Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge is baffled by the AFL's decision to uphold Will Lewis' staging fine despite a medical assessment indicating he couldn't breathe.
Lewis was fined $1000 after an incident with Sydney's Nick Blakey, with Beveridge confirming the extent of the collision.
“In this one, he's actually copped one in the solar plexus, it's knocked the wind out of him,” Beveridge said.
“He's hit the deck and then he's obviously been charged with staging … what the AFL are saying to us is if you get hit, regardless if you do or don't, if you stay down you can still be charged with staging.
“We submitted a medical appraisal and assessment that he couldn't breathe, he wouldn't stay down otherwise.
“The AFL has obviously thumbed their nose at it and said, ‘We just think you've staged'. It must be caught up in the fact he's been on the ground for a while.
“It's changed now to what staging is, it's totally contingent on how long you stay down, not whether or not you actually got hit because he got hit.
“I feel for him because I don't want him to be tarred with a brush that he's put on an act because he hasn't.
“It just means now that if doctors from the football clubs, if they put forward submissions that a player is in discomfort, has been hit, the AFL will now ignore that and base it on what they see.”
More to come.
