Reprimand For Buddy, Cloke Not So Lucky
BY FRANK IENCO
LANCE Franklin will be free to play against North Melbourne this weekend if he takes an early guilty plea for rough conduct on Adelaide’s Michael Doughty.
The match review panel this afternoon assessed Franklin’s bump on Doughty to be negligent (one point), low impact (one point) and high contact (one point).
This equates to a demerit points total of 125 (a one game ban) but can be reduced to 93.75 with an early guilty plea, meaning Franklin will avoid suspension.
While accepting the early guilty plea will put the Hawks star out of Brownlow Medal contention, going to the tribunal will put him at risk of the one game ban.
The news was not so good for Collingwood’s own star forward Travis Cloke, who is certain to face a stint on the sidelines unless he succesfully challenges the charge of striking Carlton’s Michael Jamison.
That incident earnt him 125 demerit points, which will be added to the 93.75 points Cloke was given for an early guilty plea for headbutting Melbourne’s Matthew Warnock last Monday.
The total of 218.75 points equates to a two game suspension, an early guilty plea will only reduce that to 164.06 points - or a one match ban.
In other news from the match review panel, North Melbourne captain Adam Simpson will avoid suspension for striking Docker Ryan Crowley.
His five year good behaviour record means he can reduce his points total to just 70.31.
While Crowley and Kangaroo Daniel Pratt will only recieve fines if they make an early guilty plea for wrestling, as will Tiger Shane Tuck for making negligent contact with an umpire.
Cloke getting rubbed out is the best thing that could happen to Collingwood. He is the most overrated player since Nick Holland.
June 16th, 2008 | #
It quite typical for a quality and skillful player likes Buddy Franklin get a reprimand, still classed as a Protected Species, the Tribunal System is a jokes, which does not based on merit. Crow players was copped in an awkward situation and being tackles, no where to go, I like to see if this happens to you on the footy field and see how you feel, loser!!
Get your valid points across and be consistent, that should have been one week for sure
June 16th, 2008 | #