Jon Ralph has described the Match Review Panel’s decision to determine Travis Varcoe’s hit on Western Bulldogs forward Luke Dahlhaus as careless, rather than intentional as a joke.
The MRP deemed the first quarter incident as careless conduct with medium impact to the head, meaning the Collingwood midfielder will only miss this Thursday’s clash against Richmond if he takes an early guilty plea.
“If Travis Varcoe’s hit on Luke Dahlhaus is assessed as careless, as this this little piece of paper says, well the Western Bulldogs didn’t win the flag last year,” Ralph fumed on SEN’s The Run Home.
“We must be in some parallel universe. How is that careless?
“Travis Varcoe came off the square and picked the bloke off like Mark Yeates.
“They (the MRP) are obsessed with the medical reports, when they should be looking at a bloke and said that was a violent act from Travis Varcoe and they’ve given him a week?
“As if that doesn’t establish a precedent. It’s careless, that’s a joke.”
The Herald Sun journalist said no matter which way you look at it, it was intentional.
“Now they will give us the legal mumbo jumbo and they’ll stand up and say your honour it’s the vibe, in every way that was intentional,” Ralph said.
“He (Varcoe) came off the square, the ball floated high. Now let’s admit it was intercepted by Scott Pendlebury, but if every time a bloke said oh mate but that ball didn’t go where the ball was going to go, its football, the ball doesn’t often go where it wants to go.
“Your honour, it bounced left rather than right so I nailed the bloke with a 20 metre run-up.”
In other MRP news, Melbourne’s fine victory against St Kilda has come at a cost with Bernie Vince offered a one-match suspension for striking Nathan Wright, the panel assessing the incident as intentional conduct with low impact to the head.
Port Adelaide defender Hamish Hartlett has been offered a $1500 fine with an early guilty plea for striking Sydney’s Jordan Foote, while Carlton’s Levi Casboult can escape with a $1000 sanction if he pleads guilty to engaging in rough conduct on Richmond’s Nick Vlastuin.
Fremantle duo Michael Walters and Cam McCarthy and Geelong newcomer Zach Tuohy have been offered $1500 fines for engaging in a second quarter melee at Domain Stadium.