Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt believes the Patrick Cripps case has opened a can of worms.
The Carlton captain was successful in having his two-match ban rescinded at the AFL Appeals Board for rough conduct on Brisbane’s Callum Ah Chee.
The initial sanction, handed down initially by MRO Michael Christian and backed up by the Tribunal at the first appeal, was overturned ‘based on an error of law’, freeing him to play against Melbourne this weekend.
SEN’s David King and Kane Cornes provided their thoughts on the verdict, and now a current player in Riewoldt has given his opinion.
“The Carlton Football Club have done it, they’ve freed their man Patrick Cripps,” Riewoldt said on SEN Tassie.
“Unbelievable, what has happened? It really is unbelievable how different (it has been seen).
“Firstly, Michael Christian sees it one way, the Tribunal finds the same as that, and the Appeals Board has flipped the decision on its head.
“There’s been arguments for both sides over the week. Obviously it’s been the biggest news story during the week given that Carlton are thin in the midfield at the moment and if they’d lost Patrick Cripps, which they haven’t now, it would have been even thinner.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know. Does it open a can of worms now? This is the precedent now, going forward.
“We are at the end of the season so maybe it gets knocked on its head a little bit more in terms of the AFL adjusting the rules and regulations around this at season’s end.
“Certainly it’s been a dramatic week down at Princes Park but they’ve come away with their captain and best player cleared to play and get them ready for what is an important game for them against last year’s premiers.”
Riewoldt touched on a similar incident involving West Coast’s Willie Rioli and Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell, believing both that and the Cripps bump would have been seen by the vast majority as suspendible actions.
“The two (incidents) that wouldn’t have passed the pub test is the Willie Rioli one earlier in the season where I thought he’s probably in trouble,” the Tigers forward added.
“And this one here. I looked at it straight away and thought that’s going to be hard to argue that be didn’t bump him.
“This is what the process is there for and why clubs do get a couple of bites of the cherry in terms of the first appeal, which is going to the Tribunal, and then to the Appeals Board if they feel like they haven’t had a fair hearing there or some new evidence has come to light.
“I think the every day punter would look at it and say it’s a suspension, but under AFL law and clearly in the statement, it isn’t.
“It’s going to be very interesting going forward.”
Cripps will now be free to grace the MCG for Carlton’s must-win encounter with the Demons on Saturday night.
They then meet Collingwood in Round 23, potentially with their season on the line depending on the result this weekend.