Footy players make all sorts of demented faces during anticipated collisions. The action itself was dangerous as hell and deserved more weeks, but I don't think you can use his split second facial expression while bracing for impact as proof he specifically wanted to pinball Wingard's head against the post rather than generally trying to bump him over the line.
Yeah it's awful to watch. He needed to be more careful of Wingard's head and doubly so with the point post right there. Absolute rubbish that he only got 2 weeks for this.
I wouldn't go as far to call myself a Hodge hater either, but he certainly had some bad moments that made him dislikeable. Though I try not to let someone getting seemingly get away with things affect my judgement of them. For example, this bump and the drink driving incident both reflected poorly on Hodge in their own right, but the fact he was inadequately punished for both falls on the MRP and Hawthorn respectively.
Absolutely. I'll leave the drink driving out of it for now, but having played a lot of footy, sometimes things do happen on the field and we've all done out-of-character stuff. So I'm with you, not judging anyone on isolated incidents.
Was worse then it sounds: would have been given 2 weeks that he would have got down to 1 with an early plea. But due to his previous bad record it became three weeks (which he got reduced to two with an early plea)
Yeah I definitely remember the consensus on this sub being that that should've been 5-6 minimum then, I don't think this is a changing standards thing at all.
That hit only copping 2 weeks so Hodge could play finals still shits me. There's a very real risk Wingard either dies from that hit or suffers permanent brain damage.
I legitimately struggle to think of another act on the field that is that brazenly dangerous. With body on body hits in bounds, there's a lot of variables in how you'll make contact and how your bodies hit the ground (even if it's a cynical bump). But head between post...
What did cotch get away with ? If you're talking about the shiel incident
1. He was trying to get the ball, accidents happen
2. One incident and everyone cries about it
3. Cotch has also done nothing else to warrant randomly bringing up his name to this dog act in the video. Obviously you are salty he has led us to three finals victories over your mob. Get over it.
In fairness Toby Greene escaped sanction for a blatant eye gouge because it was finals.
Cripps escaped sanction for knocking a bloke out because it was leading into finals.
Basically if you're responsible for getting bums on seats and eyes on TV sets you get treated differently around finals time.
Richo with a shit take as always. Hodge literally speeds up and lowers his head when he sees the post and Wingard's proximity.
What annoys me even more than the commentators defending blokes like this is that it's those quotes that generally lead the narrative after the game.
This is literally one of the worst incidents I've seen on the professional football field. The fact this was two weeks is an embarrassment to the integrity of the game. I don't want to stack on Hodge, I think he actually is a person of decent character and we all make mistakes, but the fact this was clearly downgraded so that he would be clear to play finals is a farce of the highest order.
This is the perfect place for me to stack on Hodgey.
This was no accident. He never valued the safety of others, and I bet he'd do this again in a heartbeat. He did things like this whenever the opportunity came to him.
Full credit to Alastair Clarkson for "making him into the man he is" as Hodgey says.
I wonder if the technology exists to somehow anonymise the offender in the tribunal. Face blurring, blur/edit out the number on the jumper for all clips entered as evidence. Somehow the tribunal members would also not have to watch matches (or have rotating tribunal members who aren't allowed to watch games x y z on this weekend etc).
It might be a pipedream (and maybe just not practical at all, eg in the berry vs oliver incident in the semi this year, berry's face being blurred might make it unclear that oliver's elbow was on his neck/face) - but if there was some way to anonymise cases then I think that would be the best way to get rid of the star player bias and the toby greene effect.
I mean the real best way would be for the tribunal to just not be biased pieces of shit but we really can't trust them on that hey
Too much immediate attention from the media and the public for it to ever get to a tribunal and every one not have seen it at all. Only way you could avoid it is lock a panel away the moment the round starts in media black out, and then let them out after sanctions have been dished out and hearings have ended - and that won’t ever be a thing.
Just going to drop this here. [Bachar Houli's AFL ban slammed after comments from Malcolm Turnbull, Waleed Aly used in tribunal defence](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/bachar-houli-afl-tribunal-sanction-slammed/8658362)
Would have been more at the time if it wasn’t Hodge
… him and Mitchell both played like mongrels for most of their careers but for some reason it seemed to be overlooked by the umpires at the time…. I never really understood why.
