The AFL Tribunal’s decision to overturn Lance Franklin’s one-match ban for striking has caused Tim Watson to “give up” on the system.
The Sydney star threw what looked to be a deliberate elbow to the head of Fremantle defender Luke Ryan against the Dockers last Sunday.
The incident was graded as careless, medium impact and high contact, warranting Match Review Officer Michael Christian to offer Franklin a week suspension.
However, Christian’s sentence was overturned once the case was taken to the Tribunal, a trend that has caused Watson to lose faith in the system.
“I just give up on these. I give up on these,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
“You can whack somebody in the head. You can throw back an errant elbow, forearm, whatever it might be.
“You don’t draw blood, you don’t break a bone and nothing to see here.
“This is nothing against 'Buddy', but you look at that incident - having played the game like you have played the game, I have played the game. You look at that and think, 'hmm'.
“I’m not blaming him, I’m blaming the game.”
Franklin wasn’t the only lucky one to escape, with Garry Lyon pointing out that the precedent was set earlier in the year with David Astbury and Luke Shuey.
“I looked at that one yesterday, he got off, Shuey got off,” Watson replied.
“None of those guys should have got off. They should have got at least a week.”
Franklin was instead fined $3000 and is free to play against Essendon on Saturday night.