Baker says the AFL Tribunal was "horse s***"

[saynta]

Something some of us already knew.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ ... 1d73e7266a


'Steven Baker once told a coach he didn’t need to learn how to baulk. He just ran through blokes. His fiery nature meant he was suspended for a total of 28 weeks across his career. But was the tribunal out to get him?
Jon Ralph and Glenn McFarlane, Herald Sun

April 26, 2020 2:21pm


Steven Baker says he was victimised by the AFL tribunal which found loopholes to punish him for his aggressive tagging tactics.

But Baker has finally admitted hitting Jeff Farmer in the controversial “rough conduct” suspension that saw him handed a seven-match ban.

Baker and Steve Johnson conducted one of footy’s fiercest rivalries that saw Baker beat Johnson in the 2009 Grand Final loss.

The rematch saw Johnson break his hand on Baker’s head before Baker was handed a nine-match suspension for three separate incidents against the Cats champion.

Baker says by that stage his reputation preceded him, with the AFL’s system also handing him 40 per cent loadings and carry-over points under the system of that time.

Baker and Johnson are now mates after catching up several times with mutual friend Lenny Hayes, but says at the time he didn’t deserve all of his 28 games of suspension from 15 separate charges.

In 2007 Baker was suspended for seven weeks for his hit on Farmer, and while there was no vision of the incident the tribunal said he was guilty of causing Farmer’s concussion.

They suspended him for rough conduct rather than striking, finding a way to penalise him even though they could not uphold the striking charge.

“Every time I went into the tribunal I knew I was going to be found guilty no matter what. I joked about it even if I went in there with no pants on and said the same thing there would be the same outcome,” he said.

“I played on Stevie J in the Grand Final and did pretty well and the next game we went to town on each other, punching each other all game. Stevie J broke his hand on me. He says otherwise but he broke his hand on my head early in the game so I gave him a little cheap shot back, a little uppercut. That was one suspension but the four incidents were pretty minor.

“He gave me the best elbow I had ever received in my whole career, eight stitches and I saw stars. And after the game I said no hard feelings. He went into bat for me and got three weeks but (I got eight).

“Even the Jeff Farmer incident shows the bull**** of the tribunal. We were both sprinting on the other side of the wing and I did wallop him a ripper but they didn’t catch it on camera and I went in there and said I just stopped but he hit me in the back and they said, ‘Because you caused the contact it’s seven weeks’.

“I am just thinking that’s horse s***. If that’s Gary Ablett or Chris Judd, people they want to see play, he would have got off in a second but because it was Steven Baker they found a loophole in the law and he stopped.

“(It was) Baker doing the same old thing, this is a waste of time. I am already going to be guilty.

“I had 15 tribunal appearances and they were all guilty. I didn’t get let off once so and there were a few of them where I didn’t think I was guilty.”

‘WHAT JUST HAPPENED?’: WILD TIMES UNDER BLIGHT

St Kilda’s former stars have lifted the lid on months of chaos and confusion under Malcolm Blight’s short and turbulent reign at the club.

Coaching master Blight arrived at St Kilda only two years after winning the 1999 premiership at Adelaide but was sacked by Round 15 of 2001.

St Kilda stars Stephen Milne and Steven Baker admit they were in awe of Blight when he arrived at the club on a million-dollar-a-year deal.

But as Milne told the Herald Sun’s Sacked podcast, Blight was never truly engaged and was more of a part-time coach with methods not conducive to the modern game.

“His desk was (clean). A couple of pieces of paper on it and that was it. It was a strange time. Obviously he signed a contract on a napkin and he was kind of pushed into doing it and I don’t think his heart was in it.

“His heart was more into golf at the time. Nothing against Blighty but he wanted to choose different paths.

“In the pre-season he wasn’t there much. He was here Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and he had Tuesday and Thursdays off. We didn’t touch the footies until after Christmas which was weird for a professional AFL footy club not to touch the balls until after Christmas.

“We had to do five 1km time trials and we had to get within five or ten seconds of your (best time) for each 1km. Until you did that you couldn’t touch the footy. He was late to team meetings and stuff like that. It was my first year and I had no idea. I thought Blighty was a back-to-back premiership coach.”.

Baker said Blight’s old-school methods took time for players to get used to as they questioned his style of teaching.

“He was playing golf in the pre-season. He was going up for golf trips to the Gold Coast. It was like, ‘He’s not here again this weekend, we will slack off then’.

“He would call guys out and belittle them in front of the group and I wasn’t a fan of that.

“He called me out in front of the group and tried to teach me to baulk, and I said, ‘Mate I just run people over, I don’t need to baulk, stick the elbow up and run through’.

He sort of embarrassed people in front of the group, I know a few people he called out in meetings and the like. A few things I didn’t want in a coach.”

After one loss at Docklands he made all 22 players come together for a stern lecture in the middle of the centre circle.

“He made us sit inside the centre circle, all of us 22 players,” Baker said.

“I thought we were going to do another training session because we just got pumped. That was another weird kind of thing, we all had to be inside that white line, 22 of us sitting there just listening to s***. You remember walking off going, ‘What just happened?’

“In the showers and on the way home, we were thinking did that just happen. You look back on it now and just laugh and think, did that really happen?”

