Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has launched a strong defence of Cody Weightman amid questions over the free kicks received by the forward in Saturday’s win over North Melbourne.
Beveridge’s Kangaroos counterpart Alastair Clarkson urged umpires to be vigilant about “getting milked” for frees after several decisions went Weightman’s way.
But Beveridge suggested Clarkson had been “baited” into the comments by the questions fired at him during the press conference, and reacted strongly to AFL 360 host Mark Robinson’s descriptions of the incident.
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Pointing to a moment where North Melbourne’s Jackson Archer’s arm caught Weightman high as the small forward lowered his body, having already been caught high moments earlier, Beveridge said: “Are you condoning, 80 metres or however far away from the play it is, that players can do that?
“Is that what you’re saying? So what has Cody done there that anyone else wouldn’t have done?
“All he’s done is try to get out of a headlock! And yet he’s been criticised for it. Are you serious?”
Below is a full transcript of Beveridge’s comments on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
Luke Beveridge: “You know I’m gonna dance down the pitch on this one.
“Sometimes we’re talking continuums, and if we’ve got bravery up this end and cowardice up this end, Cody Weightman almost falls off the threshold on the bravery end of the continuum.
“We’re talking about a young fella who’s played with a dislocated elbow, three times that’s happened before he’s needed to fix it with surgery, and he plays with a velocity and a courage like the best small forwards do it in the game, that’s why he’s such a good player.
“And there wasn’t one of the decisions that was made that wasn’t correct. So how he can get caught in the crosshairs is beyond me. Now I’ll assess him up this end, the ones who are pointing the finger at him, they’ve got to self-assess as to where they sit on the continuum. But he’s a star, he’s got that much courage and I’ll protect him and go into bat for him for however the day is long.”
Mark Robinson: “Do you think people are questioning his courage? No-one’s questioning his courage, he’s a fantastic player.
LB: “What are you seeing in the examples?”
MR: “The example when Archer’s put his hands up and he’s stuck his sort of head under the arm, I thought that was an old forward pocket…
LB: “The one off the ball? He’s grabbed him around the head off the ball.
MR: “The back of the- yeah.
LB: “It’s a blatant off the ball incident and it’s not a free kick?
MR: “I don’t know if it was blatant.
LB: “So are you condoning, 80 metres or however far away from the play it is, that players can do that? Is that what you’re saying? So what has Cody done there that anyone else wouldn’t have done? All he’s done is try to get out of a headlock! And yet he’s been criticised for it. Are you serious?
MR: “I wouldn’t have thought it was a headlock.
LB: “What has he done wrong there? He’s been grabbed around the neck? So what’s happened there is there’s been a journo bait Clarko, Clarko’s virtually said look don’t make decisions like some of the decisions we’re talking about in the Geelong game that have a significant influence on the outcome, Clarko’s saying let some go if they’re trivial. Not one of Cody’s was trivial, they were all there. I don’t know whether he was baited for too long, but some of the names that Cody’s been called by a journalist, I mean have some respect for the kid.
MR: “Seriously, what names? I’m not aware-
LB: “Are you not reading other material, are you only paying attention to what you wrote?
MR: “There’s a lot of stuff to read these days.
LB: “I’ll leave that to you to go and read the other stuff.
MR: “I will, I’ll hunt that down tonight.”