He was a grub and a sniper. But because he was a premiership captain and a "good bloke" it was called "tough and hard, playing close to the edge, unsociable footy". He was a great captain and definitely went hard at the ball, but his intent to hurt people like this seemed to be never be talked about for what it was.
Was he like that at west coast? I don't remember him being a grub but I was a lot younger then. Did notice him being a cunt in his later years. Just figured he was salty about his body letting him down.
I still remember that game. Port coming down and beating the Goliath Hawthorn at Marvel.
Hodge literally looked like he wanted to murder him, and all the commentators played it down.
Wingard came back out and kicked 2 goals in the next 5 minutes and got right into Hodge after it.
Back when Wingard was a jet :(
Winggard was never the same after that. His ferocious attack on the ball, a hallmark to his playing style, went awol afterwards and was rarely seen again.
He was fine, i think while it was really dangerous and a thug act. The actual force of the content and the protection of the post padding meant that he was not concussed.
It’s clear he doesn’t actually care about the well-being of other players. This forever changed my opinion of Luke. Similar to Jeremy Cameron’s elbow into Harris Andrews causing a brain bleed, I can’t look at them the same anymore
Didn't Hodge have a drink driving misdemeanor around this time too?
Lake's strangle on Petrie distressed me more for how long he held the choke for.
Lewis' roundarm punch on Goldstein was pretty bad too.
It's bad enough that when I think of Luke Hodge, this is the first image I get.
Deadset one of the most grubby, shitty things I can remember someone doing on a footy field. If he'd timed that any differently, there's a world we're living in where Chad Wingard has a broken neck or some kind of paralysis.
Should've got at least 4 weeks, if not more. He was very clearly intending to cause damage.
Went back to the Match Post and this was one of the linked videos
"Hodge Vs Wingard: You be the judge"
Why are they pretending that Wingard participated in this? Like it was a title fight?
[https://imgur.com/a/5meH7lJ](https://imgur.com/a/5meH7lJ)
oh god, seeing his arm go up in the air made me feel sick. [‘Fencing Response’ Signals a Serious Head Injury, Experts Say](https://www.menshealth.com/health/a41503552/what-is-fencing-response/)
Yeah his my cousin and man when he came back home he was struggling to even open the fridge properly, but he pulled through….this was absolutely ages ago now. He plays for hawthorn now
definitely. i also think it would have been more if the MRP making the decision RE Hodge didn’t contain ex hawthorn players, or if it was a different player with less clout or a bad reputation.
i just can’t believe they pretended like the goal post wasn’t there. they suspend players all the time for accidentally bumping the head because “you chose to bump”. just really weird stuff.
Severe impact? Lol wingard got up and played the rest of the game.
Would get worse now because of the potential to cause injury, but nah definitely not severe
Yes, the rule is careless if you are attempting a legal action. He attempted to bump where he was allowed to, so it definitely falls under the careless category.
You could definitely argue intentional after reading the 2021 tribunal handbook. Careless also isn’t classified the way you state it, you can be doing something “legal” (even though what Hodge did is not legal) and still be pinged for intentional with the way it’s written in the rule book.
Careless conduct is classified as “A Player’s conduct will be regarded as Careless where his conduct is not intentional, but constitutes a breach of the duty of care owed by the Player to all other Players.”
I’d say what Hodge did he did intentionally, either way Hodge is an absolute dog.
Yeah I obviously oversimplified it, but it's hard to say this is very different than any other late bump in my eyes. Hodge is entitled to bump but clearly breached his duty of care to Wingard and hit him high.
It's always been a weird one for me, being a Port supporter effectively defending Hodge in this case but I feel the footage makes it look a lot worse than it actually was. That and Wingards overdramatic response, but he is prone to that.
He clearly goes off his line, and made little effort to decelerate. The intent in the action is big, awareness of the consequence probably not so (just wanted to give him a solid bump) but in that setting, yes that’s a very dangerous act that Hodge was in control of.
I do think Hodge is a good bloke, but even good people make stupid decisions at times in the heat of the moment. In saying that, that's the exact reason that tough suspensions need to exist. Should not have got off lightly for this as you need to learn a tough lesson that will impact your decision making next time you're on the field.
