The context needs to be restated. It was the last quarter and Brisbane were seven goals up. Petty had had a miserable night; this was his first kick. Answerth’s motion was at very least puerile. It also took a little gloss off a brilliant win.
That was not all, of course. In a clash between these teams two years ago, an unspecified remark from Brisbane’s then captain Dayne Zorko about a family member of Petty had so distressed him that teammates had to console him at three-quarter-time.
Zorko later apologised with the caveat that personal sledging had not been all one way. Melbourne accepted the apology, and the AFL took no further action.
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On Thursday night, Zorko said he would speak to Answerth. “That’s obviously not the way we want to win,” he said.
The word “obviously” is doing a lot of work there. Maybe the unwritten rules are not so obvious after all. In a semi-final between these teams later in 2022, another Brisbane player, Lincoln McCarthy mocked Petty again, and went unpunished for it.
Just last week, Port Adelaide’s Jeremy Finlayson said something he obviously should not have to an Essendon player, and was suspended for three matches. In each instance, and others besides, all eyes turn perversely to the AFL to administer the unwritten rules. They’ve got their hands full formulating and applying the written rules.
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All clubs say they abide by codes of behaviour. All have “values”. They all talk about them, all the time. You might have thought that those values would include desisting from vile personal comments towards opponents like Finlayson’s last week, or belittling one the way Answerth did Petty on Thursday.
Yet when acting upon them, clubs outsource responsibility to the AFL the way everyone always blames the government.
If Answerth’s display - in every respect petty - is so obviously against the Lions’ ethos, they should take the initiative. Make it an automatic match for stupidity, and another to think about it.
Harrison Petty and Dayne Zorko in the 2022 semi-final.Credit: Getty
Don’t hold your breath. Opposing coaches Chris Fagan and Simon Goodwin both said they did not see Answerth’s ridiculing of Petty. They were two wise monkeys, acting as three. Expect to hear a club-issued apology, with the standard get-out-of-jail-lightly clause about “heat of battle”. Expect to hear again about non-negotiable “values”. Expect that to be end of it.
Yet in this matter, Brisbane are on their own self-acknowledged terms recalcitrants. That’s the crying shame.