Three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt has gone into bat for former teammate Rhyan Mansell after being bumped by Blues defender Jordan Boyd, stating he didn’t like the “victim blaming” during last night’s tribunal hearing.
Boyd, who had his one-match suspension overturned after a mammoth four-hour trial, was cited for his bump that collected Mansell in the head while going for the ball.
Boyd’s punishment was downgraded from one week on the sidelines to a fine, with the Tribunal determining that the 25-year-old slowed his momentum down enough that his contact could be lowered from medium impact to low.
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Boyd overturns one-match ban, cops fine | 00:51
The incident was initially graded as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.
Reacting to the decision nearly 24 hours later on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Riewoldt believed that Mansell’s actions had been scrutinised so much so that an unaware observer may think that the Tiger was the player on trial.
“I was watching the updates come through and I started to think Rhyan Mansell was up for a possible suspension the way it was panning out,” Riewoldt begun by exclaiming.
“The victim blaming, I didn’t like that last night – I’m a bit protective because he’s a Tiger and a Tassie boy as well, but I don’t think I was on my own. I think there was a few out there that thought: ‘Hang on a second, who’s on trial here?’”
“I think if you’ve got someone coming at you at force and you look up – are you going to crouch and protect yourself and duck your head? Or cop it straight down the nose?”
“It’s a pretty simple answer for me … I read something last night that they thought Mansell made the force to Boyd; that’s fascinating – how on earth does that come up?”
AFL 360 host Gerard Whateley added to Riewoldt’s belief, deeming it – in some ways – as brutal a case as any in recent memory.
“It got so far out of hand that Mansell actually had a right of reply I felt, as that was as direct at the victim as I’ve ever heard at the tribunal,” Whateley said.
“It’s a strange finding because it was deemed ‘careless’, but then it was also deemed that Boyd took enough care at the moment of impact to make sure it wasn’t ‘medium’, it was actually low – it was contradictory.”
Boyd avoided becoming the 28th player to be suspended by the AFL this season, with four-time premiership Hawk Jordan Lewis believing that the tribunal’s findings aid the argument that the league isn’t rewarding players who attack the ball.
“When I watch football over the weekend, I still don’t think that the player who is head-down playing for the ball gets enough protection,” said Lewis.
“I still think on numerous occasions the player coming in (in this instance Boyd) is quite reckless; you sit back in your chair and go: ‘That could’ve been a lot worse.’”
The 2014 All-Australian went on to say he felt that Boyd’s suspension should’ve been upheld.
With the downgrade in punishment, Boyd is now free to play the Giants in New South Wales this Saturday night, while Mansell will travel to Perth and clash with a red-hot Fremantle.