the fat prick gets three

[ramjet21]

the bloke with bigger tits than the missus is bloody lucky i reckon - was worth at least 4-5. dunno what willo was saying - id want the prick out for a few if he did that to me. but theres the old footy 'code' to think of i guess....

Rioli gets three for eye gouging
6:58:27 PM Tue 28 May, 2002
Samantha Lane
afl.com.au



Essendon’s Dean Rioli has been rubbed out for three weeks by the AFL tribunal after the brilliantly skilled goalkicker was found guilty of the serious charge of eye gouging.

Rioli pleaded not guilty to the report of eye gouging Sydney’s Paul Williams, laid by field umpire Matthew James during the third quarter of last Saturday’s close match at Stadium Australia.

And despite a firm plea from Rioli - in which he categorically denied scratching Williams in the eye area - the tribunal supported the evidence of umpire James who said he had a “clear and unobstructed” view of the contact.

In the first comparable sentence since Tony Liberatore was rubbed out for three weeks for eye clawing in 1997, Rioli’s already interrupted season will now be further hampered by the result.



Rioli’s playing future was in doubt when he spent three weeks in the Northern Territory attending to family matters, and he did not play his first game this season until round five.

Speaking via a video link-up from Sydney, Williams, who had a scab-like mark around his left eye, described the contact as a “wiping” motion.

After receiving a 50-metre penalty, Williams kicked a goal to put the Swans three points in front. James then ordered Williams from the ground under the blood rule. The video replay appeared to show Williams bleeding from the left eye.

Williams returned to the ground in the final quarter, however Rioli was sidelined for the rest of the game after rolling an ankle.

Rioli was also charged with striking Ben Fixter after emerging from the scrimmage in which the gouge occurred, however the charge was withdrawn on Monday.

James, who was running to a pack to call a ball up at the time of the incident, said he saw Rioli reach across William’s face and grab the eye area with “a claw-like hand”.

“I clearly saw fingers make contact with the eyes and then stay there, and then gouge,” James said.

Once the pack had broken up, he said Williams had asked James whether he had seen the incident, and Rioli protested that Williams had made contact with his groin region.

“I felt contact to my testicles,” Rioli said. “That was the first reaction – a split second – I just wanted to get him off me.”

The tribunal also heard that Rioli was a “chronic nail-biter” and that he habitually used an adhesive substance on his hands which may have caused the stinging sensation to Williams’ eye, causing him to rub it.

“Even if I tried, with my nails I don’t think I’d be able to scratch his face,” Rioli said.

“My view was that I just pushed him off me….I’m pretty positive I didn’t make contact with his eye.”

And while Williams said he dabbed his eye due to a stinging sensation which may have been caused by sweat, he conceded that he had a miniscule scab to his face.

“I’ve had that before with sweat in my eye. I was just wiping that away,” Williams said.

“I didn’t feel at any stage that it was an eye gouge.”

A character reference was offered by Essendon’s chaplain, Reverend Allan Dunn. Ex-teammate Michael Long also testified to the character of Rioli.

However tribunal chairman Brian Collis QC ruled that the umpire had a clear view of the incident, and that the video evidence supported the report.

In what was the first blot on Rioli’s 44-game career, he will be ineligible for selection until round 13.

[MagpieMad]

UNBELIEVIBLE!!!!! eye gouging is the lowest thing a "sportsman" can do, its so easy to blind a person from doing it, and it just goes to show how weak the tribunal is! even a scratch on your eye can impare your vision and can quite easily end a football career.
I was watching that game when he did it, and was outraged at his deliberate eye gouging, it dosn't matter what jumpers the players where wearing its the worst thing to see happen to a player. I was expecting him to get atleast 8 weeks but the tribunal has has said its only 3 for trying to BLIND some one.

[PeterWH]

He gets 3 for gouging instead of at least 6,but what about the push in the face,or did this provoked crap get him off.
The poor little didum boy recons that he was provoked.....my heart bleeds.
The Bastard gets thousands per year on contract only to say that be bites his nails and that he was provoked.....what a BLOODY laugh

PeterWH
PIES FOR PREMIERS 2002

[MargOZ]

So Tarrant gets two weeks for just blocking an opponent and Rioli gets three for EYE-GOUGING??? What a joke! How can anyone take the Tribunal seriously!

GO PIES!
Marg

[Joel]

The tribunal is pathetic.

JDF

[Brown26]

I treckon if he's innocent he get's 0, but eye gouging, no matter what the circumstances, at least 6, probably 8. It is not on, at all. Don't take into account his unblemished record, this shows what he is like, he gouged!!! I reckon he got off pretty lightly.

Pies for Premiers 2002, 3, 4, 5, 6....

[This message has been edited by Brown26 (edited 29 May 2002).]

[junkboy75]

damn straight he got off lightly!! particularly after what happened to tarrant. eye gouging is a malicious act that should be severely punished. no amount of provocation justifies the intent to blind someone. the tribunal is setting a very poor precedent here. this mockery of a suspension is almost like condoning the act when your opponent decides to do some trash talking. if it wasn't such a serious matter, it would have been laughable.

"..we flew at them as a hawk to his prey, passed through them in the disordered state in which they were, separated them into two distinct parts and then tacked upon their largest division.." -- Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, 1797

[ramjet21]

what has footy come to? infested with nail and knacker biters.....

[MagpieMad]

Rioli penalty stuns doctor
30 May 2002 Herald Sun
By JON PIERIK

ESSENDON star Dean Rioli's three-week suspension for eye-gouging Swan Paul Williams has been branded as "appalling" by a leading eye specialist.

Dr Ivan Goldberg, president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Opthalmologists, has called for sporting bodies to introduce tougher penalties for similar offences.

"The thought of a sportsman deliberately gouging somebody's eyes, with sometimes unfixable injuries resulting, is appalling to us," he said.

"It's absolutely unacceptable and we believe sporting bodies should take a very serious line on this.

"It's a deliberate assault at something which is absolutely essential for a person of human dignity.

"Sporting bodies need to send a message that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated, zero tolerance."

On Tuesday the AFL Tribunal found Rioli guilty of clawing his fingers just below Williams' left eye during Saturday night's historic game at Stadium Australia. Handing down the sentence, tribunal chairman Brian Collis, QC, said: "Clearly, this is a serious offence."

But the AFL's treatment of eye-gouging has sparked uproar in the medical fraternity.

Other football codes have handed down severe penalties for gouging. Compare Rioli's suspension with the six-month penalty given to All Black Richard Loe for gouging fellow All Black Greg Cooper in a 1992 provincial game.

Or the NRL's 10-week penalty handed out to rugby league firebrand Mark Geyer in 1997. In 1987 the NRL threw St George's Steve Linnane out of the game for 20 weeks on the same charge.

Williams was left bleeding just below the eye after the incident last Saturday night and was sent off under the blood rule.

While Rioli is the first AFL player suspended for eye-gouging, Swan David Bolton was suspended for four matches in 1986 for a similar offence, then classified as "conduct unbecoming".

Seven previous AFL eye-gouging cases had been thrown out.

The chairman of the Sydney Eye Hospital medical board, Dr Justin Playfair, said Williams had been lucky to emerge largely unscathed.


"If the eye is pushed in quickly or pulled out quickly it can sever the blood supply and the eye can go blind from a good poke," he said.

"That's why they came down heavily on poking fingers into eyes deliberately and eye-gouging because people have been blinded by it.

AFL football operations manager Andrew Demetriou said last night he did not comment on tribunal decisions or penalties.

The Swans and Williams were unable to comment yesterday for fear of being fined by the AFL.