SA Footy

Johnson faces eight week ban

August 20, 2007 COLLINGWOOD'S Ben Johnson is facing a suspension of up to eight matches for making front-on contact to Melbourne's Daniel Bell.

The AFL's match review panel assessed the bump Johnson laid during Friday night's match at the MCG as reckless conduct, high contact and with severe impact.

That equated to a level five offence, drawing 750 demerit points, with the 70.31 points Johnson had hanging over from a previous sanction lifting the total to 820.31 points, worth an eight-match ban.

Johnson can accept a six-match ban, if he submits an early guilty plea, which carries a 25 per cent discount.

Brisbane's Jason Roe can accept a one-match suspension for making front-on contact to Sydney's Luke Brennan during Saturday night's match at the Gabba.

Roe's bump on Brennan was assessed as negligent conduct, high contact at medium impact.

That equated to a level two offence, drawing 250 points, which is a two-match suspension. A discount for an early guilty plea would reduce it to one match.

They were the only two players charged so far with offences which attract suspensions.

An investigation is continuing into an incident in which Fremantle's Jeff Farmer was severely concussed during the third term of Saturday's Telstra Dome clash with St Kilda.

The incident, which occurred well off the ball, with St Kilda's Steven Baker the only other player in the vicinity, was not captured on camera.

Port Adelaide's Daniel Motlop and Hawthorn's Luke Hodge face fines for allegedly wrestling each other during yesterday's match in Launceston.

And Geelong defender Darren Milburn faces a fine for throwing his mouthguard at Kangaroos' Shannon Grant during Sunday's match at Telstra Dome.

Match-day reports laid against Brisbane's Luke Power, cited for charging Sydney's Craig Bolton, and West Coast's Brent Staker, cited for striking Richmond's Adam Pattison, were withdrawn by the panel.

8 weeks i reckon is a bit harsh.

Out of interest who was the last bloke to get 8? I remember Plugger getting 8 in the infamous Caven incident back in 94 i think. I'm sure it's happened since?

If Johnson got 4 games, I'd think it stiff*

Roe should not get a game, but maybe 60 demerit points for an early plea- his was definatley less deliberate, & more in the attack on the ball than body.

Punk Rooster wrote:If Johnson got 4 games, I'd think it stiff*

Roe should not get a game, but maybe 60 demerit points for an early plea- his was definatley less deliberate, & more in the attack on the ball than body.

I think Johnsons was worse than Byrons and he should at least get what Byron got.

8 weeks seems a lot but it was a pretty bad incident let's be honest

It's 6 weeks normally then he cops extra because of a previous incident

6 weeks for that is OK I reckon

Pickett got 6 (IIRC) for a similar,but most would say had less impact and not the same amount of recklessness.(Pickett getting a player slipping head over the ball)

I think Johnsons is worthy of 6+.

I think you'll find hes looking at a 6 week ban. In all fairness it was pretty much the same as the pickett incident. With the precedent set that is about right. Bad luck ben, next time use some F****** brains.

I thought that it was worse than Pickets and throw into the fact that the Melbourne player has now got neck or back injuries and is still getting headaches and I think its on the mark as far as consistency goes, must admit I was expecting about 6 though.

six weeks is fair, 4 weeks for the bump, 2 for stupidity for the breaking the most publicised rule change this year.....(as opposed to stricter interpretation of the push in the back rule)

I reckon 4 would be the right amount myself. 8 is too harsh.

i think he deserves what he was givin, that was just stupidity at its best and they need to stamp that crap out of the game

Season over....