[ausfatcat]

He deserved most of the suspensions but Alesio suspension was one was absolutely biggest bs I have ever seen (rnd 14 2003), 100kg guy stomping on his ankle and he did a reflex kick and got suspended for it Alessio nothing.

[Moods]

Really liked Bakes as a player for our club and apparently a ripper bloke off field BUT hard to have any sympathy here. He basically admits, 'yeah, I did it, but they couldn't prove it so why should I have been suspended?'

He played a certain way so just cop your whack Bakes and STFU.

Imagine if a crook was released from prison complaining that he did commit the crime after pleading not guilty to it, but moaning that the prosecution didn't prove the case beyond reasonable doubt so he should never have been locked up? Just sounds ridiculous.

[CURLY]

Really liked Bakes as a player for our club and apparently a ripper bloke off field BUT hard to have any sympathy here. He basically admits, 'yeah, I did it, but they couldn't prove it so why should I have been suspended?'

He played a certain way so just cop your whack Bakes and STFU.

Imagine if a crook was released from prison complaining that he did commit the crime after pleading not guilty to it, but moaning that the prosecution didn't prove the case beyond reasonable doubt so he should never have been locked up? Just sounds ridiculous.

So your happy for people to be suspended with no evidence?

[saynta]

Really liked Bakes as a player for our club and apparently a ripper bloke off field BUT hard to have any sympathy here. He basically admits, 'yeah, I did it, but they couldn't prove it so why should I have been suspended?'

He played a certain way so just cop your whack Bakes and STFU.

Imagine if a crook was released from prison complaining that he did commit the crime after pleading not guilty to it, but moaning that the prosecution didn't prove the case beyond reasonable doubt so he should never have been locked up? Just sounds ridiculous.

So your happy for people to be suspended with no evidence?

It would appear so.

[Moods]

Really liked Bakes as a player for our club and apparently a ripper bloke off field BUT hard to have any sympathy here. He basically admits, 'yeah, I did it, but they couldn't prove it so why should I have been suspended?'

He played a certain way so just cop your whack Bakes and STFU.

Imagine if a crook was released from prison complaining that he did commit the crime after pleading not guilty to it, but moaning that the prosecution didn't prove the case beyond reasonable doubt so he should never have been locked up? Just sounds ridiculous.

So your happy for people to be suspended with no evidence?

It would appear so.

What was I thinking? You're right of course. Bakes is the real victim here. Not the likes of Jeff Farmer with a fractured eye socket and knocked out senseless.

No evidence? You mean a player with severe injuries and our Bakes the only one in the vicinity. That may not be conclusive evidence but it's also certainly not NO evidence either. Not as if Farmer sustained these injuries and the AFL thought, 'Hmm, who can we pin this on? I know, Steve Baker was playing in that game. Let's pin it on him.'

Bakes was one of the toughest blokes I ever saw play footy. And sadly I saw him do some of the weakest things you can do on a footy field. Much of which he has admitted now. You can be tough without sniping blokes. I would suggest that anyone who defends Bakes on here in this article would be a hypocrite of the highest order, especially considering that if an opposition player so much as sneezes in the vicinity of one of our boys he's labelled a thug. You can start by going back 15 years to the squealing that went on on here when Roo injured his shoulder and was bumped by Mal Michael and Scott as he remained on the ground foolishly trying to play on.

Plugger got suspended heaps as well, but not once was he ever sniping behind play.

[BarryGrogan]

Plugger got suspended heaps as well, but not once was he ever sniping behind play.

Brad Fox says hello.

Neil Cordy also sends his regards.

[Moods]

Plugger got suspended heaps as well, but not once was he ever sniping behind play.

Brad Fox says hello.

Neil Cordy also sends his regards.

None of them hit behind play when they weren't looking. They were wrestles or untidy attempts at the footy. Not dirty but possibly thuggish behaviour. He deserved to be suspended, but surely you can tell the difference between that and what Bakes did. Plugger didn't squirrel grip, whack behind play, whack when they weren't looking

[BarryGrogan]

Plugger got suspended heaps as well, but not once was he ever sniping behind play.

Brad Fox says hello.

Neil Cordy also sends his regards.

None of them hit behind play when they weren't looking. They were wrestles or untidy attempts at the footy. Not dirty but possibly thuggish behaviour. He deserved to be suspended, but surely you can tell the difference between that and what Bakes did. Plugger didn't squirrel grip, whack behind play, whack when they weren't looking

The two I mentioned were both behind play and from behind. He nearly killed both of them.

I saw them both with my own eyes. Loved every moment of it too.

[mad saint guy]

Bakes must be the only player ever suspended for attempted striking

[Sainter_Dad]

He deserved most of the suspensions but Alesio suspension was one was absolutely biggest bs I have ever seen (rnd 14 2003), 100kg guy stomping on his ankle and he did a reflex kick and got suspended for it Alessio nothing.

I believe that Bakes also admitted to 'sharpening his studs' at some point. I actually believe that was circulated during his playing career.

[The_Dud]

For some supporters, the deciding factor of whether a player is a thug/sniper is what colour shirt they wear.

[CURLY]

For some supporters, the deciding factor of whether a player is a thug/sniper is what colour shirt they wear.

Much the same as the tribunal or umpires.