HAL 4 - Round 4

[Sean]

I'm pretty sure he will be rubbed for 6 weeks at least.

Farcical Federation Australia.

agreed, being suspended for spitting directly into someones face would be a farce

It's inconsistent, and I'm still not convinced that he spat intentionally. Why would you hand a lengthy suspension for an accident?

Why is it inconsistent, there is only one other spitting incident to compare with and that recieved 5 weeks

How many violent conduct charges have there been in the history of the A-League (not including the sackwhack, which was farcical in itself)? A few.

How many have been close to 5-6 weeks? None.

So the message to kids in grassroots football should be - go nuts and hit your opponent, just make sure you don't spit on them.

Djulbic getting 5 weeks was inconsistent with the standards that FFA have set themselves over the past few years. To give MORE weeks for an accident, where the Djulbic incident was sheer petulance, IS farcical.

...unless FFA are not convinced it was an accident. it would be farcical *if* it were clearly accidental, but it's not. spitting in somebody's face should be treated the same way as punching them in the face.

for that reason i disagree with perm and scottmac too - i don't really care if he didn't take a big windup or anything, he gobbed in cornthwaite's face. it looks too big to me to be accidental. when was the last time anyone here sent half a mouthful over somebody's head accidentally, swollen lip and excitement or otherwise?

My arguement on this is that there is a variation on this incident depending on either camera angle. One says that he should be slapped a huge suspension, whereas the other (which would definately decide his fate) is rather strange and hard to tell where the spitting incident occurs.

couldnt care less how long he will get or if he gets off as he will still be unavailable next week anyway.

 

[Bex]

Danny got five weeks for slapping a ref's hand which is the same sentence being bandied around here....... just food for thought; haven't formed an opinion whether it gels.

Nobody has commented on how Fabiano puts his shoulder into the ref? Perhaps I've seen something that wasn't there. Its a subtle shoulder, but it is there. That in itself if it had intent behind it could be considered serious. However, Fabiano's body movement make me think the spitting incident could have been premeditated. On first viewing I thought Fabiano purposely turned, physically obstructed the ref (shouldered him out of the way to stop him getting in between them) and as a result of that same shouldering movement, the ref's view was consequently obstructed whilst he spat.

Anyway, I'm going to look at the replay a few times tonight and see if I'm dreaming or whether there was something in it.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Here's a clip of the incident - haev a look around the 1min33 mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkT6xyAUo-0&eurl=http://refsroom.ausref.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3583&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

You can see the shoulder early in the clip.  My computer is stuffing up and playing the clip in fast forward, so I can't really tell much....

However, you can tell from the body motion of Fabiano that the spitting certainly wasn't accidental.

Compare this to Djulbic getting 5 weeks for spitting, not at anybody, but as a sign of disrespect, and I think this incident is far more serious - even after taking into account the fact that Djulbic's gesture was aimed at the referee.

Ah, it works now.  I'm not really convinced about the shoulder bumpb, but I think Breeze would've had a reasonable view of the spit - he was slightly to the side, and he's also a good deal taller than Fabiano

 

[Paolo]

watch it through the actual site and it can b watched in high quality mode

 

[Guns of Melbourne]

He was looking one way, walking the other. Obviously it's going to take more than that to convince me.

Oh well, I guess what I think doesn't matter. As Perm said, he will be out this weekend regardless... and probably slapped with a lengthy suspension, which I still think is a joke. The positive of it all is that it shows Melbourne's depth - we're really not going to miss him that much.

 

[marinersman]

It must be pointed out that Dino was cleared of spitting and the suspension was for ungentlemanly conduct. His suspension had nothing to do with spitting.

 

[Bex]

Yeh, well I reckon if you look at 1:39 you can see Fabiano purposely keeps his head between the ref and Cornthwaite. He even goes to the extent of shouldering into the ref as he senses the ref moving towards Cornthwaite, presumably to ensure Breeze didn't have a line of sight to Cornthwaite's face where he was spitting.

In the front on shot, Cornthwaite's head obstructs the view of Fabiano's mouth at the time he spits.