It’s impossible to say definitively what was the AFL’s preferred outcome to this case. However, it does not hurt business to have a full compliment of Magpies to play through the finals season. I can hear those turnstiles ticking over now!
The usual AFL attack dogs were on display with their attempts at downplaying the hit, and with some success it seems. It just goes to show how compromised the media is when it comes to broadcasting and writing about AFL football.
But the facts are these – Brayshaw was poleaxed into the next day by Maynard and may not play football again.
Maynard not only went on to finish the game (and is now free to play for the rest of the final series, while Collingwood are still in it), he was also involved in several other incidents during that game.
The AFL makes many mistakes while protecting its product, and this is another glaring example. Isolating the Maynard hit on Brayshaw and not bringing up other moments during the same game when Maynard used his shoulders and head to intimidate opposition players was a huge mistake.
This behaviour by Maynard was not a one-off occasion, and his hit on Brayshaw should have been put into the context of how Maynard likes to throw his weight around during a game.
An opportunity was lost to tell the footballing world there are consequences to be had for knocking out a player with a head high hit. Perhaps that was the real intention behind the AFL, in the hope that come the next game people would have forgotten, like all the other AFL blunders and incompetence we have witnessed in 2023, and that the AFL was simply seen to be concerned.
Maynard walking away free to play in the PF asks the question, “Just how concerned about players welfare is the AFL?”
