Viney decision hard to swallow

Mark Ricciuto says AFL players should strike this weekend in support of Jack Viney, to change the current 'bump' rule. Courtesy: The Rush Hour TripleM Adelaide

THE natives have been restless before, yet there's something more sinister, more exasperating, about the fallout over Jack Viney.

Maybe it's the tipping point in a period of disillusionment for fans.

Maybe, the fans have finally had enough.

TRIBUNAL LEAVES NO ROOM FOR COMMON SENSE: ANDO

MELBOURNE APPEALS JACK VINEY DECISION

THE GAME IS THE FOOL

Ticket prices, food prices, parking, rolling mauls, low scores, smaller crowds and, this week, dodgy potato cakes, are all eating away at the game.

The old man in Ocean Grove, now into his 70s and who grew up in Fitzroy, says he often flicks channels now.

He's watched footy for 50 years and says he now checks the scores like he does the cricket in summer.

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And he's not alone and that's alarming.

It's not only fans who are outraged.

Former players feel the game they played is being hijacked.

Dermott Brereton is boycotting the Hall of Fame and dinner, while in Adelaide, Mark Ricciuto said: "If the Viney incident is not overturned or AFL officials don't say they will look at this rule immediately then the players should strike!''

The sport of AFL is game of skill, excitement and nuance.

It requires breathtaking speed of mind and body to not only make the play, but to survive it.

There are those who flaunt the laws are dealt with. You punch someone, you're out. You pick off an opponent, you're out. If you go the man when you could go the ball and break his jaw, you're out.

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There's malice in all those actions.

You could hardy call Viney's objective malicious or premeditated.

Viney's courage got him to a point where he was in no-man's land.

It was suggested he could have "pivoted" and "just spun out of the way".

The word pirouette was not used by the tribunal — that was my word to describe the action suggested to Viney — but pirouette exactly describes what Viney was supposed to have done.

The game will endure because it always has.

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Through wars, the depression, through gambling and sex scandals, through floods, drugs and full-ground presses.

But this one seems to be different.

It's about the game itself. Truth be known, a lack of courage stops more people playing at the highest level. Courage, and skill. But you get the point.

We don't want head clashes, and we don't want people hurt. And the AFL doesn't want multi-million dollar lawsuits a decade from now because of concussions.

It's why the bump rules have been written and rewritten.

But footy is more than a contact sport. It is edgy. Part fear and part adrenalin. We ask players to go hard, or go home, and in doing so they are also asked to have a duty of care.

Mostly, we ask them to play with instinct.

Viney did not want to hurt Lynch — and he could've — and instead tried to stop and protect himself.

He had a moment to decide — not minutes in slow-mo as the tribunal did on Monday night — and he acted instinctively, and without ambition to hurt.

I would argue Viney showed a duty of care, by stopping instead of launching, but still Lynch was injured. And that's football.

Melbourne is appealing tonight, not because they think they will win, but because they are making a stand.

This is not a club with power and audience such as Collingwood and Hawthorn.

It is Melbourne, the desperate and dateless Demons, who are planting a stake for the game's reputation.

For that, the fans should be proud of them.

Good luck, Jack.

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