{"id":369986,"date":"2024-02-22T21:33:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T22:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369986"},"modified":"2024-02-23T02:03:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T02:03:33","slug":"demons-deny-anger-over-hit-that-ended-stars-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369986","title":{"rendered":"Demons deny 'anger' over hit that ended star's career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne<\/a>'s football boss Alan Richardson steadfastly denies any lingering hostility between his club and Collingwood<\/a> after the shock retirement of Angus Brayshaw this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brayshaw's final act on an AFL field was being collected by Magpies defender Brayden Maynard<\/a> during last year's qualifying final.<\/p>\n

Maynard leapt off the ground in an attempt to smother a Brayshaw kick, but ended up hitting his opponent in the head, leaving the latter prone on the playing surface and ultimately ending his football career.<\/p>\n

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What followed was a fiery few days which \ufeffculminated in an AFL tribunal finding the Magpies player not guilty of careless conduct, allowing him to help Collingwood to the grand final, which it won.<\/p>\n

\"Brayden<\/p>\n

Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson told Nine's Footy Classified at the time the Demons were "filthy" and "disgusted" at Collingwood's attempts<\/a> to\ufeff hose down the Maynard act.<\/p>\n

But if that were true then, Richardson claims his club has moved on.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI have not had a sense of that at all," Richardson told 3AW's Wide World of Sports<\/em> radio.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffCertainly in the last few days, after dealing with Gus (Brayshaw) and his family and the way Gus spoke to the group today, it was more a bit of a shock… that's the overriding emotion.<\/p>\n

"I wouldn't say there is any resentment or anger at all.<\/p>\n

\"Heartbreak<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI think what you're alluding to is the to-and-fro that is pretty common at a tribunal, and clearly there is someone trying to defend their player and there's another club that isn't going to have a bloke play in the finals series, and they're disappointed with that.<\/p>\n

"But that hasn't continued on\ufeff, that's not my take on where it sits right now."<\/p>\n

Maynard showed remorse for the ugly hit by going to Brayshaw's house to apologise after the qualifying final, but he was reportedly met with anger from Demons players and forced to leave the property.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe AFL has since tweaked the rules around smothers and high contact<\/a> in the wake of Maynard being freed by the tribunal.<\/p>\n

Brayshaw did not mention Maynard or Collingwood at all in a lengthy letter posted to the Demons website on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was told by medical experts this week he could not play contact sport again for the sake of his brain health.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Maynard<\/p>\n

"I am absolutely shattered and did not see this reality coming to pass. The months following that incident have involved a painstakingly slow, methodical, and conservative process," Brayshaw's letter said.<\/p>\n

"I am overwhelmingly grateful for my family and friends. Telling my fianc\u00e9, parents, brothers, extended family, close friends, and my teammates has been very difficult.<\/p>\n

"I see how upset it makes them, but more obvious is the love, care, and pride they have for and in me. I love them all so much. In particular, seeing my fianc\u00e9 Danielle's strength after her late father Danny's (Fawley) well-documented ordeal with CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) amazes me, and I would not have dealt with my own trials and tribulations as well without her support, and certainly the support of everyone in my life.<\/p>\n

"I know the coming days will be sad and upsetting for me (I am crying as I am writing this) and many others. I know that it's important to acknowledge that this is tough, but I also think that perspective is important.<\/p>\n

"This decision that has been made for me is to protect my long-term health. That is a good thing. I hope to live a long and full life.\ufeff"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne's football boss Alan Richardson steadfastly denies any lingering hostility between his club and Collingwood after the shock retirement of Angus Brayshaw this week. Brayshaw's […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369989,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369986\/revisions\/369989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}