offense and has known through his four that this is prohibited behavior.
But never know and that will come to a suspension.
No, until now, that's I think that's unfair.
I really do.
I think if players were aware of that being the case, and you are a recidivist and you have got multiple instances where you are having unpie contact, absolutely that is the rules.
You have to abide by the rules. But for a player or players.
To be notified at round seventeen that that could potentially happen before the finals in a prelim final that you might miss the Grand Final and not know eight weeks out, I think that's really unfair.
They're big players on that list too, and it's a longer list than that. All right, the injury front has been pretty severe today. Nothing causes trepidation. I don't think like stress fractures in the back. You know that through cricket. So the bone stress that is being felt by Josh Weddle has him.
Now out of business.
And while there's there's the veneer of hope for the end of the season. Knowing the way these things go is his twenty five campaigns in significant jeopardy and what a piece that is for Hawthorne to be missing.
It's it's wretched luck for him.
It's a huge blow, no doubt about it. I mean, he's one of the most exciting players in the competition. I think the frustrating thing for this type of injury is it just it doesn't creep up on you, it just hits you. And he only complained of minus outing his backstortus of recent time. So they said, let's go and get it, let's go and get it scanned, and then then you get the diagnosis. So it's shouting for the young lad. He's so athletic, he's good to watch.
He brings kids through the through the turnstiles. He's played nearly every game this year. He's hit the scoreboard is exactly what you want to see come finals, how they perform, and that might be taken out of his hands through injury. I think Jared, if there's one position that they're over indexed in and take away his talent, it probably is this position. If you look at Scrimshaw to come back, James Sisley to come back, to handy replacements, it is the position that they could feel.
But you feel for it, you do it, there's no doubt you.
Do It will be a conservative approach for sure and certain because you can't muck around with these Now he's played virtually every game Jordan to go. He just cannot get a run at it this year. He wasn't on the cusp of returning. The Achilles has him on the long term program. But then he gets concussied to walk under a ladder or something. This is his coach, Greig McGray.
Already got a got a concussion in the in the fundamentals, so he's he left the track. So it's a bit of said, my majority is just starting to get there and he's obviously going to be the protocols for ten to fourty days.
What it looks like five games hasn't been seen since the Geelong game. In round eight, Channel seven news cameras captured the exact moment that Brainard Brandon Maynard got him head over the ball.
That's not a great moment of training, isn't. What is Maynard doing? What I saw? What is he doing?
There is just no need for that to happen in a training session.
I just so he rotten luck.
Was he's the X factor that can come back into this side and as good as they've been, Jordan goalie back in that side makes them two god better side. So he might be in Cotton Woolling terms, he might get the work done but keep away from everyone until it's a chance to play. But yeah, he's having a rotten season with injuries and now concussion. But this is
this is the strength of the squad. You know, they've missed a big chunk of their players sporadically throughout the season, and even last week six or seven of their starting eighteen missed that game against West Coast. So you can look at it optimistically. They're playing great football, they're still winning, they sit three games on top of the AFL Ladder and they can welcome back these these players who are
who are in their best twenty two. You look at the names there, Goey, frankmu Cruz, Shieltz.
They are starters.
So manager lists accordingly knowing that these kids or these players will come back and give you a real job on the EVA finals.
And you live through a campaign where nothing went smoothly, but you rode all the bumps and just got it all together at the end.
Yeah, And the message really was that year, even when Alisa Clarkson went out with I'm not going to try and pronounce the honest, Gillian bar syndrome. Brendan Bolton came back in, and it was really about being reliable, not remarkable, And I think that would be the message around Collinwood at the moment with you see the star players that are out, whoever comes in, just be reliable. The system is for everybody to see. It's a really good system.
It stacks up in big games. So come in and play your part, hopefully play well to force a selection issue.
But when it all.
Comes towards the end, I mean Cyril played one game VFL grand Filer came in for the and final. Sam Mitchell was out injured most of the season. Josh Gibson was out most of the season, but this is where the fitness stuff earned their money. Yes, it's to really time their run for these players to.
Get back, all right. One player who won't get back is Dom Sheed.
He is bowing out of the game as the golden ear at the Eagles take progressive curtain calls. I always think you want to leave the game with one iconic moments, and boy does he have his.
We've got a young group now and it's time for the next wave of players to come through and that'll be without me and I get to sit in the stands with my mates now and watch the boys, so I'll always be connected to this footy club.
I love this footy club what.
Has done for me personally. Sheep from the boundary needs to be trap yes, right place, right time, and then to be able to execute an impact you know, on the biggest day in footy is something I think about every five minutes. I played one hundred and sixty odd games, I've won a premiership. I'm a life member, so I can't I can't leave the game disappointed at all. I'm one of the very, very lucky ones that get to leave the game with that thank you.
You can't pick your own circumstances and the reconstruction man, you couldn't get out there this year, and there's a concession that there is just no way back but to leave the game with that, and remember that kick came on the sequence of eagles behind, so the whole even of his teammates, couldn't.
Get it done and that was the most difficult shot and Jordan.
Last week it was Jeremy mcgulln who started that chain and this week it's Dom Shed and last year it was Luke Surey who played one of the best ground finals we've seen. So it is the progressive bowing out of a golden era.
How fitting with those two boys in particular retiring within weeks of each other. One started to play, one finish the play. I mean, if you ever want to go and watch the highlight, I think it's Nathan Vardy who has the QR code on his arm that you can just scan and watch the highlight. But I mean, even watching that now as a neutral supporter, you get goosebumps.
It was a real Grand Final moment.
You could in ten years Toyota will be calling up, so hey, we need to reach Lockett's been done. All these famous goals have been done, and he certainly provided that for the West Coast. Eagules supports such an iconic moment. And if you speak to anyone around the football footballing world, who's a guy you love to have a beer with, like really held in high respect and high regard for the way that he went about it, but certainly from his teammates as well, which is another accolade in.
Itself, sixty nine career goals, one that stands above all others. So we salute Dom Sheed or was it round sixteen and July so early for retirement season, but they'll sprinkle in and for West Coast it just has illuminated what they haven't been able to get out there with the likes of Sheed and McGovern. All right, our current day players are about to join us, one here at the
desk and one in the Harvest City. So Nick Blakey, who he battled to the SCG turf, I think it's fair to say I want what he's allowed to say. Harry McKay, who has been on my sidelines register a bit too much of this season