The AFL tribunal has opened a “can of worms” with their decision to spare Brisbane Lions star Charlie Cameron a suspension for his dumping tackle on Melbourne defender Jake Lever.
On Tuesday night, the tribunal dismissed his argument that the impact of the incident should have been graded as “low’‘ rather than “medium’‘.
But the tribunal — led by chairman Jeff Gleeson — found exceptional and compelling circumstances to use its discretion to turn the ban into a fine, citing Cameron’s clean record throughout his 207-game career.
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Gleeson said the incident was careless but at the lower end of seriousness, and noted Cameron had to complete the tackle in a rotating manner to avoid Lever — who is 20kg heavier than him — crushing him due to momentum.
Character references from Adelaide and Carlton champion Eddie Betts and an Indigenous elder also helped sway the tribunal, but they were most taken by his previous disciplinary record.
Commentators and pundits were baffled by the decision given that Cameron has been fined five times throughout his career so his disciplinary record is not perfect.
Adelaide great Mark Bickley said the verdict was “mind-boggling”, especially considering it came on the same day Collingwood premiership player Nathan Murphy was medically retired following a string of concussions.
“To me that just opens a Pandora’s Box, there’s a couple of things here to unpack here. Firstly, on the day a bloke retires with a brain injury, a bloke who does a dump tackle and puts Jake Lever’s head in the turf is given special circumstances because he does community work,” Bickley said on SEN.
“That just doesn’t make any sense to me at all.
“The second one is they brought up his record, his 207-game AFL career that he has never been suspended, but he’s been fined five times so it’s not like he’s got a perfect record.
“If we’re going to start doing this, well Scott Pendlebury has played 388 games and yet to be suspended so on the eve of the finals if he does something that’s a suspendable offence, does he just pull out the ‘well I’ve played twice as many as Charlie Cameron so you can’t possible (ban) me, I do a bit of community work as well’
“It is inconceivable now that they’ve opened this can of worms.”
Melbourne great Garry Lyon was also shocked by the decision.
“I didn’t like it because of the concussion climate we’re in, on the day that Nathan Murphy was medically retired,” he said.
“Then it comes to light that he’s been fined five times and now you’re telling me three of them are for this similar thing.
“Well, come on, that’s a joke. C’mon Jeff, wake up Jeff.
“For me, the exemplary record is a furphy. That’s a furphy from Jeff.
“Let’s be clear on this, the issue with Charlie Cameron is you can go and argue that it was low impact, knock yourselves out on that, I don’t have a problem with that. If that’s how you get yourself off then do that.
“Don’t get yourself off on a good record when you’ve been fined five times and three times for the same thing, that’s my point.
“That’s not exemplary behaviour. That’s called a recidivist.”
The Lions will now have the goalsneak’s services for Saturday night’s blockbuster with Geelong, when Brisbane will look to build on a two-game winning streak.
Cameron looked back to his best with three goals in the Lions’ win against the Demons last week.
– with AAP