Fresh from escaping a ban at the hands of the Match Review Officer, Collingwood defender and acting captain Brayden Maynard has revealed his intentions when sparking a melee at the main break of his side's recent victory over the Gold Coast Suns.
Pundits have been split almost to a man over whether or not Maynard, one of the competition's pantomime villains, should have been handed a suspension for putting his hands on an umpire during Saturday's scuffle.
MRO, Michael Christian, deemed the act careless, rather than intentional, meaning Maynard and Sun Touk Miller escaped with hefty fines as opposed to missing matches.
Maynard revealed he only had eyes for one man, in Ben Long, and as such, did not even register that an umpire was betwixt the pair.
"I had one man, and one man only in my eyesight, and that was big "Benny Long'" Maynard told the AFL Aces podcast.
"When I got hit from behind, and I didn't know who it was, it rattled me, and it really, really hurt," he continued.
"I got up and thought, 'I've got to get my revenge back, ASAP', so it was actually funny that there was only five seconds left before the halftime siren, so as soon as that went, I looked at him and went 'you're mine', and it was on for young and old.
"That's part of the game. I came from about 50 metres deep, so I probably should have been aware of what was around me but like I said, I had my eyes on one man, and one man only, and unfortunately, the umpire was in the way. It was careless, I didn't mean to touch him... there was no malice in it whatsoever."
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That justification will likely not wash with the likes of dual premiership Kangaroo turned analyst David King, who has repeatedly called for a month-long suspension for Maynard in the aftermath of the incident. King labelled the AFL "weak as p***" for not coming down harder on the 29-year-old, 243-gamer, on TV and radio in the days since.
Social media commenters were also displeased with Maynard, with some going as far as to label such attitudes as the reason why the heart and soul Magpie will likely never captain his club on a full-time basis.
