The "ridiculous system" that cleared Frampton of suspension

Billy Frampton was handed a three-week suspension over a tackle that fractured the neck of Melbourne’s Brody Mihocek.

During Collingwood’s Kings Birthday loss to the Dees, Mihocek was tackled by Frampton while leading with his head over the ball, was taken to the ground and was driven into the deck headfirst.

In what was a completely innocent football act, Mihocek’s neck was fractured in the incident and was stretchered off the ground. Frampton was subsequently handed a three-match ban, graded by MRO Michael Christian as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.

With the Pies challenging the ban at the Tribunal on Wednesday night, Frampton has been cleared of his suspension – it’s that system that Dwayne Russell believes is a ridiculous waste of time.

“Maybe the parameters are wrong. Maybe the system is wrong,” Russell told SEN Afternoons.

“I don’t like the fact that we’ve got a system where Billy Framtpon gets three weeks for something that most of us – I think 99 per cent of us – think wasn’t worthy of three weeks.

“Then he has to go to the Tribunal and waste everybody’s time for the Tribunal to let him off. That’s a ridiculous system for mine.

“I think Billy Frampton, to me, should have got off at the MRO level. There should have been an opportunity to have a system where 99 per cent of people thinking that that was a football act (adds weight), and Christian gets the opportunity to call it the same.

“But Christian saw it differently because of the boxes he had to tick.

“Now, we’ve got a situation whether Billy Frampton is going to have a Tribunal hearing tonight, and he’ll probably get off, and we’re wondering, why have we got a tribunal system and an MRO system that’s so clunky and silly?”

Following Collingwood’s challenge, Frampton is now free to play.