It now seems he has been offered a 6 week ban (4 with an early plea) and has accepted the 4 week ban. Essendon are apparently choosing not to fight the charge.
While the consequences of the bump are quite obvious for all to see, I believe that it was not an illegal bump and therefore he shouldn't be suspended for it. He was going for the ball. However, someone who can make the case much more clearly than me is Greg Baum, who actually gets paid to do such things. Read his article on the whole case here.
Personally, for me the much more worrying situation is that Chance Bateman got offered a one week suspension for his attempted coathanger on Lloyd. The coat hanger is a true blight on the game of AFL, much different to the front on bump. For many years the coat hanger was employed with brutal effect and the league spent a lot of time removing it from the game. You still see it occasionally in country football, but generally it seems to have died off. So Bateman launched a full coat hanger at Lloyd, with obvious intent, and collected him in the throat. It didn't do what he wanted but that's not the point, he still attempted it.
And then he gets offered one week? For me personally, I think that the two crimes are similar. One is last minute, unplanned and with high consequences. One is measured, planned and has low consequences. Give them both equal time I say.
One quick point. I am an Essendon supporter. That being said, I don't believe that my vision is being impaired in this matter, I think that Lloyd deserves to play next week.
cheers
Harry
ps If you look at the bump from a different angle, so that Matthew Lloyd is facing the camera, you can see how fast the whole thing happens and that Lloyd is actually going for the ball. The view that is being shown most commonly puts him in a much worse light.
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