Why the Heeney case should be the tipping point for a total overhaul

Well, it’s official.

Isaac Heeney is out of Brownlow Medal contention and he won’t play against North Melbourne this weekend after he failed at his appeal last night.

I’m hoping this week of drama is the tipping point for a total overhaul of the match review system, the tribunal system, the whole lot.

Because there are some things that just can’t stay the way they are.

Irrespective of whether Heeney should’ve been suspended or not, I don’t want to be told Heeney’s actions were intentional when they weren’t.

I also don’t want to be told it was not in play when clearly it was as Heeney tried to break clear and lead to the player who had the ball.

There’s too much manipulation to get a desired outcome.

There’s also too much of an obsession to make someone responsible for every incident rather than accept accidents can happen on the football field.

And what particularly doesn’t sit comfortably with me is we’ve got players who are going around punching other players.

They don’t get suspended but Heeney, who at best accidentally made contact to Jimmy Webster’s nose, and at worst acted carelessly, is banned.

We genuinely need to start again!