A leading commentator “cannot fathom” the AFL’s decision not to sanction Port Adelaide forward Willie Rioli for threatening a Bulldogs opponent.
But it comes as second and third alleged “violent threats” from Rioli to opponents, both last year and this year, have been revealed.
Rioli received a $1000 fine for striking Bailey Dale off the ball during the game against the Bulldogs on Saturday. But after the game he messaged a Bulldogs player allegedly warning Dale about ‘leaving the hotel’ when the Dogs travel to Darwin to play Gold Coast in Round 9.
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The message reportedly featured words to the effect of “I have lots of friends in NT, he should be careful about leaving the hotel in Darwin next week”.
Rioli contacted Dale privately to apologise – which was accepted by Dale – with the Power on Monday night declaring “the matter has now been resolved privately”.
Meanwhile the AFL failed to act, instead issuing a brief statement on Monday evening.
“The AFL has today spoken to both Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs and while confirming it will take no further action to that undertaken by the clubs and players, it has reminded both clubs to ensure any communications remain respectful”, the league statement read.
But failing to act, just as they did when Richmond brought Noah Balta back before his court sentencing for assault, has left AFL 360 host Gerard Whateley baffled.
“I can’t quite fathom where the AFL has landed here, which is nowhere, and for the second time recently, they are in breach of community standards,” Whateley said on Fox Footy.
“The football public is unhappy to say the least … they have pulled up to punish Osama bin Laden masks at a off season party and flipping the bird, which presumably is done for the likelihood to incite.
“They seem to have just completely missed the gravity of a player sending a message to a rival player’s teammate threatening (him) the day after a game, which I think, to the common man is going well, that’s not only in breach of footy standards, that’s borderline in breach of the law.
“So to walk straight past that with no comment? The only person on record saying Rioli has made a mistake is Luke Beveridge, not the AFL and not Port Adelaide.”
He added: “They made a mistake yesterday. I reckon they probably got lost in a whole lot of other things, and just missed the threatening message the day after a game. ‘No, no, we’re gonna stamp that out and set a precedent’.
“And I think they just, they’re looking at all of this, and they missed this. It was a mistake yesterday, and it was a glaring mistake today.”
Melbourne great Garry Lyon added: “I don’t want to wish bad things to happen, but God I hope everything goes okay in Darwin.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said he was “not surprised” by the AFL’s decision not to sanction Rioli.
“Obviously Willie’s made a mistake, he’ll learn from it – and we’re all OK with that,” he said.
“I think the discretion there is important and I think that’s how both clubs are treating it. Let’s just learn from it, move on and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
But it comes as a veteran journalist reports Rioli issued a “violent threat” to a Geelong player during a game last year.
“I’m not sure how seriously it was taken, but it was heard by both sides … the player didn’t want to go on with it,” Caroline Wilson said on Seven.
She described it as “a pretty violent, bordering on horrific, threat”.
Both Seven and The Age, which also reported on the incident, chose not to name the Cats player out of respect for his privacy.
Later on Tuesday, Nine’s Tom Morris reported Rioli also threatened an Essendon player earlier this year.
“It was in a way teammates of that player could not believe, and it was similarly threatening,” Morris said on Footy Classified.
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