The key talking point out of Collingwood’s narrow seven-point Qualifying Final over Melbourne on Thursday night is undoubtedly the incident involving Brayden Maynard and Angus Brayshaw.
Magpies tough nut Maynard caught Demons midfielder Brayshaw in the head with his shoulder when attempting to smother early in the fist quarter of there fiery clash at the MCG.
Brayshaw was knocked out and stretchered off the ground and will miss next weekend’s Semi Final under the AFL’s concussion protocols.
Maynard will now face a nervous wait to see which sanction, if any, MRO Michael Christian hands down.
In assessing the incident, David King and Kane Cornes discussed what might be ahead for Maynard whose bump could quite possibly be graded as careless contact, severe impact and high contact, which could lead to an initial ban of around three or more matches and sent straight to the Tribunal.
Alternatively it could be considered a football act where Maynard acted reasonably in the circumstances which would not be deemed a reportable offence.
There within lies the conversation.
“When you’re discussing this you’ve go to take your own team out of it and I know that’s difficult to do because people are attached to Collingwood and they’re attached to Maynard and they want to support him,” King said on SEN Breakfast.
“You’ve got to think of the greater issue. Head trauma is prevalent at the moment, it’s a hot bed right now for the AFL.
“I’m not convinced that Michael Christian has any other option but to send it to the Tribunal. They will fight it and possibly get off, he may not get off, they may have to go to appeal, but I don’t know if ‘Chrisso’ has many other options.”
Angus Brayshaw was stretchered off following this incident with Brayden Maynard.#AFLFinals pic.twitter.com/flpBmdXtHf
— AFL (@AFL) September 7, 2023
Cornes tends to concur with King.
“I agree with you. I think that’s the way it will land and it’s probably the way that it should land because then you can get Brayden up there and he can argue his case of what was going through his mind at the time,” Cornes said.
“For me it’s pretty clear cut. He’s left the ground before the kick was had and he’s had to turn. You can’t disappear and unfortunately through the momentum of both players that was the outcome.
“You’d expect that decision to be handed down of three-plus (weeks), straight to the Tribunal and then it’s up to Collingwood to try and get him off.”
King feels there is such an enormous grey area with these sorts of incidents that will make it a very tricky scenario to assess.
“None of us have a blue clue as to where this sits today,” he continued.
“We’ve got no idea, have we? We’ve absolutely lost the handle of what is inside the flags in terms of the laws of the game.
“Every person who gave commentary last night have ‘grey area’ in the discussion. We should absolutely know what’s right and wrong.
“I feel for the players, I do. I feel for Brayden Maynard who thinks he’s in the clear today and he’ll be shocked if he’s suspended.”
Cornes said the following in response to a caller who suggested Brayshaw had to also protect himself.
“I’m not sure we can be laying any fault with Brayshaw,” he said.
“That’s the problem when you slow it down frame by frame. Play that it in real time and tell me if Brayshaw had time to brace himself after he was trying to see where he just kicked the football.
“No fault on Brayshaw but equally Maynard was in a tricky position as well.”
Read the reactions from Collingwood coach Craig McRae, Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin and Maynard below.
McRae’s post-match comments:
“I’ve caught it on a phone.
“(I’ve seen) one view of it, one angle of it, it looks like he's in the air.
“I hope Angus is ok. I've met him a couple of times socially, he's a ripping guy. Hopefully, it's not too bad for him because he's had multiple concussions. My thoughts go out to him, I hope he's ok.
“The act itself, it didn't look like it had much malice. But I'll leave it up to others to decide if that's worthy of a suspension or not. I don't know.”
Goodwin’s post-match comments:
“(The MRO will) be sorted out during the week. We've got a pretty shattered player in there. You can only go by the facts – he jumped off the ground and knocked a guy out. I guess time will tell.
“He's upset. He's obviously had a history with concussion, a long time ago. So he's obviously dealing with some emotion there. But he wants to play finals footy and he's going to be missing for a few weeks, and that's disappointing.
“I think he's ok (bone structurally), he's got a bit of a shiner, but he's alright.”
Maynard’s post-match comments, via Channel 7:
“I don't want to say too much, but it's a footy act.
“I came forward, I jumped to smother the ball and unfortunately I just got him on the way down. So, I don't know.
“We'll have to wait and see what happens. But it's all love. I absolutely love that guy to bits. It's shattering what happened.”
The commentary team discuss in depth as Brayden Maynard collects Angus Brayshaw in the first quarter.#AFLPiesDees #AFLFinals 🏆 pic.twitter.com/14IQLKQj5K
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) September 7, 2023