TSL rivals Launceston and North Launceston have both come out swinging after a tumultuous 48 hours ended with Blues forward Cody Thorp suspended for an extra week.
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Cited for two first-term incidents in last Friday's loss to North Launceston, Thorp's two-match ban for striking Zach Burt was halved following an early guilty plea, while a bump on Billy Edmunds was dismissed as legal.
Just hours after the match review office's findings were released on Tuesday morning, both clubs were preparing for the Edmunds incident to go to an independent tribunal next Tuesday.
But the situation was resolved on Thursday afternoon when TSL management undertook a "further investigation" and handed Thorp another two-week ban, which was again reduced to one week when the 28-year-old issued an early guilty plea.
The two bans combined take Thorp to a total of 13 weeks of suspensions across his career, three short of the figure that results in de-registration.
RELATED: Thorp accepts one-match striking ban
TSL manager Andy Bennett said AFL Tasmania had a role to make the contact sport as safe as possible, and said Thorp's previous record was not taken into consideration throughout the process.
"I had enough concern about the incident that I thought it should have been reconsidered," Bennett said.
"I re-opened the event and looked at the evidence and decided there was forceful front-on conduct and graded it at high contact.
"There's a capacity to rate it as careless or intentional, I rated it as careless because there's a requirement for duty of care amongst players - the challenge is it's a dangerous sport because it's a contact sport.
"I rated it as medium impact because the player [Edmunds] ended up playing the game out - I think he was only on the ground for a relatively short time.
"That comes up with a two-match suspension with the capacity of an early plea to reduce it to one."
BLUES DISAPPOINTED WITH COMMENTARY
Launceston issued a statement on social media on Thursday afternoon, which was shared by a host of senior players.
"The Launceston Football Club lawyer has written to the TSL seeking an explanation of the revisit to an incident involving player Cody Thorp, noting the match review panel (MRP) experts previously decided the contact was legal and did not warrant a penalty," the statement read.
"We are therefore unsure why the TSL have decided to refer to the tribunal, essentially overruling their three experts.
"This process has now caused our club to doubt the integrity of the decisions made by TSL management and their faith in proven processes.
"Launceston FC are disappointed in commentary in the media by certain individuals, and some of the negative criticism of our club in public forum could prove prejudicial to our case.
"No official medical documentation has been provided as evidence of any injuries to this player, who remained a competitive player for the duration of the entire match.
"We wish to reinforce how disappointed we, the Launceston Football Club are, that it has been played out in the media and not sure of the motivations behind it.
"LFC value our relationship with North Launceston Football Club, as we do with all TSL clubs, however we are extremely disappointed in NLFC's actions in this situation.
"It is a concerning precedent being set if the MRP panel decisions are allowed to be overruled based on opposing clubs feedback and a lack of sufficient evidence."
SAD DAY FOR FOOTY: BRADY
North Launceston president Thane Brady said he believed the bump should have been classed as intentional, not careless, and questioned the decision not to go ahead with a tribunal.
He said the decision meant Edmunds, who was not named to play against North Hobart on Saturday, would miss more weeks of football than Thorp.
"This continues to be a huge embarrassment for AFL Tasmania," Brady said.
"Firstly, they acknowledge the match review panel failed to follow process resulting in the wrong decision made, dismissing the umpire charge only to take control and mirror the MRP process that they were critical of, namely no communication and failure to explain the grading of the incident.
"The rules allowed competition manager Andy Bennett to send the matter to the tribunal for a vigorous consideration of evidence with all parties having a chance to be heard and he elected not to.
"[The] question is why he decided as an administrator he could determine the appropriate outcome better than an independent tribunal, or was it the case AFL Tasmania did not want this in the tribunal full-stop as it may ended with a player de-registered?
"Effectively AFL Tasmania has taken us back into the dark ages.
"They have lowered the standard where it's only worth a week off to charge a bloke with his head over the ball?
"Where is the fairness and the protection for the bloke with his eyes on the ball?
"The inconsistencies in this grading outcome compared to other precedents is staggering.
"This is a sad day for football in Tasmania."
After a decade of one-sided derbies, the two Northern clubs have built up a strong rivalry since the Blues ended an 18-game losing streak early last season.
The two sides have gone 1-1 from their two senior meetings this year.
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Hamish Geale
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
