The AFL has been divided over whether Swans star Buddy Franklin will be lost a week after an ugly incident against the Tigers.
Sydney Swans star Buddy Franklin has left the comment booths split after an ugly incident in the shadow of the break against the Richmond Tigers.
At halftime, Richmond led 11.2 (68) to 6.7 (43), but frustration had boiled over for Franklin just before the main break.
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The Tigers had scored four straight goals to take the lead in the second quarter at the SCG, but even though the Swans stopped the bleeding, the Tigers were heading for a half-time lead.
After a shoulder and a push from Cotchin, Franklin pushed once before a second push was slightly obstructed by the cameras.
But the Tigers star came out of the hit, which looked like a blow to the chin.
On Fox Footy, Jon Ralph said it was “a huge incident.”
“On Trent Cotchin’s face value and reaction, you’d say there’s no way Buddy Franklin will play Melbourne next week,” Ralph said.
“It’s clearly a deliberate blow of some nature, it’s clearly high, but the problem with both angles is how much force there is and we really don’t see it.
“We need Zapruder files because we don’t see what the contact is.”
Nathan Buckley said, “No, we just see the jaw coming out the other side.”
Ralph said the angles did not make it clear if he made contact with any of the strikes and Brown agreed that they had to prove he had made a contract.
Buckley smiled and shook his head.
“Are you saying you don’t think there was contact?” Buckley asked.
Ralph replied, “I’m saying it looks like it was, but we haven’t seen it.
“We saw Toby Greene the next day with a million different angles from the referee’s contact, we saw that clear contact there. I think he’s in a fight there, but if you take him to court, you’d like to see the contact and still we haven’t seen it at all. “
Garry Lyon added that Franklin could have been lucky to be Cotchin at the end of the strike, as “I know a lot of players who would have fallen.”
Ralph told Buckley it looked like a contact, to which the AFL legend joked, “Either that or Trent should go to Hollywood. He did very well there.”
At Seven, however, Daisy Pearce said that Franklin should be allowed to play against the Demons.
“I think he was just going to give his chest a push and the second one slipped a little high,” he said.
“They won’t like the look of the AFL, but he slipped a lot, with his hand open, he barely brushed it off and Cotchin played well.
“I think a fine at worst, but they won’t like the look.”
James Brayshaw added: “It doesn’t look like it’s one of the games you would lose, and of course the AFL always wants Buddy to play and they should. Maybe he loses money.”
However, there will always be an open post-foot race for Buddy if he wants to.
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