Hamish Brayshaw, brother of forcibly retired Melbourne footballer Angus, has launched a swingeing attack on the AFL’s judicial system, accusing it of being inconsistent, selective and an existential threat to the game.
“The tribunal and the match review panel are single-handedly destroying the game,” Brayshaw said. “You are making it impossible to play in good spirit, you are making it impossible to adjudicate, and you’re not far off making it impossible to support.”
Hamish Brayshaw as a West Coast player in 2020.Credit: Getty Images
Brayshaw played one game for West Coast in 2020 and is now co-captain of East Perth in the WAFL. He was making his thoughts known in an open letter to the AFL delivered on Backchat, a Youtube podcast he hosts with former West Coast player Will Schofield and journalist Dan Const.
Barely drawing breath, Brayshaw detailed confusion and contradiction about football and non-football acts, about intent and about the extent to which outcome does or does not weigh on decisions.
“But it depends on the state of the game and the time of the year, it depends on whether or not we need to make an example out of someone,” Brayshaw said, “but don’t forget if they have a clean record in the past and do charity work, but obviously that can only matter once and never again, because from now on that doesn’t count; it depends on the player and the team they’re on.”
Angus Brayshaw was knocked out by a flying smother from Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in last year’s qualifying final and has retired on medical advice. Another brother, Andrew, plays for Fremantle and their father, Mark, played for North Melbourne and later worked in footy administration.
Brayden Maynard crashes into Angus Brayshaw.Credit: Channel Seven
“I have grown up all my life surrounded by football,” said Hamish. “Playing football, watching football, my family has been engrossed in the AFL system for decades – and I have absolutely no idea what is going on any more.”
About Angus, he is poignant. “My brother is never going to play football again in his whole life because of a jumping smother that turned into a bump that collided with his head,” Brayshaw said. “As much as it killed me to watch that, I can put my feeling for Angus aside and say that down to the nuts of and bolts of it, Maynard was trying to smother the ball in a qualifying final, so technically it was a football act.