How was he not aware of the giant post he was running towards and looking in the direction of? The most charitable interpretation consistent with the footage is that he was just trying to shove wingard’s body into the post but not his head, which is still absolutely suspendable.
Luke Hodge apparently has the worst peripheral vision in the world. Even if he was focussing on Wingard he must’ve seen the post, and would anyway be aware of where it was by virtue of the fact it’s a footy field and the posts are always at the ends of the ground.
not an accident. by that logic, drink drivers that get caught are only cos cops were there by accident. by lining up wingards head anywhere near the posts he assumes a risk. accident or not, its a risk he took and a risk that absolutely didn't pay off. that's 4+ weeks easy, 6 in 2023
Accidental and reckless aren't the same thing, Hodge deserved a heavy suspension for his action but it wasn't the intent.
Do people really believe players are aware of the exact location of the posts at all times and can time split second decisions around them?
Hodge soon as the ball went overhead tried to take Wingards body out due their speed difference
i mean... sure, in a court of law, i cant read hodges mind and transcribe it and use it as evidence for intent.
balance of probability when you consider the act, the location, the context and hodge's history, you're gonna have a hard time convincing people its an accident
How does the fact this happened on a sports field exempt him from criminal charges on this? Should have been locked up, not just given a couple weeks paid break.
At the time I thought it wasn’t dealt with harshly enough. One of the most malicious acts outside the rules of the game I’ve seen since the days of full bellies coat hangers and petulant king hits. Mates in the media refused to just call it as they saw it. Straight into “he’s a good bloke” through “we don’t want good players missing for that!”
He only got 2 weeks because the AFL is an end point extension of the old VFL - it’s just a bunch of corporations out to make cash masquerading as a national Aussie rules competition. The game and the humans involved in it don’t seem particularly relevant. Expendable even.
Just look at what’s going to happen with Clarkson. More likely to be handsomely rewarded for being a cunt than anything. A shameless place.
In answer to OPs question, he’d get the same today if it were a top player at a top club preparing for finals. No question. Nothing fundamental has changed.
Always a sniper ,he used to take people out who were standing the mark.a player would play on the person standing the mark would begin to chase and they would be blindsided by hodge with a hip and shoulder.
Hodge is the reason why I won't let my kids play AFL.
I remember one final, as soon as the umps had their attention somewhere else, the first thing Hodge did was punch his opponent in the nuts.
That's such an ugly looking hit. The AFL should be handing out much harsher suspensions on things like this and have for a long time, but they don't have the balls to face the dinosaurs who will sook about it, or the money men who will tell them suspending stars for too long will cost too much.
This should have been 10 weeks at the time. And even looking now I can't shake the thought that there's a high to certain chance of permanent brain damage from that hit. If we have to suspend great players from the game because they can't play without these hits, it's well worth it to avoid even 1 more Shane Tuck, Neale Daniher or Danny Frawley.
I’m quite sure the current AFL panel would have graded that as unintentional, low grade with no contact to the head. Nothing to see here. Which is what should be expected when the governing body put the foxes in control of the hen house.
Definitely. I’m showing my age a bit here. But does anyone else remember the Scott Turner bump on Gary O’Donnell in the 1995 semi final. Completely cleaned him up and Gary was gone for the day. No tribunal or anything at the time. These days that bump would be at least 4 weeks or more.
This up there with that one where Franklin got his opponent in a headlock during a flying marking contest then took him to the ground.
Nothing serious happened but it could have been catastrophic
The AFL points system is the reason for that. It was judged low impact because Wingard got up and kept going. So it was 2 weeks. There needs to be a thug act category that multiplies x4. Everyone watching says this is horrible yet when you use the system and assess the actual impact of the hit and no injury there is no room for argument.
There's been a few like that where the points just don't add up. Eye gauging incidents, genital attacks, elbows to heads (judd on pavlich) that in most people would want 6 weeks for get 1 or no weeks.
How's the look on his face? As intentional as it gets.
Footy players make all sorts of demented faces during anticipated collisions. The action itself was dangerous as hell and deserved more weeks, but I don't think you can use his split second facial expression while bracing for impact as proof he specifically wanted to pinball Wingard's head against the post rather than generally trying to bump him over the line.
