Barry
Hall Gets 7 Weeks
Barry Hall has been suspended
for seven weeks for striking Brent Staker
in the Sydney Swans match against the
West Coast Eagles at ANZ Stadium on
Saturday night.
Video seems to show Hall having
at least one other unsuccessful attempt
to land a meaningful blow on Staker a few
seconds before the assault that earned
him this suspension, however
media and fans seem divided over
whether Hall's punch was an
out-of-character one-off incident or
another example of a prolonged career of
thuggery.
There are enough previous
examples to support the latter, with
Hall's striking charge this
week bringing him a total of 12
tribunal appearances for 7 convictions
and a total of 23 weeks'
suspensions.
Two other aspects to the
debate are whether a player's
suspensions should only take effect once
he has recovered from injury, and whether
deliberate acts of violence on the field
should resuilt in removal from the
field. If a player is prepared to
commit such severe unlawful acts to try
to gain an advantage for his team
(and/or create a disadvantage to his
opposition), should the logical move be
immediate removal from the field of the
offending player himself.
In Hall's defence, his counsel
Terry Forrest, QC, acknowledged
that this was a serious case of
striking but not a "worst case scenario".
According to the AFL's guidelines,
kicking and charging are
worse offences than
striking. Part of Halls'
representation highlighted that Staker,
although concussed by Hall, suffered
"relatively slight"
injuries. Barry Hall was last night reported
as describing the sentence as fair. "Just
in terms of the outcome I was prepared to
cop whatever came my way," Hall said.
"Seven weeks I think is fair."
Hall made another public apology
to Staker, but this could have been
stage-managed damage control by Swans
administrators, a prudent well-worn
strategy for a club that, perhaps more than
any other in the AFL, has been built on PR
and marketing.
Among those unconvinced by
Hall's explanation of events was AFL
counsel Jeff Gleeson, SC. He described
the punch as violent and dangerous,
and questioned how Hall, a former
boxer, could strike someone in the
face with a full shoulder rotation and
not expect to cause severe
damage.
Hall benefited from pleading
guilty, with a sentencing discount of 25
per cent.
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