When asked if he would mend his ways after escaping suspension for serious misconduct against Western Bulldogs in the opening week of the AFL finals, Greater Western Sydney enfant terrible Toby Greene was apologetic but a long way from contrite.
“I don’t know, we’ll wait and see what happens,” said a smirking Greene, who instead of not playing against the Brisbane Lions was docked $7,500 for his unsightly scuffle with Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli.
What happened the following Saturday night was a whirlwind four quarters of footy that was just so Toby Greene. He was immense in his side’s epic win over the Lions, collecting 30 touches and booting two goals in a best-on-ground performance. He was also up to no good, again, drawing the 18th charge of his career for making “unreasonable or unnecessary contact” to the eye region of Lachie Neale.
On Tuesday night, Greene ran out of lives. While tribunal chairman David Jones insisted that Greene’s past record was “totally irrelevant”, the panel deliberated for just 16 minutes before upholding his ban and ruling him out of GWS’s preliminary final against Collingwood. We now watch this space, with the Giants to argue their case for Greene’s innocence in front of the AFL appeals board on Thursday night.
Greene isn’t the AFL’s best player but right now there is arguably no bigger name. Certainly, no contemporary can match his infamy or lay claim to having a rule made in their honour, as the AFL so hurriedly did in 2018 to curb Greene’s studs-up method of approaching some marking contests.
But though some Giants followers might wish for a calmer, more tractable Greene, they know what they get is a package deal. When the cherubic No 4 crosses that white line, the fervour that drives him to be a player of rare talent is the same fervour that sees him flirt with, and sometimes outright ignore, the line between what is acceptable on the field of play and what is not. It’s as if Greene competes under hypnosis, a willing hostage in Toby’s World.
The result is an intoxicating mix of brilliance and bedlam that makes him pure box office, the villain opposition supporters love to hate. “Not since Greg Williams has there been a footballer as good as Toby Greene or as dirty as Toby Greene,” wrote one Guardian reader on Saturday night’s liveblog. “The thug shouldn’t be on the field ... period,” wrote another. Even some Giants fans might agree on these counts.
If there was a shade of grey to Greene’s latest indiscretion – Neale himself gave evidence that he felt no contact to his eyes – the case of Tom Hawkins was black and white.
The Geelong forward’s off-the-ball hit on West Coast’s Will Schofield on Friday night was crudity personified, and not a little bewildering on the doorstep of the biggest two weeks of the season. The Cats have won big games before without their most potent attacking weapon, but his failed tribunal challenge on Monday night makes an already daunting task against Richmond even tougher. Hawkins was a cleanskin through much of his first decade as a professional footballer, but has now been fined or suspended nine times since 2016. Like his decorated teammate Gary Ablett, it seems Hawkins is becoming quite the grump in his dotage.
The suspensions of Greene and Hawkins somewhat flies in the face of the modern trend. The AFL has talked a good game in recent years, vowing to crack down on tummy taps, jumper punches and other forms of striking. Before the 2017 season, the game’s ruling body pledged a “stricter interpretation of impact for intentional strikes to the body where the force of the strike warrants a suspension”. The stats, however, paint a different picture.
In 2014, the last year of a system featuring reprimands and demerit points, 183 charges were laid, resulting in 55 bans at a cost of 75 matches. In the four completed seasons since, charges laid rose to an average of 207 per year but sanctions went the other way – just 34 suspensions for a loss of 58 games on average.
Tellingly, the $96,350 in fixed fines of 2014 more than doubled to $209,000 last year. And this season’s figure will trump that, all of which underlines the fact that players are getting charged more but suspended less, with fines now the prevalent form of punishment. “What I will say is I think in recent weeks the AFL is moving away from suspensions,” said Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield ahead of Hawkins’ tribunal hearing. “I agree with the AFL’s approach, you want the best players out there playing so I’d hope there’s consistency in that.”
In finals time, it has always been thus. If there is a skerrick of doubt to be found, the benefit of that doubt almost always goes to the accused. But not this week. Two serial offenders, via their mindless acts of stupidity, have left their respective clubs bereft of match-winning material just when they needed it most.
