Baker- it's over

[St Michele]

lol - Baker abandoned by the yes men of this great administration.


Strength through Loyalty - yeah sure, as long as the lemmings who follow this rabble of a club keep handing over their cash



Totally disgusted at these cowards.

Loyalty to whom is my question it is definately not Bakes or most of the fans....

[mullet]

Just hope everyone remembers this day and IF we get to hold the cup aloft at the end of the year, rain boos and any derogatory remark youj can think of on DIimwit and his cronies at the cup presentatio9n. REALLY let them know what we feel. Drown the MCG in boos at the showpiece of AFL. Let the fans finally have a voice.

Would be best to savour the moment.

Monday morning turn up to he offices of AFL and shove it up them.

[lurker#134]

lol - Baker abandoned by the yes men of this great administration.

They ust take it time adn time again.

They allow one of their players to be villified by some lawyer and attack and insult his integrity.

They allow him to get f3cked over time and time again.

So typical of the gutless squibs that represent our club.

No balls, cowards and AFL lackeys the lot of them.

Strength through Loyalty - yeah sure, as long as the lemmings who follow this rabble of a club keep handing over their cash

Steve Baker you have been branded unmanly, and unsporting and your club has cut you off at the knees.

Not even a peep.

Totally disgusted at these cowards.

Don't forget to take your pedantic handbag on your way out before jumping into a lake you big pansy.

Grow a pair and harden the f$$$ up.

lol - is that you Nettlefold?

Seems like this person hasn't got much of an idea of the topic.

Maybe read the thread and get back to us before regalling us with your ignorance

Why don't you cut up your membership then if you have such a problem with this club.

[OneEyedSainter77]

Interesting post from bigfooty about the whole issue. I have no idea where to post tihs so I rolled a dice and chose this one out of the seventeen (seriously - count them) Baker threads on the main board.

Big Footy Fan Night

Wednesday June 30: Day 139



What Everybody’s Talking About:



The Steven Baker Suspension



This week’s suspension of Baker highlights the two greatest problems with the current system employed by the match review panel; previous record and reason of contact.
It remains hypocritical of a system that states that they treat each case on a scenario by scenario occasion and don’t use precedent that they would then bring up a past record when delivering a current penalty. Baker did his time for the Farmer incident three years ago; he should not be punished again now for an incident that happened three years ago.

The AFL is littered with players through history who have great careers only to make one indiscretion or have players who seem to face the review system every month yet are not penalised. This shows that previous record should not be taken into account as the suspension itself should be the deterrent for future behaviour, not the fear of again having to face the review system and have your penalty doubled.

If the penalty is right at the time then there is no need for further punishment down the line. The second point on intent of contact has too much gray area. Only one person can truly say what the intent of the contact was and that is the person who indeed performed the act. Only they truly know why they did what they did and for the match review panel to have to judge the mindset of an individual opens up too much controversy.

The current system works well in judging an actual incident; there is rarely any debate on where the contact was made and what to what extent contact was made therefore really this intent is not needed. Let the match review panel just analyse the incident itself and take out the grey area and much of this current confusion will be abated. If the match review panel does indeed decide an action was 100% premeditated or intentional and the incident was a particularly severe case they can send it straight to the tribunal.

This is what should be being done for any contact they believe is intentional rather then offering a suspension. Make the player go and explain their actions at the tribunal rather then misinformed parties making a call. The current system can work; it just needs more clarity. By taking out previous record and taking out the intent of contact charge the AFL would have a better judicial system. Using this proposed system for this case specific by taking out the previous record would have reduced Baker’s suspension to seven weeks.

Then if the intent of contact was not a part of the process more then likely the suspension would have come down to three weeks. This would have been a suspension that would have deterred tactics like which Baker used while also punishing Baker fairly for the actions he took in Friday’s game. The biggest problem in the aftermath is fans are working on emotion rather then taking a look at the system that is in place and seeing why this has occurred.

Few people I am sure have actually taken the time to read the actual charges and rulings of the match review panel and have just looked at the massive nine and 12 week charges at the end saying that is too severe. According to the system the AFL has in place there was nothing else the match review panel could do, they simply adjudicated on what they saw which was realistically correct (bar in my opinion the last charge for misconduct) that is why the system needs to be fixed rather then finger pointing at the panel and the AFL.

As much as it may be easy for Saints fans to say the AFL is out to get Baker it is hard to believe in a professional organisation that something like that would be happening. I always remember when the AFL brought this system in that it looks great for the first offence but what happens if someone keeps fronting up the suspensions are just going to get longer and longer which is exactly what has happened in this case. This could be the case that finally forces change which would be the one bright spot in a dark day for AFL history.