AFL legend Leigh Matthews has questioned why clubs need to financially sanction players who break the law, given the authorities are going to do so themselves.
Adelaide forward Tyson Stengle and Western Bulldogs vice-captain Lachie Hunter were fined $2500 and $5000 by their respective clubs for drink driving incidents in April.
Both are likely to receive varying degrees of financial sanctions from the police for their indiscretions and Matthews says clubs piling in over the top makes him uncomfortable.
“Whenever you break the law of the land and you’re going to get punished by the law of the land, I always get a little bit uncomfortable that we feel as a footy industry that we have to punish them too,” he told Sportsday.
“I know that’s the world that we live in and therefore these penalties are probably appropriate according to what is going on at the moment, but why does the sport need to punish their employee when the law of the land is already going to do that?”
Matthews believes this is a product of the modern game, where protecting the image of the league is paramount.
“I think the optics are a modern phenomenon, to be honest,” he said.
“You go back even 20 years, I don’t think players would automatically be fined by their club.
“They might say we’re not going to pick you for a few weeks because that’s the kind of penalty, but there’s also the financial penalty as well.
“I know we are now, if the club doesn’t do it the AFL is going to do it to protect the image of the game and I’ve come to understand the reasoning behind it, but sometimes I think if you treat people like kids they will continue to act like kids.”
Stengle was pulled over by police on April 9th and blew a reading of 0.125, while Hunter crashed his SUV into four parked cars on the 16th and later blew a reading of 0.123.
Hunter is reportedly facing a repair bill of close to $150,000 for the damage to the cars and has already been slapped with a $1652 fine for breaching COVID-19 health orders.
