THE handling of Lindsay Thomas’ direct referral to the tribunal over his bump on Geelong’s Scott Selwood has caused vigorous debate throughout the media, and in particular on two major football talk shows on television.
On Monday night’s episode of Talking Footy on Channel Seven, former Hawthorn and Gold Coast defender Campbell Brown was critical of the language used by some commentators to describe the incident during the second quarter of the Power’s loss to the Cats on Saturday night.
Brown was particularly opposed to the description of the bump as a “cheap shot” and “dog act” by former Geelong captain Cameron Ling on radio station 3AW.
“The outrage and hysteria around this incident doesn’t match the incident itself,” Brown said.
“Yes, he deserves a couple of weeks, you can see in that vision he got forearm, shoulder and then head but to be calling it a dog act…
“Lingy has played this game at the highest level and hard for a long period of time and no footballer can sit there and say that that is a dog act.”
Brown was renowned for his hard hits during his playing career and said he took offence to being called a “sniper” in one newspaper article.
He said players develop a reputation which can be hard to shake, and he went on to suggest Ling’s language was damaging to Thomas’ reputation.
“It wasn’t behind play, it wasn’t premeditated, the ball was two metres away so I think they’re going after Lindsay Thomas because of his past not because of that incident,” Brown said.
“Lingy should apologise for damaging Lindsay Thomas’s reputation – everyone out there is going to be calling him a dog, saying that’s a dog act, when that actually is not a dog act.”
“It affects your reputation for life and Lindsay Thomas is going to have to live with that, but that is not a dog act – that’s when you hit someone from behind.”
Fellow panellist Wayne Carey thought it was an overreaction to refer Thomas directly to the tribunal over the incident.
“I think he does hit his arm and shoulder first before the head so I don’t know why Chrisso (Match Review Officer Michael Christian) can’t come out and say look you don’t have to refer that to the tribunal,” he said.
“With common sense you say, he gets him high – ok two weeks.”
It was a similar story on Channel Nine’s Footy Classified where former Essendon captain Matthew Lloyd agreed Thomas’ record played against him.
“I’ve never seen a reaction like this,” Lloyd said.
“Lindsay Thomas made a huge error. He ran past the ball, he could have taken the ball, he hit the player in the head – all those things, but I’ve seen many players do that… but Lindsay Thomas because of a past history with a bit of a rap sheet, everyone’s just piled in on a player and a bump.”
Dual Brownlow medallist Chris Judd was also critical about the language used around the incident.
“I think things that happen behind play are much worse than things that happen in play when you’ve got a split second to make a decision – and I think you’re right, he’s being judged harshly for past events or people’s personal opinions about him,” Judd remarked.
“He made a mistake but we’ve seen far worse than that.
“I think the language around that being a dog act and things like that don’t speak to the seriousness of that act.”
Thomas has been referred directly to the tribunal this evening.
He has accepted a separate one-week ban for striking Cats Captain Joel Selwood in the aftermath of the incident.
