Briefly back to footy,and Hamish Brayshaw,the WA-based brother of forcibly retired Melbourne footballer Angus,has launched a swingeing attack on the AFL’s judicial system.
Brayshaw,who captains East Perth in the WAFL,accused the system of being inconsistent,selective and an existential threat to the game.
“The tribunal and the match review panel are single-handedly destroying the game,” he said.
“You are making it impossible to play in good spirit,you are making it impossible to adjudicate,and you’re not far off making it impossible to support.”
Brayshaw was making his thoughts known in an open letter to the AFL delivered onBackchat,a YouTube podcast he hosts with former West Coast player Will Schofield and journalist Dan Const.
and has retired on medical advice. Another brother,Andrew,plays for Fremantle and their father,Mark,played for North Melbourne and later worked in footy administration.
About Angus,Brayshaw is poignant. “My brother is never going to play football again in his whole life because of a jumping smother that turned into a bump that collided with his head,” Brayshaw said.
“As much as it killed me to watch that,I can put my feeling for Angus aside and say that down to the nuts of and bolts of it,Maynard was trying to smother the ball in a qualifying final,so technically it was a football act.
“You certainly didn’t care at all for the outcome there,and Brayden went on to win a premiership. You went with protecting the sanctity of the game over the protection of the player. I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with that,but it is breaking me that you are constantly backflipping on that stance.”