http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 11,00.html
ANGRY Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams believes the AFL will be changed forever - for the worse - if Shaun Burgoyne's three game suspension for accidental contact with the head of Hawk Sam Mitchell is allowed to stand.
In an extraordinary media appearance by a man synonymous with the core values of football and its teaching, Williams said the decision tore "at the fabric of the game" and was "right up there with the most bizarre thing I've ever seen".
He also called for an inquiry into the case and its ramifications for the game and the tribunal.
Port have decided against appealing the verdict because the club does not believe it would be able to achieve a positive result in a system heavy in legal technicality.
Instead Williams made his appeal public to stimulate debate on a case that has dominated video sessions at Alberton for the past three days.
"This is not about Shaun Burgoyne, it is for a second, the rest of it is about the game, and as great as the AFL were a couple years ago about protecting the head over the ball, this is protecting the integrity of the game," Williams said.
"What I saw is the Hawthorn medical staff probably overreacted and had to get the stretcher out there so he had to get on it and he had to spend 20 minutes off, but for the person (Mitchell) to get votes in the game and dominate the game, please, this is right up there with the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.
"The result is wrong, there has to be an inquiry into it, there has to be a view of how a coach and team and club plays contested football if that particular incident gets three weeks suspension for a player like Shaun."
Williams' central point was that under the interpretation employed by the AFL match review panel and tribunal, it would become impossible for players to attack the ball while also bracing for physical contact.
Such a ruling left them with the options of either entering a contest with their body exposed to whatever contact might ensue, or simply pulling out of the contest, which has been a taboo for as long as the game has existed.
"The skill of the game revolves around possessing the ball with contact, and that's exactly what Shaun tried to do," Williams said.
"Others will talk about did he deviate, yes he deviated. Who cares if he deviated, he's still going for the ball, and realistically the other person, Mitchell thought he was going to be in a contested situation, because 99 out of 100 times when you get to that situation that is what is going to occur.
"It was incidental, it was accidental, and I'm disappointed for Shaun but certainly I'm disappointed for the game because I have absolutely no idea what you are supposed to do in that situation, other than pull out of the situation, and I don't think any of us will accept that."
Burgoyne is understood to be disillusioned by the verdict and what it means for his attack on the ball in the future, given that he has long been considered a master at extracting the ball with skill and power from a contest.
"He's always been a ball player, always been a person who runs straight and hard, and when you think of all the scragging and attention he receives in a game, and so it'll take a little bit of time for him to come back from this," Williams said.
"Especially in indigenous week, he does so much for the AFL to push the indigenous side of it and it's disappointing he's not there to support that."
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