Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph reports<\/a> Rankine was set off by a comment from Houston during their back and forth. It\u2019s alleged Houston referenced his bump on Rankine that left the Crow concussed while Houston was a member of Port Adelaide in last year\u2019s Round 20 Showdown.<\/p>\nIt would ultimately be Houston\u2019s last game for the Power after he copped a season-ending five-match ban for the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cAdelaide believes there are compelling, extenuating circumstances tonight in regards to why he should serve only a three-week ban,\u201d Ralph said on Fox Footy\u2019s Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir submission is that he was triggered by a war of words with Dan Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Adelaide version of events is that there was a claim made, whether it was, \u2018bring the stretcher out\u2019. Or something in regards to that that triggered him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not condoning his language after that, I\u2019m not suggesting it was an appropriate response for him to utter that homophobic taunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the Adelaide view is certainly that it was something that was instructive.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 17: Izak Rankine of the Crows is knocked out by a late hit from Dan Houston of the Power during the round 23 AFL match between Port Adelaide Power and Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval, on August 17, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake\/Getty Images)Source: Getty ImagesADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 17: Izak Rankine of the Crows is knocked out by a late hit from Dan Houston of the Power during the round 23 AFL match between Port Adelaide Power and Adelaide Crows at Adelaide Oval, on August 17, 2024, in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Brake\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Gaz GOES OFF at umps missing Crow throw | 03:58<\/p>\n
Adelaide is also trying to get a discount on Rankine\u2019s ban for his contrition`. The Age reported Rankine apologised to the Magpies player involved via a phone call on Sunday, after allegedly calling the player a \u201cf****t\u201d.<\/p>\n
Houston is not believed to be the Collingwood player who Rankine made the inappropriate slur to. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the latest case of a homophobic taunt on the footy field after Wil Powell (five weeks), Jeremy Finlayson (three weeks), Lance Collard (six weeks), Jack Graham (four weeks) and Riak Andrew (five weeks) have received bans across the VFL and AFL dating back to last April. <\/p>\n
Another part of the Crows\u2019 submission to the AFL was that they think a home and away suspension is \u201cin no way equitable\u201d to a finals suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, a potential full finals suspension,\u201d Ralph added. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey believe the AFL would be well aware of the double standard of hiring Snoop Dogg to perform at a grand final despite his homophobic language, then suspending players for up to five weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure if that is in the submission, but certainly that\u2019s something they believe the AFL is aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fox Footy commentator Corbin Middlemas thinks the Houston exchange shouldn\u2019t be brought into the case <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m inclined to think let\u2019s deal with the two issues separately, rather than make them one issue,\u201d Middlemas said on Midweek Tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf (Rankine) does have an issue with the way Dan Houston addressed him on field, let\u2019s talk about that. But I\u2019m not sure that gives him an excuse to be able to use the language he has on this particular occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘He’ll accept whatever comes his way’ | 02:21<\/p>\n
Middlemas added that the AFL has \u201cwedged themselves a bit in this\u201d for taking a \u201cpunitive model\u201d over an \u201ceducational model.<\/p>\n
And he could understand if the AFL ultimately handed down a three-match ban given it will involve missing finals. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor whatever it\u2019s worth, I could understand if they gave him a three-match ban given two of them are finals and there\u2019s a bit of weighting that goes on that,\u201d Middlemas. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut again this arbitrary nature of: \u2018We\u2019ll just make it up as we go\u2019. The fact it\u2019s stretched into a fourth day, just suggests the AFL, as they\u2019ve done in the past, is happy to let it flap in the breeze and see what the reaction is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason this could be taking so long is because of what is being reported tonight. That basically there is more negotiation happening there, which probably suggests it\u2019s not as open and shut as you\u2019d expect it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ralph said Adelaide is \u201creally hopeful\u201d the delay of the call means the AFL is taking its defence \u201cseriously\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Adelaide view is that Jeremy Finlayson one is three weeks. So if you strike someone 16 months ago and strike someone today, you get three weeks. So why is it this escalating, snowballing type model?,\u201d Ralph added. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really complicated picture for the AFL. If it was three weeks from Round 1 last year, we\u2019d all say that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is three weeks right now, everyone will say the AFL has gone soft on homophobic language. It\u2019s a very tough situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide\u2019s defence to reduce Izak Rankine\u2019s impending ban and free him to play again this season based on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[9126,638,60971,64,63,689,55,639,10133,60970,15830,60767,10128,60962,60967,41672,1127,10145,2105,11288,60968,12413,60960,60961,9017,681,12415,60966,60965,677,46,6082,60963,60969,60964,49334,1124,85,16702,11287,7067,3439,12416],"class_list":["post-80147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-afl","tag-arbitrary-nature","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-compelling-circumstances","tag-corbin-middlemas","tag-crows-veteran","tag-dan-houston","tag-extenuating-circumstances","tag-finals-suspension","tag-five-match-ban","tag-fox-footy","tag-garry-lyon","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grand-final","tag-homophobic-language","tag-homophobic-slur","tag-homophobic-taunt","tag-impending-ban","tag-janelle-st-pierre","tag-jon-ralph","tag-lance-collard","tag-magpies-clash","tag-missing-finals","tag-oceania","tag-perth","tag-port-adelaide","tag-rankine-submissionafl","tag-ray-chamberlain","tag-season-ending-five-match","tag-snoop-dogg","tag-south-australia","tag-sports","tag-taylor-walker","tag-three-match-ban","tag-west-coast-eagles","tag-western-australia","tag-wil-powell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80147","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=80147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}