Wisdom of Solomon?

People are probably aware that I have a passing interest in Australian football. The most recent controversy involving the West Coast Eagles has set tongues wagging across the country. Dockers player Des Headland was allegedly on the receiving end of slurs directed at his daughter by Eagles player Adam Selwood. Selwood allegedly said that he f*cked her after seeing a tattoo of Headland's daughter on his arm. When Headland said it was his daughter, Selwood allegedly repeated the taunt and called her a slut. Headland lost it and belted Selwood and tried multiple times to re instigate the confrontation. For this, Headland faced a 5-6 week suspension from the game. In a bizarre turn of events the AFL has found Selwood not guilty of making sexual taunts to Headland but also cleared Headland because of extenuating circumstances.

I'm not going to debate the blatant hypocrisy of this as I was tired of it about a minute after hearing the tribunal's decision. However I happen to agree with the AFL's decision, at least in a short term sense. I choose to believe Selwood did actually say the things that are being reported. Even a hothead like Headland wouldn't have gone so completely off tap without that kind of provocation. Had they suspended Headland, which past tribunal experience and the damning video evidence suggests they should have, there's no chance that the Dockers would have let the matter rest. The result would be a very long drawn out public process in which Selwood (according to my own interpretation of events) would have been found guilty.

The AFL often talks about bringing the game in to disrepute and this would be a public relations disaster for a game that is billed as being a family institution in this country. Thus, I find the AFL's decision to find Selwood not guilty and to rescind Headland's suspension to be the only logical course of action. It's not a perfect solution but it is certainly not the solution I was expecting. It showed the kind of lateral thinking the AFL is generally devoid of.

Despite my support for the AFL's handling of this case, I fear that they have dug themselves a very deep and muddy grave. Next time a similar case arises they have no choice but to follow a similar course of action which gives players a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card to take physical shots at one another if there is "extenuating provocation". The AFL may have little choice but to decree this as a bizarre, out of context case where the judicial outcome will not be repeated. It can only be a few weeks before a similar case comes up and I guess the AFL's method for handling such cases will become clear then.