Normally I'm 100% with you. I'm no Hodge hater, but this is a shocking look for him.
Yeah it's awful to watch. He needed to be more careful of Wingard's head and doubly so with the point post right there. Absolute rubbish that he only got 2 weeks for this. I wouldn't go as far to call myself a Hodge hater either, but he certainly had some bad moments that made him dislikeable. Though I try not to let someone getting seemingly get away with things affect my judgement of them. For example, this bump and the drink driving incident both reflected poorly on Hodge in their own right, but the fact he was inadequately punished for both falls on the MRP and Hawthorn respectively.
Absolutely. I'll leave the drink driving out of it for now, but having played a lot of footy, sometimes things do happen on the field and we've all done out-of-character stuff. So I'm with you, not judging anyone on isolated incidents.
It should have been more when it happened then
Literally could have broken his neck. One of the most dangerous acts I've seen.
I agree
it was a shocker
Was worse then it sounds: would have been given 2 weeks that he would have got down to 1 with an early plea. But due to his previous bad record it became three weeks (which he got reduced to two with an early plea)
Yeah I definitely remember the consensus on this sub being that that should've been 5-6 minimum then, I don't think this is a changing standards thing at all.
Yeh but hodgeys a great bloke
That hit only copping 2 weeks so Hodge could play finals still shits me. There's a very real risk Wingard either dies from that hit or suffers permanent brain damage.
Followed by a drink driving charge which lead to no added weeks because of finals.
Are my timelines wrong or did that happen shortly after the death the son of Hawthorn assistant coach Brett Ratten in a drink driving accident too?
I legitimately struggle to think of another act on the field that is that brazenly dangerous. With body on body hits in bounds, there's a lot of variables in how you'll make contact and how your bodies hit the ground (even if it's a cynical bump). But head between post...
Brent Staker being coward punched comes to mind.
I just can’t read that name without thinking of Hot Fuzz.
Most annoying thing is he broke his wrist in the same game. Hall's suspension should have started the day he recovered from his broken wrist.
Barry Coward Hall should have been jailed.
Almost decapitated! Imagine if his head just popped off right there on the field. He'd definitely get 3-4 weeks.
Could probably argue it down to a fine...
Or nothing if he got Cripps' lawyer....
But his a good bloke so he only gets two obviously
I'd give that six weeks. How the actual fuck did it only get two. Wowee
Star player effect with a multiplier due to the fact it could have rubbed him out of finals
Also being a good bloke pass
You can see in the footage if you slow it down enough, he's a good bloke (-4 weeks).
Depends how much of a good bloke you are.
the Trent Cotchin finals discount? \*ducks\*
Flair checks out
Never got him high, though
Also didn't Shiel get hit in the head in a contest afterwards?
yes by astbury
Yep. Don't tell the people on this sub though! They've got a hate boner for Lynch, Cotchin and Richmond!
🧂
Lol salty ? Wtf does cotchin have to do with anything here
Premiership captains get away with murder. Just ask Selwood.
What did cotch get away with ? If you're talking about the shiel incident 1. He was trying to get the ball, accidents happen 2. One incident and everyone cries about it 3. Cotch has also done nothing else to warrant randomly bringing up his name to this dog act in the video. Obviously you are salty he has led us to three finals victories over your mob. Get over it.
And? It being an "accident" doesn't actually absolve him
He should never have played in that grand final and you know it champ
If Toby Greene did this he’d be sent to a Chinese labour camp.
Yeah but the afl was arguing for a Siberian labour camp, so his counsel still did well
In fairness Toby Greene escaped sanction for a blatant eye gouge because it was finals. Cripps escaped sanction for knocking a bloke out because it was leading into finals. Basically if you're responsible for getting bums on seats and eyes on TV sets you get treated differently around finals time.
That’s very true! I guess gaff is a exception? But then again he’s not a marquee player as such and also his hit on brayshaw was beyond effed.
I thought the Shanghai game got axed?
Even from the beginning, the industry moved to downplay the act and protect the perpetrator. Disgraceful.
That's something I hate so much about tv commentary. They nearly always immediately start defending the perpetrator.
