Barry Hall (THUG) Faces Suspension Again for Swiping at Shane Wakelin
July 6, 2008 by Jesse Penfold
Big Bazza, Barry Hall, is in strife again after his obnoxious performance against Collingwood on the weekend. Acting like a two-yr old all game as Shane Wakelin gave him an absolute bath, Barry was again unable to keep his emotions in check. He whined to the umpires incessantly throughout the game and swung an elbow at Wakelin off the play, for which he will come under the match review panel microscope.
So… will Barry actually go?
The incident is always going to be questionable given the fact that Hall doesn’t appear to really connect with Wakelin (who despite the lack of contact, dropped like he had been shot). As usual no one is giving anything away either, with Wakelin keeping tight lipped:
The veteran Magpies defender said he couldn’t recall exactly what had happened in the altercation.
“I had my eyes on the footy, we had a tangle of arms and that’s about as much as I knew about it,” he said.
He added he did not see an incident involving Barry Hall which was picked up by TV cameras, in which the Swans full-forward appeared to take a swing at, but missed, Collingwood defender Shane Wakelin.
In all the incident might not be anything if not for Hall being involved, any other player may simply get off with a guilty plea and not raise too many eyebrows. Hall, however, was only in his 3rd game back from this season’s most violent act on the field (maybe the most violent for a number of years), when he king hit Brent Staker in round 4.
The scary thing is how similar the Wakelin incident was to that of Brent Staker’s. The only difference being Hall was unable to connect fully on Wakelin.
The result - Barry will most likely get charged with attempted striking, say all the right things and may receive a 1-2 week spell.
Screw that!!
If the AFL is committed to removing “thuggery” from the game it is time to send the lead thug (yes Barry, you are a THUG) a message. They want to send a message about protecting players from dangerous contact during play, so what about behind it?
Surely an intent king hit is worse then a clash occurring when someones head is over the ball. Barry’s career match bans are already at a massive 23, and he has faced the tribunal 10 times since 2001, how long until he really hurts someone? Wakelin, and Staker to a lesser extent, are the lucky outcomes of what happens when Barry Hall’s mum doesn’t get him candy at the store.
too right!!!! i’m sick of hearing about big bad barry - how about coward barry who can only swing at blokes 100m behind the play? where i come from that is called p*ssweak, not tough
The Barry Hall/Wakelin incident was the softest thing I have ever seen. The AFL and the media are becoming a joke - now they’re just picking on him. I would hardly call that swing. The incident wouldn’t even raise a comment if it involved anyone other than Barry Hall. I could point out over 1000 worse incidents in AFL matches over the past five years that have been ignored. What about Cloke’s elbow that connected with Roberts-Thompsons face off the ball? Imagine the reaction if Barry Hall did that!! Personalities and media hype have to put aside.
Macro - I agree, and I even said as much above. The real problem is he is doing this straight after the Staker incident, and the only difference between this one and that one was Hall didn’t connect.
Having him out there is a danger to everyone as you never know when he will snap.
There was nothing much in it, should Tony Lockett also have been banned for life, what a shame that would have been.
To all you victorians and western australians that can’t handle it, for your information can I inform you that television also offers sports (to watch) such as soccer and lawn-bowling.
Probably more up your alley.
Greetings of the season.
Or Sydney could just stop breaking the rules of the game.
I actually kind of liked Barry but this sticks in my mind:
Not long ago I was litening to Perth radio where a footy based talkback was in full swing.
Barry had been interviewed and was fielding callers questions.
One caller asked Barry if he thought he would have so many “Brain Snaps” if such assaults were dealt with by the Police and the Courts and not by the soft option tribunal.
No answer from Barry - long silence and the station went quickly to an ad break after the announcers jumped in to change the subject and thank the caller.
In hindsight I didn’t really expect an answer, would you?