Accidents happen in footy. Brody Mihocek's injury, as sad as it is, happened by accident.
Nothing Billy Frampton did was careless. He just found himself in an impossible situation.
When a man of Mihocek's size is charging at you head down, how are you supposed to pull out and not lay a tackle?
Frampton's actions to tackle were totally reasonable and fair, doing his best to avoid contact the head as Mihocek torpedoed into him.
The force and momentum led to Mihocek's head making contact with the turf.
It is even a stretch to call what Frampton did clumsy. As a coach, you'd ask him to do exactly the same again with a massive body charging his way.
Looking on, not for a moment did I think Frampton would be pinged for a dangerous tackle - and he wasn't.
It was only the final outcome that led to jeers from the crowd when Frampton ended up with the free (and the ball) after Mihocek was stretchered off.
No one wants to see injuries like this, and the final outcome was horrible, but the much loved and respected Mihocek was just desperately unlucky.
Frampton should be exonerated, and reasonably swiftly, at the tribunal tonight.
It is impossible to prove Frampton made a dangerous secondary action or was lacking in a duty of care. There has been talk of Frampton "driving" Mihocek into the turf, but that surely is not clear cut.
The AFL's footy boss Greg Swann told AFL 360 on Fox Footy last night: “We could have referred it straight to the tribunal and let them decide, but we don't think that's our job. Our job is to design a penalty, and then the clubs themselves can make an assessment on whether they want to appeal that."
Make of that what you want, but to me that's Swann suggesting this was a lineball one. An incredibly tough situation.
If Mihocek wasn't injured we wouldn't be here. Again, it's a case of outcome versus action.
So there is no in between. It will be three matches, given the seriousness of the injury means the severe impact box gets ticked ... or it will be zero.
It has to be zero.
And memo Tribunal: Be quick to come to the most obvious of all conclusions.