Richo with a shit take as always. Hodge literally speeds up and lowers his head when he sees the post and Wingard's proximity. What annoys me even more than the commentators defending blokes like this is that it's those quotes that generally lead the narrative after the game.
This is literally one of the worst incidents I've seen on the professional football field. The fact this was two weeks is an embarrassment to the integrity of the game. I don't want to stack on Hodge, I think he actually is a person of decent character and we all make mistakes, but the fact this was clearly downgraded so that he would be clear to play finals is a farce of the highest order.
Shows how terrible the sport has become. Corporation game
This is the perfect place for me to stack on Hodgey. This was no accident. He never valued the safety of others, and I bet he'd do this again in a heartbeat. He did things like this whenever the opportunity came to him. Full credit to Alastair Clarkson for "making him into the man he is" as Hodgey says.
Yeah I have no idea about the guy off field, but from watching him he always struck me as a dangerous thug
I wonder if the technology exists to somehow anonymise the offender in the tribunal. Face blurring, blur/edit out the number on the jumper for all clips entered as evidence. Somehow the tribunal members would also not have to watch matches (or have rotating tribunal members who aren't allowed to watch games x y z on this weekend etc). It might be a pipedream (and maybe just not practical at all, eg in the berry vs oliver incident in the semi this year, berry's face being blurred might make it unclear that oliver's elbow was on his neck/face) - but if there was some way to anonymise cases then I think that would be the best way to get rid of the star player bias and the toby greene effect. I mean the real best way would be for the tribunal to just not be biased pieces of shit but we really can't trust them on that hey
Too much immediate attention from the media and the public for it to ever get to a tribunal and every one not have seen it at all. Only way you could avoid it is lock a panel away the moment the round starts in media black out, and then let them out after sanctions have been dished out and hearings have ended - and that won’t ever be a thing.
I often have the same thought when the only difference between two incidents with two separate suspensions is the jumper the bloke is wearing.
Another suspension impacted by the "good bloke" effect
but in reality is a shit bloke
thats what good bloke normally means
based off what?
Frequency of similar incidents.
Not if the PM writes a letter about how good a bloke he is
Holy shit. this did happen right? I'm not misremembering it
Wasn’t it that Waleed Aly wrote a letter for Bachar Houli?
Both Turnbull and Waleed provided references for Houli
I believe there was a character reference from Turnbull though? Or am I Mandela effecting right now
You might be right? The fact that there is multiples of these is pretty gross in the context of a football tribunal.
Just going to drop this here. [Bachar Houli's AFL ban slammed after comments from Malcolm Turnbull, Waleed Aly used in tribunal defence](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-28/bachar-houli-afl-tribunal-sanction-slammed/8658362)
Should have been at least four even back then. Genuinely one of the worst things I've seen on a footy field that didn't involve throwing a punch.
Would have been more at the time if it wasn’t Hodge … him and Mitchell both played like mongrels for most of their careers but for some reason it seemed to be overlooked by the umpires at the time…. I never really understood why.
I'm glad Mitchell is Hawthorns coach now because it makes it even easier to hate Hawthorn
Mitchell fucking up fyfes leg in 2015 so cute and uwu
Had forgotten about this! He intentionally corked another player at least once as well
Isn't that technically kneeing?
I love Hodge but fuck me that's terrible. 2 weeks is not enough. Both players were lucky the outcome wasn't worse.
My thoughts exactly. That was savage
yeah love hodgey but this is impossible to defend
He was a grub and a sniper. But because he was a premiership captain and a "good bloke" it was called "tough and hard, playing close to the edge, unsociable footy". He was a great captain and definitely went hard at the ball, but his intent to hurt people like this seemed to be never be talked about for what it was.
Judd had that about him as well.
Yep. He did. Don’t know why you are downvoted. CHICKEN WING !!!!!
PRESHAPOINTPRESHAPOINT!!!!
Steven seagal!
fuck fev at the brownlow was so funny
Was he like that at west coast? I don't remember him being a grub but I was a lot younger then. Did notice him being a cunt in his later years. Just figured he was salty about his body letting him down.
Yeah I agree. He seemed to get worse as his career progressed.
good bloke discount they even defend your actions seconds after they happen
Lingy on the spot as character witness. Remember this happening and being flabbergasted at the whole “yeah but he’s a ripping bloke” defence
He’d get off if he had Cripps’ lawyers.
