The week of the Big Bad Hally

Enough already! Barry Hall did the wrong thing, we know that, he knows that. Do we need to keep going on about it? Apparently we do, because the papers are full of it. In every sense of the phrase.
I like Barry Hall, he’s the player that bridged the Rugby League/ AFL divide for me. He reminds me of the biffs in the State of Origin games from the 80s and early 90s. He’s not the pretty boy that many of the other AFL players are (sorry Barry) and makes the game accessible for a girl who grew up watching NRL. If the AFL is trying to set up a team in western Sydney you need to have a few rough nuts to remind them of the other game.

I don’t condone what happened on Saturday night. It was an uncalled for reaction to his frustration. But I don’t think it warrants all this attention. There have been several instances over the past couple of weeks where players have gone down in off the ball scuffles and luckily for the perpetrators the cameras have been looking else where. Have we heard anything else about those instances? NO… granted I am living in Sydney and we don’t get the same amount of AFL news that Melbourne gets. In one game last week the guy had to be stretchered off!

Is it a slow news week in AFL world? This isn’t the worst act of aggression that has happened in the game. It’s probably not even the worst act that has happened this weekend. Why is the media hanging Barry Hall out to dry?
Sure something needs to be done about onfield violence, but until everyone who is guilty of it is treated with the same derision I don’t think it’s fair to use Barry Hall as a scapegoat.

Here is a voice of reason in the madness of the media. The author of this article says so much more eloquently what I was trying to say in this post.