I think I’ll also need to agree to disagree.
For me the angle that is most telling is the first in
this video. Within 2 seconds Maynard goes from guarding his own man to landing on Brayshaw. In between Maynard had to consider all of Brayshaw’s options, including that Brayshaw could take him on and go around him, a handball to Maynard’s man (which is what most players do in this situation) or kick. As Maynard realises Brayshaw is getting into his kicking action he knows he can’t tackle and he can’t bump, so he plays the ball and then accidently lands on Brayshaw. In the split second when he sees Brayshaw is kicking he didn’t triangulate the vectors that could lead to his shoulder hitting Brayshaw’s jaw.
It shows you the power of these athletes and the speed of the game that Brayshaw can get the ball in the centre circle and get hit by a player near the end of the centre square without ever seeing him coming – and Maynard was directly in his field of view.
Simply put, duty of care means to take
reasonable steps to not cause
foreseeable harm to another person. We disagree how reasonable it was for Maynard to instinctively jump at the ball without knowing where he would land, and we disagree how foreseeable it was for Maynard’s jumping action to end Brayshaw’s concussion. That’s all fair enough. These aren’t easy calls.
