Andy Maher's question for Steve Hocking following Mackay verdict

Andy Maher has a question for AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking, following a week in the news thanks to the David Mackay Tribunal hearing.

The AFL argued Mackay had a duty of care to St Kilda’s Hunter Clark and that the contact should be graded as “careless”.

The Tribunal ultimately disagreed, clearing the Adelaide midfielder of any wrongdoing.

Maher simply wants Hocking and the AFL to be transparent in their reasoning for putting the case up and discuss openly where the game is heading.

“Please be transparent with us. If Steve Hocking says to us ‘if we don’t do this, we will be facing a catastrophic legal bill in the not-to-distant future that will destroy the game. It will be football armageddon’,” Maher said on SEN’s Bob and Andy.

“’So whether you like this or not, we have to do this for the sake of the game and the sake of this league’.

“Tell us why. To protect the players to the best of the game’s ability? No problems.

“Impossible to do that the way the game has always been played, so the game changes.

“Steve, if this is a personal quest that you are happy to lead, do you know where it ends?

“What are you looking at? Where’s the end point that you in your tenure in this office … where do you need to get this game to go before you are satisfied that you have done your job the way that you want to do it?

“I don’t know whether Hocking could explain that. I’m not having a go at him. He wouldn’t be able to tell us I don’t reckon.”

Hocking said he stood by the decision to send Mackay to the Tribunal on Friday afternoon.

“It was a lineball decision, it wasn’t an easy decision ... we took quite a considerable amount of time. It got to a point whereby, you know, with my executive powers, I was able to refer it,” Hocking told reporters on Friday.

“We stand by the fact that it was careless, and there was a lack of duty of care.

“The Tribunal did not agree with this and we accept the decision with the Tribunal. The health and safety of players at all levels of the game remains paramount and the AFL will not hesitate to take action where the health and safety of players is impacted or at risk.

“The outcome of the Tribunal will be considered in that review. If necessary, rules will be adjusted at the end of the season. We make no apologies for taking action to make the game safer for participants at all levels of the game.”

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