Baker cops 3rd striking charge & found guilty on 4th

[saintspremiers]

To The Top - ever considered representing our boys at the tribunal?

You couldn't do any worse than our current mob!

[saintbrat]

the Board will now consider their options; Nettlefold


It may not be over yet.

[santazzi]

I will now retire to bed with two sad convictions:

1. The AFL has some thing very significant over the head of STK which threatens its very existence............thre is no way i can eplain total capitulation.....again and agai and again.........and..............

2. For my own sanity, I must send a message to the club begging them ....to never...never... never ....again pick a phoney fight with the AFL.........these phoney fights and capitulations over the years have been subjucting me to more ridicule by anti Saints forces than anything the boys have done or have note done on the field.......

[St. Luke]

They just keep bending us over, repeatedly shafting us!! Why should we be penalized due to the inability of the AFL's quinzillion umpires who failed to spot anything even remotely reportable (or free-kick-worthy) during the game!??? Disgraceful!! A better indication of the AFL actually doing something would have been the last few times situations like this presented themselves.... But no, we'll hammer Baker to a cross and crucify him!! I'm truly appauled! But not one f'n bit surprised!

[Teflon]

the Board will now consider their options; Nettlefold


It may not be over yet.

The Board will announce that legal action was considered but dismissed with concerns around disrupting whats been a stunning season...blah blah blah.

This would not have happened to Collingwood. Shytehouse and Fat Ed wouldve been all over the media pressuring the AFL. This tells me will never be treated on equal footing.

Regardless of the incident - this is simply a case where the AFL has decided to pluck an example, a scapegoat, alter the interpretation of rules.....tell no one........and hang a weaker club out to dry. Thats us.

2 weeks time......taggers will be back to doing what they do.....scragging, jumper punches......smacking injured hands/bumping injured shoulders....and nothing will be done.

But the AFL will have got their man.

Truly sickened by this.

BTW - Malthouse, Thompson, Ackermanis, K Bartlett, can all get effed.

[Sainterman]

the Board will now consider their options; Nettlefold


It may not be over yet.

The Board will announce that legal action was considered but dismissed with concerns around disrupting whats been a stunning season...blah blah blah.

This would not have happened to Collingwood. Shytehouse and Fat Ed wouldve been all over the media pressuring the AFL. This tells me will never be treated on equal footing.

Regardless of the incident - this is simply a case where the AFL has decided to pluck an example, a scapegoat, alter the interpretation of rules.....tell no one........and hang a weaker club out to dry. Thats us.

2 weeks time......taggers will be back to doing what they do.....scragging, jumper punches......smacking injured hands/bumping injured shoulders....and nothing will be done.

But the AFL will have got their man.

Truly sickened by this.

BTW - Malthouse, Thompson, Ackermanis, K Bartlett, can all get effed.

Nicely said Teflon. I feel the same way.

I will still be on board for the remainder of 2010 and beyond only out of my love for our great club.

Gee, what a shame Plugger has missed all of this...he would have loved it!!

[saint75]

In regards Baker's alleged knowledge of Johnson having a broken hand the finding on Nikolic today is of real interest.

The summation on Nikolic was that a suspicion that Nikolic was passing information for a purpose was not proof that he was passing information for a purpose.

Simply, unless Nikolic admitted he was passing on information for the reasons alleged no one can know what was going on inside his brain - and he can not be found guilty on any suspician of what was going on in his brain.

Unless Baker admits he knew Johnson's hand was broken he has been found guilty on the suspician that he knew Johnson's hand was broken.

So 2 findings on the one day and these findings totally inconsistent with each other.

Victoria Racing's tribunal got it right.

The AFL tribunal got it wrong.

There should be an avenue of appeal to an independent judiciary on this matter alone - and then include the other matters on the basis of precedent and where precedent needs to evidence contact with the head specifically.

The AFL set up this "mickey mouse" system to keep matters from the Courts and they overtly intimidate clubs with retribution if they break ranks and look for a civil resolution.

Simply, the whole AFL MRP and tribunal process is a sham and will not stand up in any Court of Law if and when challenged.

There is also the severity of action(s) which did not result in any need for attention from the training or medical staff, the impact of the penalty(ies) commensurate to the severity of the action(s) and the resultant restraint of trade courtesy of the penalty(ies) handed down.

Interim Orders will allow Baker to play out the season - and throw the AFL's MRP and Tribunal system into chaos forcing the AFL to revert (correctly) to a Court of Law because restraint of trade is an issue.

