Originally Posted by
soupaman
The careless charge would have been because this is an action that happens every game, the cheap shot to a players midriff, and almost never has any consequences for either party. From Merretts pov it would have been almost inconceivable that it could cause such damage, hence he didn't intentionally hurt him, he was just trying to cause him discomfort.
For the record I want to be clear that I draw a clear line between ok physical actions (like bumps and blocking, basically most stuff which doesn't involve actually using your limbs as weapons) and bullshit actions where the player is just being a dick. Merrett is absolutely being a dick in this scenario and I am happy for him to cop any suspension he gets. The above explanation is just on how the AFL grades stuff, which as we all know is self serving and in no way reflects what would be a reasonable judgement in real life.