Rival AFL player breaks ranks with eye-opening statement about Steven May

Yahoo

4 days ago

Carlton star Patrick Cripps has declared he "doesn't understand" what the AFL wants Steven May to do differently when two players are contesting the ball. The AFL Tribunal handed May a three-game ban on Wednesday night for his brutal collision with Blues player Francis Evans.
The Melbourne Demons star was found guilty of rough conduct for his bump that concussed Evans and left the Carlton forward with a broken nose and a chipped tooth. May's lawyers used a biomechanics expert to calculate he had only 0.56 seconds from the ball's final bounce until the moment of the collision.
Biomechanist Daniel Cottam from the Australian Institute of Sport said the premiership defender would have needed at least 0.2 to 0.25 seconds to react properly to avoid the collision. "The time available to him to perceive and react to a complex scenario is not sufficient for him to adapt and avoid contact," Cottam said in his findings submitted as evidence for the tribunal hearing.
May said he was shocked when Evans got the ball first because he was certain it would be him. But AFL Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson decided May did have ample time to realise there was a big chance he wouldn't arrive first.
"The most he could have hoped was that he would arrive at about the same time as Evans," Gleeson said. "It was far more likely that he would reach the ball after Evans. As he gathered the ball, Evans had time to position his body just slightly so as to turn slightly away from May.
"This gives some indication that May had sufficient time to make some attempt to move his body in a way that minimised or avoided the impact limits. May made no attempt to change his path, his body position or his velocity at any time leading up to or in the contest."
Patrick Cripps and AFL world divided on Steven May ban
Before the hearing, Evans' Carlton teammate Cripps broke ranks and questioned how May could have approached things differently. "I felt like both of them were trying to contest the ball," Cripps said on the 'On the Inside' podcast.
"You never want to see a player get injured but I don't understand what we want players to do. If that's a grand final and (May) hesitates and Franky gets the ball, what do you do?"
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Discussing the verdict on Fox Footy afterwards, Former Hawthorn player Ben Dixon labelled it a "rubbish" decision. "Eight inches that ball bounces the other way, Steven May gets that ball,' he said.
But David King replied: 'You're arguing that's eight inches. The AFL is arguing the decision to be absolutely going flat-chat with a collision inevitable, you have to make sure you miss the head. When you know contact (is inevitable) … you have a duty of care.
'What happens from here, you make your own decisions … the AFL are clearly saying the game has changed and you now have to assess your role and the duty of care to the opposition from there forward. I fundamentally agree with that. If you're out of control when arriving - having made that decision - you're in trouble, which I think is a good thing for the game, personally.'
But Dixon countered: 'So what they're saying now is we've got a contact sport into a caution sport. You've got to approach that with caution … that's the fabric of our game.'