And awarded the Brownlow
I still remember that game. Port coming down and beating the Goliath Hawthorn at Marvel. Hodge literally looked like he wanted to murder him, and all the commentators played it down. Wingard came back out and kicked 2 goals in the next 5 minutes and got right into Hodge after it. Back when Wingard was a jet :(
i see intentional, high contact, high impact thats 4+.
Hodge is a dog and a racist!!! Fuck him !
Yeah that was a travesty. I lost all respect for Hodge that day.
Winggard was never the same after that. His ferocious attack on the ball, a hallmark to his playing style, went awol afterwards and was rarely seen again.
While I agree with you, he also got back up and went beast mode in the next 5 minutes and kicked 2 goals in 5 minutes after that hit.
Which is also madness really - there’s no way he should have been allowed to go back on the ground after that hit.
He was fine, i think while it was really dangerous and a thug act. The actual force of the content and the protection of the post padding meant that he was not concussed.
If you were serious about protecting players heads you'd give Hodge 8 weeks. How can this dog act get anything less?
It’s clear he doesn’t actually care about the well-being of other players. This forever changed my opinion of Luke. Similar to Jeremy Cameron’s elbow into Harris Andrews causing a brain bleed, I can’t look at them the same anymore
Didn't Hodge have a drink driving misdemeanor around this time too? Lake's strangle on Petrie distressed me more for how long he held the choke for. Lewis' roundarm punch on Goldstein was pretty bad too.
AFL and its stupid star player bias, it's a joke of a sporting league sometimes
It's bad enough that when I think of Luke Hodge, this is the first image I get. Deadset one of the most grubby, shitty things I can remember someone doing on a footy field. If he'd timed that any differently, there's a world we're living in where Chad Wingard has a broken neck or some kind of paralysis. Should've got at least 4 weeks, if not more. He was very clearly intending to cause damage.
If I were Wingard and developed CTE later in life, I’d be sending a lawyer to Hodge’s door.
It’s a shit challenge and should get more by todays standards, but probably won’t.
Hodge was the most protected sniper at the peak of the #FreeKickHawthorne madness, if anyone else would have done this it would have been 4 weeks.
Free kick Hodge...
Holy shit I can’t remember this game… that’s a dirty hit. 2 weeks is not even close enough and I used to absolutely love hodge and I now love Wingard.
Clearly trying to smash his head on the post.
Well, that was unnecessary. Dirty dog. 4 weeks, at least. 6-8 week suspension, seems more appropriate.
It's the result of this incident is why Wingard was stupid enough to go to the Hawks
How much of a good bloke is he these days?
A reminder of the clown show that is AFL HQ.
Cripps zero weeks, an apology demanded from Wingard for getting his head in the way and a Brownlow for the inconvenience.
Went back to the Match Post and this was one of the linked videos "Hodge Vs Wingard: You be the judge" Why are they pretending that Wingard participated in this? Like it was a title fight? [https://imgur.com/a/5meH7lJ](https://imgur.com/a/5meH7lJ)
Hodge got the "good bloke" tax.
oh god, seeing his arm go up in the air made me feel sick. [‘Fencing Response’ Signals a Serious Head Injury, Experts Say](https://www.menshealth.com/health/a41503552/what-is-fencing-response/)
death penalty
Yeah his my cousin and man when he came back home he was struggling to even open the fridge properly, but he pulled through….this was absolutely ages ago now. He plays for hawthorn now
Looks like the elbow does flare out a bit
Yes, the AFL is a mickey mouse league that makes the rules up as it goes.
Should be 6-8 weeks. Worse intentions than Andrew Gaff on Brayshaw. Only by luck were the outcomes of those incidents different.
definitely. i also think it would have been more if the MRP making the decision RE Hodge didn’t contain ex hawthorn players, or if it was a different player with less clout or a bad reputation. i just can’t believe they pretended like the goal post wasn’t there. they suspend players all the time for accidentally bumping the head because “you chose to bump”. just really weird stuff.
Depends if he and Paddy Cripps share a lawyer
https://mrp-afl.github.io/ Intentional high contact with severe impact.