There is also the matter of "trial by media" which has occurred in this instance including by describing the match as vicious etc. etc., which it was not - in my view at least.

In my view it was simply wet weather, accountable footy.

What Baker did has always been going on.

I well recall a full back by the name of John Abley at Port Adelaide who got up to every distracting trick in the book no matter that the ball was at the other end of the ground.

Pinching, punching, grabbing, treading on your toes in your face type stuff for the whole 100 minutes.

All Australian full back on 3 occasions at 3 succesive Carnivals - and arguably, on that record, the greatest full back of them all.

Put Steven Baker's tactics to shame!

The point I make is that nothing has changed - and nor should it.

If a deliberate act results in injury to a player or puts a player at risk of injury then that is another issue altogether.

I also disagree the "tagger" description.

Johnson played half forward and Baker played on him at half back.

Or don't you expect to have a full on opponent hell bent on minimising your influence on a match these days?

Have we reverted to a "kick it to me" code?

Even my grand-daughter at netball finishes games with pinch marks all over her!

Time for Demitriou to go.

Nicely put, but careful, we are better off accepting it all and moving on according to some.

Rubbish. Do you not remember Collingwood losing a couple of their stars prior to their Grand Final appearances? They tried to fight the MRP and tribunal and they had about as much success as the rest of us.

You are all clearly missing the point. The AFL rule our code with an iron fist. If they want to make an example of someone, they do and will. I don't argue with any of your points. I am effin' angry about this decision. However, to spout off that we let people walk all over us is crap.

Carlton, for example, is one of the 'so called' power houses of the AFL. Why is it that they lost draft picks for salary cap cheating? Was it in the best interest of the AFL? No, it was not. They chose to make an example of them. We won in that situation if I remember rightly? BJ immediately springs to mind.

So instead of dwelling in my disgust and anger for what has happened, I have chosen to get behind my club and give them every bit of support that I can muster.

How many of your were outside the tribunal picketing tonight? If you are really so angry with the AFL, launch a campaign directed at the MRP and it's inconsistencies. Don't blame the club for 'laying down'. Besides, they haven't decided if they will take it any further at this stage. It still might be pursued.......

[Medici Bromberg]

Tim Lane goes the tonk...

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/afl/1742 ... r-scrap-it

[Sainterman]

Tim Lane goes the tonk...

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/afl/1742 ... r-scrap-it

Really good article this one. A flawed system leading to poor outcomes.

I particularly liked this part:

If a player commits enough minor offences, he can find himself more severely punished than a capital offender. Compared to Barry Hall’s seven week suspension for the worst king-hit ever captured by television cameras on an AFL ground, the Baker penalty is wildly disproportionate. It’s the equivalent of giving a serial pick-pocket somewhere between 9 and 12 years jail, while the bloke who robbed a bank at gun-point gets off with seven.

[Thinline]

Haven't enjoyed a Lane article for a while. That one summarised the thoughts of the majority on here I reckon.

[suss]

Tim Lane goes the tonk...

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/afl/1742 ... r-scrap-it

Really good article this one. A flawed system leading to poor outcomes.

I particularly liked this part:

If a player commits enough minor offences, he can find himself more severely punished than a capital offender. Compared to Barry Hall’s seven week suspension for the worst king-hit ever captured by television cameras on an AFL ground, the Baker penalty is wildly disproportionate. It’s the equivalent of giving a serial pick-pocket somewhere between 9 and 12 years jail, while the bloke who robbed a bank at gun-point gets off with seven.

At least it's starting to look embarrassing for the AFL.

On the one hand you have Blake, Lane, Walls, Robertson etc highlighting the absurdity of the penalty and on the other you have Akamanis, Bartlett and a bunch of other crazies defending it.

[Thinline]

I'm hoping for a 'Hewson-esque explaining the GST' moment if and when Anderson has the gumption to field a few polite questions...

"Oh it's simple, you add the carry over points to the 50% of the last offence then subtract that from...no...I mean you take half of what he did in 2007 then multiply it by a factor of 0.26...I mean its easy, can't you see?... You just add 100 for the first one and then look at it in isolation to the next one that carries extra weight because it was deemed a bit worse than the other ones...er...um..."

[dcstkfc]

Haven't enjoyed a Lane article for a while. That one summarised the thoughts of the majority on here I reckon.

Good stuff Tim, you may be Blues biased but you are intelligent and articulate

[Lenny = legend]

Here's a facebook group you can join to show your support:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/grou ... 6075836842