There's no doubt the AFL should have stepped in and imposed some punishment on Marley Williams. Clocking a bloke outside a nightclub demands such action. But the fact the AFL is stepping in now and not last year beggars belief.
Last week Williams was convicted by an Albany court for grievous bodily harm – a charge carrying a potential 10-year prison term – after he broke the jaw of a man outside a nightclub in the WA port town during December 2012.
That's almost 15 months ago.
The incident, though, occurred around Christmas time in 2012 when Andy Demetriou and the other AFL stalwarts were probably lapping it up on their holidays.
As a result, Williams seems to have slipped through the cracks and the AFL didn't immediately demand a club-imposed suspension for the player as a means of declaring in no uncertain terms that such incidents are completely unacceptable.
The AFL, of course, had bigger fish to fry at that stage. Over that summer they were engaged in looking at Kurt Tippett's Adelaide contract arrangements along with investigating the Melbourne 'tanking' fiasco. Worse was to come as the Essendon saga would soon erupt in early February while all such matters were being conducted without the AFL's former operations head Adrian Anderson, who left his role in December 2012 and had not yet been replaced by Mark Evans.
But when AFL investigating officer Brett Clothier deemed that Carlton's punishment for Heath Scotland – the Blues suggested he merely be banned from the NAB Cup – was insufficient, surely Clothier might have also turned his head towards Collingwood as well.
Scotland, ultimately served a two-match suspension from the Blues while a few years ago Michael Hurley missed three matches as a result of an assault.
Maybe the fact Williams hadn't been convicted of anything at that stage stopped Clothier from acting. But the fact Collingwood had already imposed a punishment on him suggested there was some basis to the charges against him and that the AFL should have stepped in nice and early and demanded a higher punishment there and then.
Since the incident occurred, Williams appears to have made every post a winner.
The sanction Collingwood imposed on him was a 10-week stint at a Salvation Army soup kitchen, a position he continues to do regularly despite his punishment having been completed.
He was obviously told to lift his ratings out on the field as well, for he completed last season by finishing seventh in the Magpies best and fairest count.
To be honest, Collingwood should probably have anticipated the AFL wanting a greater punishment for Williams 15 months ago as well. We've simply seen far too many cases of one-punch incidents resulting in fatalities for them not to take it so seriously.
Too many times, families and lives have been torn apart in such instances of stupidity. Williams was lucky he didn't kill that man and merely broke the victim's jaw, especially as he is an AFL player with an AFL player's boxing training. Being an AFL player is a privilege and with it comes a degree of community responsibility, something Williams clearly breached that night.
With that in mind, Collingwood should have imposed a harsher penalty themselves on Williams directly after the incident. The soup kitchen punishment was appropriate, but an immediate games punishment was necessary in order for the club to immediately declare their contempt for such one-punch attacks
But 15 months later, suspending Williams for matches seems another kick in the teeth for the youngster in the wake of last week's conviction.
Some will say Williams is merely getting what he deserves for such an attack. There is merit in that.
But in this case he's clearly worked diligently to turn his life around. Picture yourself in his shoes as well. He's a 20-year-old with his life ahead of him, probably scared shitless of the fact he'll soon be in jail for an undetermined period.
It's times like this Williams should be playing and having some structure in his life despite the fact he's facing sentencing on April 22, just a few days before Collingwood's Round 6 blockbuster against Essendon.
Instead, he's probably going to cop a suspension from the AFL, something that should have happened last year, suggesting both the AFL and maybe Collingwood let this young player down by effectively ignoring the realities of a punishment that should have been imposed over a year ago.