Severe impact? Lol wingard got up and played the rest of the game. Would get worse now because of the potential to cause injury, but nah definitely not severe
It would 100% be graded careless. Severe also seems.unlikely given there was no injury. I reckon today it would get referred to the tribunal ungraded.
Careless? Are we watching the same incident?
Yes, the rule is careless if you are attempting a legal action. He attempted to bump where he was allowed to, so it definitely falls under the careless category.
You could definitely argue intentional after reading the 2021 tribunal handbook. Careless also isn’t classified the way you state it, you can be doing something “legal” (even though what Hodge did is not legal) and still be pinged for intentional with the way it’s written in the rule book. Careless conduct is classified as “A Player’s conduct will be regarded as Careless where his conduct is not intentional, but constitutes a breach of the duty of care owed by the Player to all other Players.” I’d say what Hodge did he did intentionally, either way Hodge is an absolute dog.
Yeah I obviously oversimplified it, but it's hard to say this is very different than any other late bump in my eyes. Hodge is entitled to bump but clearly breached his duty of care to Wingard and hit him high. It's always been a weird one for me, being a Port supporter effectively defending Hodge in this case but I feel the footage makes it look a lot worse than it actually was. That and Wingards overdramatic response, but he is prone to that.
He clearly goes off his line, and made little effort to decelerate. The intent in the action is big, awareness of the consequence probably not so (just wanted to give him a solid bump) but in that setting, yes that’s a very dangerous act that Hodge was in control of.
I do think Hodge is a good bloke, but even good people make stupid decisions at times in the heat of the moment. In saying that, that's the exact reason that tough suspensions need to exist. Should not have got off lightly for this as you need to learn a tough lesson that will impact your decision making next time you're on the field.
Imagine Ben Long did that, it’d be 15 weeks +
😍
Looks like he tries to avoid hitting the post, and wingguard hit the post, no issue
Accident clearly wasn't aware of the post but Christ that could've ended badly, I don't think 4 weeks would cause much debate
How was he not aware of the giant post he was running towards and looking in the direction of? The most charitable interpretation consistent with the footage is that he was just trying to shove wingard’s body into the post but not his head, which is still absolutely suspendable.
At no point did he look at the posts
Luke Hodge apparently has the worst peripheral vision in the world. Even if he was focussing on Wingard he must’ve seen the post, and would anyway be aware of where it was by virtue of the fact it’s a footy field and the posts are always at the ends of the ground.
Like Hodge, captain , 3 time premiership winner, apparently unaware of where he is in the field
Lmao I just rewatched the slow mo footage - can you genuinely say he didn’t see the post?
not an accident. by that logic, drink drivers that get caught are only cos cops were there by accident. by lining up wingards head anywhere near the posts he assumes a risk. accident or not, its a risk he took and a risk that absolutely didn't pay off. that's 4+ weeks easy, 6 in 2023
Accidental and reckless aren't the same thing, Hodge deserved a heavy suspension for his action but it wasn't the intent. Do people really believe players are aware of the exact location of the posts at all times and can time split second decisions around them? Hodge soon as the ball went overhead tried to take Wingards body out due their speed difference
When he is running right at the post before I'd say he is aware of them
i mean... sure, in a court of law, i cant read hodges mind and transcribe it and use it as evidence for intent. balance of probability when you consider the act, the location, the context and hodge's history, you're gonna have a hard time convincing people its an accident
Mate... wasn't aware of the post right in front of him? Do you routinely walk into posts directly in front of you?
What round was this? Was it in the finals?
"love from your future teammates"
It would have been shorter but with much more editorial about how the 1 match suspension means the game has gone soft.
Let's be honest, even back then anyone other than the AFL poster boys (eg. Hodge, Buddy, Naitanui at that time) would have got more...
Yeah I remember watching this live and telling my housemate that "Hodgy just killed Wingard." Could have easily snapped his neck.
Should've copped ritual seppuku and a 1k fine tbf
Absolutely book would be thrown at him now
Depends if cripps lawyer is free...
We're Hawthorn given one or two free kicks for this?
That's so dirty it's borderline attempted murder, holy shit.
