Did Noah Answerth overstep the line when he decided to mock Melbourne forward Harrison Petty on Thursday night?
Answerth was slammed for his taunt of Petty when the Lions defender reminded Petty of the time he left the field crying during a clash with the Lions in 2022.
It’s a sledge you don’t often see on the footy field and it’s certainly not one you see from a player that’s only played 59 games to a premiership player.
Answerth was slammed by all-time great Jason Dunstall on Fox Footy’s coverage of the game and even his teammate Dayne Zorko said it’s not something the lions want to see from their players on the field.
However, former Lion and Hawthorn champion Luke Hodge disagrees with the Answerth critics, saying the young defender did nothing wrong.
“If I was a back pocket who’s trying to make his name and my job is to get under the skin of a forward, I’d be doing everything I possibly can to keep my spot,” Hodge told SEN's Crunch Time.
“If that means getting stuck into Petty, he didn’t hit him, he didn’t swear at him, he didn’t do anything wrong that was going to hurt him.
“He brought up something from a couple of years ago and in fairness, Petty in that game spoke just as badly so I don’t think Noah did anything wrong.
“He’s a young bloke who, as a defender, you know what defenders have to do and they’ve got to get under the skin of the forwards, so if that means it’s by an action.
“Does it look great? No, it doesn’t but this is a bloke who is a fierce, young competitive player and this might be how he gets the best out of himself.
“I don’t think Chris Fagan will be saying to go and do it again knowing what Chris is like but I understand back pockets think a little bit different.”
As for the argument that you have to be an experienced player to give out some lip on the field, Phil Davis couldn’t disagree more.
“The thing I don’t like about this discussion is I’ve got something with ‘you haven’t done enough in the game to do something’, I do not understand that concept whatsoever,” Davis explained.
“If Noah Answerth does that to me I’m going, ‘Sorry mate who are you and that’s my comeback to him’ but good on him, he should be coming at me.
“I always admired young players coming at me because when you’re out on the field, it’s about current performance and if you can play well and do whatever, get stuck into it, it’s fair game let’s just go.”
Gerard Whateley says the exchange adds more fuel to a rivalry that’s been bubbling away for some time between the two teams.
“There’s bad blood between those two playing groups and they talk it down as much as they can but you can see it out on the field,” Whateley added.
“There’s just bad blood that exists between them and it adds to the theatre of it but it also adds to the magnitude of when they play and they will likely meet in the finals again.”
