Taunting won’t be tolerated in the AFL, with Fremantle forward Patrick Voss fined for making a ‘cry baby’ gesture towards Demons defender Harrison Petty in Saturday night’s clash in Perth.<\/p>\n
At the sounding of the quarter-time siren and with Fremantle holding a 42-point lead, Voss rubbed Petty’s hair condescendingly three times as the pair engaged in a back-and-forth verbal.<\/p>\n
Melbourne skipper Max Gawn came in to remonstrate with Voss, with the Fremantle forward then making a ‘cry baby’ gesture at Petty.<\/p>\n
The AFL match review panel made its stance clear on Sunday when it handed down a $1500 fine to Voss, which can be reduced to $1000 with an early guilty plea.<\/p>\n
It was put under the ‘Other Misconduct’ category, and makes it clear similar taunts won’t be accepted.<\/p>\n
Voss rubbed Petty’s hair condescendingly three times as the pair engaged in a back-and-forth verbal.\u00a0Photo by Janelle St Pierre\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Petty has been a target of similar gestures or sledges over the years.<\/p>\n
In 2022, he was brought to tears when Brisbane Lions veteran Dayne Zorko sledged him about an ill family member.<\/p>\n
Zorko later apologised.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Lions defender Noah Answerth directed a cry-baby taunt towards Petty.<\/p>\n
Voss became the latest player to target Petty, with North Melbourne great David King labelling the spearhead’s actions a “step too far”.<\/p>\n
“You can embarrass them in the way you play but you can’t humiliate them face-to-face,” King told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s a bad look and I don’t think the AFL will be thrilled with this. I think the taunting rule will come into effect. It’s an ugly part of our game we don’t need.”<\/p>\n
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Voss tried to play down the incident after the game.<\/p>\n
“There were a few words being said, but yeah, shake hands at the end of the day,” Voss told Fox Sports.<\/p>\n
“Probably early in my career I stepped over the line a few times, and as I’ve matured I’ve found the line fairly well, and I think I’m in a pretty good space at the moment.”<\/p>\n
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir was unaware of the exact details or context behind the incident.<\/p>\n
But he praised Voss for the general energy and enthusiasm he brought to the side.<\/p>\n
“We understand he treads a fine line at times, and he’s got to manage that,” Longmuir said.<\/p>\n
“But he just brings so much energy to the group that we all buzz off it.”<\/p>\n
Voss had a more light-hearted moment late in the game when he lifted Ed Langdon over his shoulder and walked six steps to carry his opponent over the boundary line.<\/p>\n
The pair had a laugh about that incident, but Voss’s taunt on Petty was deemed no laughing matter.<\/p>\n
Voss kicked 1.2 from 12 disposals in the 17.16 (118) to 10.10 (70) win over Melbourne, and looms as a key player in Fremantle’s bid to win their maiden flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taunting won’t be tolerated in the AFL, with Fremantle forward Patrick Voss fined for making a ‘cry baby’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-556961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}