Tyrone Vickery should come clean and immediately apologise for his crude hit on Dean Cox, in the opinion of former Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss.
Tiger ruckman Vickery will almost certainly come under the close eye of the match review panel for his indiscriminate round arm on retiring West Coast opponent Cox at a boundary throw-in late in the second quarter of Richmond's victory over the Eagles at Patersons Stadium on Friday night.
Cox was momentarily knocked out, before being assisted off the ground by Eagles' medical staff. He did not rejoin the action following the incident.
Voss suggested that a hasty mea culpa would significantly boost Vickery's public perception.
"I would love for him to come out today, not tomorrow, not Monday and write an apology and say, 'I did the wrong thing, that is not an act that we stand for, I wish it didn't happen, I really apologise to Dean Cox, I know how [the game] was to him," Voss said on radio SEN on Saturday
"I think he can really win back some credits here if he gets on the front foot immediately and fronts the media and says I did the wrong thing."
Richmond captain Trent Cotchin refused to be drawn into the specific incident, but supported his teammate's aggression.
"I think the thing with Ty is we love him playing on the edge. His best games this year have been when he's most physical," Cotchin said on SEN.
Vickery's Tiger ruck partner Ivan Maric indicated that he too was unable to comment on the strike, but advocated the importance of a physical presence for ruckmen.
"When you're in the ruck you're constantly elbowing and bumping, which we love as ruckman," Maric told radio 3AW.
Cotchin and Maric's reluctance to discuss the matter comes after AFL football operations manager Mark Evans indicated earlier in the week that clubs had been sent a memo reminding them not to make public comments about incidents likely to be assessed by the match review panel.
The letter came following comments made by North Melbourne's Drew Petrie and his coach Brad Scott in the days following Petrie's scuffle with Hawthorn backman Brian Lake during their round-16 clash. That game was also on a Friday night and prompted Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson to suggest incidents in Friday night match's be dealt with prior to the standard match review panel day of Monday - an idea that was all but dismissed by Evans.
Finally AFL MRP/Tribunal have case they can throw the book at. The only mistake they can make is not enough. I wouldn't blink at 12 weeks — Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) July 25, 2014
A number of AFL players took to Twitter and voiced their distaste for the Vickery incident within minutes of the incident on Friday night.
Lion Claye Beams described the hit on Cox as "ordinary" while teammate Pearce Hanley labelled it "a shit act". Adelaide forward Taylor Walker called it "a disgrace".
While not willing to abrogate Vickery of responsibility, former Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton argued that Cox had a tendency to engage in niggle at stoppages.
"How many boundary line throw-ins does Cox get in free kicks? He's the best I've seen at drawing a free kick at boundary line throw-ins. Within one hour, I could go to tape and pull out 50 boundary line throw-ins where Cox has elbowed someone in the chest, the throat, the chin," Brereton said on SEN.
"They climb all over him because they're angry at him. He draws this type of contact."
