Did the AFL deal too harshly with a supporter who made contact with Richmond’s Marlion Pickett last Friday night?
The fan leant over the fence and patted Pickett on the shoulder during the third quarter of his side’s loss to the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium. The Tigers player reacted by turning around and knocking a drink out of the crowd member’s hand.
In response, the league banned the supporter from attending AFL and AFLW games until 2025.
While some in the media have supported the sanction, former Adelaide captain Mark Bickley is of the belief that perhaps it was too “heavy-handed”.
Bickley referenced the night in 2022 when the SCG crowd descended on Swans star Lance Franklin after he kicked his 1,000th goal as an example of supporters and players coexisting in harmony.
“What’s gone on now is that person has been banned for one year. I just think that’s a little heavy-handed,” Bickley said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“My initial thoughts were you can’t touch the players. He’s in the field of play, don’t reach over, don’t touch him.
“But to ban someone for a year, I just feel like there have been (other) instances. I’ll use the Buddy Franklin 1,000th goal (as an example) where that was celebrated, that was seen as one of the greatest moments in AFL history. We had thousands of people running on, unabated, not one person fined or told that’s a bad thing.
“We see players score a goal and run to embrace the crowd. I just feel like this was an opportunity for the AFL to say, ‘Hey, this is not cool, we love it when the players choose to interact, but if they’re not choosing to interact, please don’t reach over and touch the players’. Which is fine.
“But to ban someone for one year for a non-threatening (action).”
Co-host Jarrod Walsh, however, did feel like the fan’s actions were a little unrestrained.
But he did wonder if anything would have come of it had Pickett ignored it.
“It was quite demonstrative though,” he said.
“I think he pointed at the scoreboard and he was quite demonstrative.
“I feel the event or the moment should define what happens there. I’m glad that you said it though because it does make you think.
“Would anything had have happened if Pickett didn’t respond?”
Bickley replied: “No. nothing.”
He believes the penalty has outweighed the action in this case.
“But this is my point. There are opportunities to send a message out there,” he added.
“There should have been a press release that said, ‘I apologise, I was out of line, I won’t do it again’, and then the AFL follows that up with, ‘Please respect the area’.
“I just feel that sometimes we come down really heavy on the easy targets. I felt that one there was an example. People run onto the pitch, do they get banned?
“I feel like sometimes we crack a walnut with a sledgehammer.”