AFL great ‘staggered' by league's lacklustre Willie Rioli response
Rioli went unpunished after an AFL investigation in to the private message which was sent to a teammate of Dale, after the pair were involved in a scuffle at Mars Stadium in Ballarat on Saturday, prompting the Bulldogs to act.
It's understood Rioli messaged the teammate to say he had friends in Darwin, where the Bulldogs play this week, and that Dale should be careful about leaving the team hotel while in the city.
There was no disputing the message was sent, but the league and both clubs deemed an apology from Rioli was sufficient to end the matter.
That hasn't gone down well in the AFL world however and Watson said the lack of penalty didn't address the need to police player behaviour standards.
'I'm staggered that the AFL has (not punished Rioli),' Watson said on SEN Breakfast.
'Ok, Willie Rioli reaches out to Bailey Dale and apologises, that's fine. Everybody apologises once they've been caught out, that's just standard behaviour of human beings.
'That doesn't mean to say that it can just be swept under the carpet and there not be any form of penalty or discipline applied by the AFL.
'I am staggered that they have just allowed what they did yesterday to be the course of action that was taken on their behalf.
'If you say the wrong thing out there on the football field and the AFL becomes aware of it or the umpire reports it, or whatever, you are then responsible even in the heat of the moment.'
Both clubs issued statements in the wake of the investigation, but the AFL came in for particular scorn with Melbourne great Gary Lyon calling it 'lily-livered'.
'The general public are saying why didn't the AFL extend the lily-livered explanation about reminding both clubs to ensure any communication remain respectful, why hasn't that been applied in the past,' he said.
'Why is this when someone is threatening violence to an opposition player they get a pretty light, soft reminder to ensure communication remains respectful, why hasn't that been afforded to other players in the past?'
Both compared the matter to fines being handed out for obscene on-field gestures and were adamant there should have been a penalty.
'There needs to be a lot more explanation around why they arrived at a statement like that and there was no other course of action taken against Willie Rioli,' Watson said.
'If you flip the bird you're getting a fine of $1000 or $1500. There's no penalty that's been applied to Willie Rioli. None. Zero.
'What people want - and it's not too much to ask - is consistency. We just want consistency of messaging from the AFL on all matters.'
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