I don't want to see anybody seriously hurt but what really craps me off is if the Dees player had of been able to pick the ball up cleenly and not fumble around with the bloody thing for 2 or 3 steps he would've seen what was coming and braced himself. Can't reward blokes who can't master the skills of the game - at least at that level. Even if you watch the Massie bump from the weekend, he was fumbling the ball as Darcey was heading towards him, had he not of fumbled he would of been able to protect himself Take note, the blokes that get cleaned up fumble the ball primarily because they're shitting themselves. You never saw McIntosh, McGuiness, Platten, Bradley get hit because they got the ball and took off with it

It's a funny shape ball and it bounces oddly on occasions. The guy who crunches the fumbler can see it coming and exercise choice in how he tackles, so he deserves what he gets for not giving a damn whether he does an opponent serious and permanent injury.

Brad wrote:An investigation is continuing into an incident in which Fremantle's Jeff Farmer was severely concussed during the third term of Saturday's Telstra Dome clash with St Kilda.

The incident, which occurred well off the ball, with St Kilda's Steven Baker the only other player in the vicinity, was not captured on camera.

How this hasnt been captured I will never know... Was it a Channel 7 game?

Brad wrote:And Geelong defender Darren Milburn faces a fine for throwing his mouthguard at Kangaroos' Shannon Grant during Sunday's match at Telstra Dome.

This encompasses everything that is wrong with the AFL at the moment.

Rotter wrote:I don't want to see anybody seriously hurt but what really craps me off is if the Dees player had of been able to pick the ball up cleenly and not fumble around with the bloody thing for 2 or 3 steps he would've seen what was coming and braced himself. Can't reward blokes who can't master the skills of the game - at least at that level.

The penalty for fumbling is getting knocked unconcious?

What reward has Bell got BTW? Penalising Johnson isn't rewarding Bell. Nor is escaping a charge to the head a reward.

The point is that Johnson, seeing that Bell was over the ball (fumbling or not) could have simply grabbed and held him rather than charging his head. I bet Johnson himself would do it differently if he had his time again.

MatteeG wrote:

Brad wrote:An investigation is continuing into an incident in which Fremantle's Jeff Farmer was severely concussed during the third term of Saturday's Telstra Dome clash with St Kilda.

The incident, which occurred well off the ball, with St Kilda's Steven Baker the only other player in the vicinity, was not captured on camera.

How this hasnt been captured I will never know... Was it a Channel 7 game?

Brad wrote:And Geelong defender Darren Milburn faces a fine for throwing his mouthguard at Kangaroos' Shannon Grant during Sunday's match at Telstra Dome.

This encompasses everything that is wrong with the AFL at the moment.

Well said!!! The AFL are a joke!

saintal wrote:8 weeks i reckon is a bit harsh.

Out of interest who was the last bloke to get 8? I remember Plugger getting 8 in the infamous Caven incident back in 94 i think. I'm sure it's happened since?

I can only remember Dale Kickett getting 9 matches in total over three seperate reports in 2000, but not in one report since Plugger. Not unless you can count Justin Charles in 1997 when he got 16 weeks for taking a banned substance.

spell_check wrote:

saintal wrote:8 weeks i reckon is a bit harsh.

Out of interest who was the last bloke to get 8? I remember Plugger getting 8 in the infamous Caven incident back in 94 i think. I'm sure it's happened since?

I can only remember Dale Kickett getting 9 matches in total over three seperate reports in 2000, but not in one report since Plugger. Not unless you can count Justin Charles in 1997 when he got 16 weeks for taking a banned substance.

What did Lynch get after the 04 GF?

pafc1870 wrote:

spell_check wrote:

saintal wrote:8 weeks i reckon is a bit harsh.

Out of interest who was the last bloke to get 8? I remember Plugger getting 8 in the infamous Caven incident back in 94 i think. I'm sure it's happened since?

I can only remember Dale Kickett getting 9 matches in total over three seperate reports in 2000, but not in one report since Plugger. Not unless you can count Justin Charles in 1997 when he got 16 weeks for taking a banned substance.

What did Lynch get after the 04 GF?

A total of 10 weeks, and $15,000 in fines - $5,000 in 3 attempted striking charges, 3 weeks for another attempted strking charge, 3 weeks for striking and another 4 for striking.