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Michael Christian

๐Ÿ‘ค Speaker
245 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

Greg Swan, when he came into the role, was really...

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

quite strong about cutting this type of behaviour out of the game.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And I think it's been successful.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

Yes, yes, there's been a couple of those.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And look, we have issued a couple of fines where we don't think the level of force is sufficient to suspend a player.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

So, yeah, there's always, as you know, and we've spoken many times before about, there is a large area of grey with all these things, whether it's a bump or a tackle or...

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

So it's always challenging, but I feel like the ones that have been suspended have been in accordance with the new guidelines.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

Oh, there's no doubt that it's a benefit in my role.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

As you just mentioned, it's always flexible.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

In recent years, we've had the capacity or I've had the capacity to increase a suspension or increase a penalty when the impact didn't quite match the action.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

So we've been able to, under a potential to cause or an action that might cause a more serious injury, I've been able to upgrade the number of weeks, but not downgrade until this year.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

So just felt looking at the Sam Closey tackle that the observable force of that tackle

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

didn't necessarily correlate to what I would think would be a concussion.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And so took the opportunity to use the new guidelines to implement that and reduce that penalty down to two weeks.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

Absolutely.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

Absolutely.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

So, yeah, it's always challenging.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And we talk about grey, there's always grey, but it's basically, you know, hand on heart and trying to work through.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And I thought the observable force of that action didn't quite warrant the three-week suspension, which was the normal suspension under a concussion.

Whateley
Whateley - Tuesday | Full Show (02.06.26)

And Greg Swan supported that.