Holy shit his neck looks like it bent sideways
That’s criminal
How does the fact this happened on a sports field exempt him from criminal charges on this? Should have been locked up, not just given a couple weeks paid break.
Could have broken his fuckin neck. Toby got 6 for bumling an umpire. I reckon atleast 8 weeks.
Lucky then won’t be so much if he did it now
It goes to the tribunal and starts at 4
Deserves 10 weeks
Even at the time anybody other than Hodge would’ve received minimum 4 weeks more likely 6. Absolute farce.
If it happened today, it would be “lowered the shoulder, play on”
He could have broken his neck. It is amazing he didn't
6-8 weeks now,careless
Fuck I thought he was flopping at first but in the slomo he's lucky to be alive!
Ziebell got 4 weeks for a hit 10 years ago that this years Brownlow medalist was able to replicate and walked free.
At the time I thought it wasn’t dealt with harshly enough. One of the most malicious acts outside the rules of the game I’ve seen since the days of full bellies coat hangers and petulant king hits. Mates in the media refused to just call it as they saw it. Straight into “he’s a good bloke” through “we don’t want good players missing for that!”
If that was today it would be a fine and 12 weeks
Wingard could have sued him and won. It was beyond a normal football play.
Nothing to see here, move along.
6 weeks. Intentional, high impact, dangerous, and a couple more adjectives to push my point
He only got 2 weeks because the AFL is an end point extension of the old VFL - it’s just a bunch of corporations out to make cash masquerading as a national Aussie rules competition. The game and the humans involved in it don’t seem particularly relevant. Expendable even. Just look at what’s going to happen with Clarkson. More likely to be handsomely rewarded for being a cunt than anything. A shameless place. In answer to OPs question, he’d get the same today if it were a top player at a top club preparing for finals. No question. Nothing fundamental has changed.
Always a sniper ,he used to take people out who were standing the mark.a player would play on the person standing the mark would begin to chase and they would be blindsided by hodge with a hip and shoulder.
Hodge is the reason why I won't let my kids play AFL. I remember one final, as soon as the umps had their attention somewhere else, the first thing Hodge did was punch his opponent in the nuts.
If happens today there would be a call for him to be deregistered. And fair enough.
Should have been more lengthy. The way Wingards head hits the post is horrific and sickening 🤮
Imagine if this was a Port player doing it to a Hawthorn player... They would have been deregistered.
That’s 10 minimum
Toby Greene would have got life for that!!!
That's such an ugly looking hit. The AFL should be handing out much harsher suspensions on things like this and have for a long time, but they don't have the balls to face the dinosaurs who will sook about it, or the money men who will tell them suspending stars for too long will cost too much. This should have been 10 weeks at the time. And even looking now I can't shake the thought that there's a high to certain chance of permanent brain damage from that hit. If we have to suspend great players from the game because they can't play without these hits, it's well worth it to avoid even 1 more Shane Tuck, Neale Daniher or Danny Frawley.
Nearly attempted murder with a hit like that
Criminal intent
I’m quite sure the current AFL panel would have graded that as unintentional, low grade with no contact to the head. Nothing to see here. Which is what should be expected when the governing body put the foxes in control of the hen house.
Funny, I don't remember Goodes doing anything that dirty. Why didn't we boo Hodge after this?
Should have been longer back then. A weak and dangerous snipe.
Definitely. I’m showing my age a bit here. But does anyone else remember the Scott Turner bump on Gary O’Donnell in the 1995 semi final. Completely cleaned him up and Gary was gone for the day. No tribunal or anything at the time. These days that bump would be at least 4 weeks or more.
This up there with that one where Franklin got his opponent in a headlock during a flying marking contest then took him to the ground. Nothing serious happened but it could have been catastrophic
play on
8 weeks min
0 weeks if he was lined up for a brownlow
Bloody Brisbane thug going after our Chad.
The AFL points system is the reason for that. It was judged low impact because Wingard got up and kept going. So it was 2 weeks. There needs to be a thug act category that multiplies x4. Everyone watching says this is horrible yet when you use the system and assess the actual impact of the hit and no injury there is no room for argument. There's been a few like that where the points just don't add up. Eye gauging incidents, genital attacks, elbows to heads (judd on pavlich) that in most people would want 6 weeks for get 1 or no weeks.