The Gambler, or, Kenny Rogers sucks.

So, Scarlett entered the early guilty plea, took the two week suspension rather than risk three weeks, and all because Bomber Thompson isn’t a gambler. Or rather, he’s a very shrewd gambler. If ‘Lips’ and the GFC brains trust chose to appeal the two week suspension, they would have been faced with three potential outcomes: 1) Scarlett gets off, free to play against all teams. 2) The Tribunal gives the maximum three week sentence. 3) The tribunal upholds the guilty verdict but dishes out something less, say a one game suspension.

Now, Thompson and the GFC staff probably figured that they could do without Scarlett at full back this week against Hawthorn for two reasons; firstly, because Scarlett probably wouldn’t have played on Hawthorn’s full forward, Mark Williams, who is a smaller, faster full forward, and secondly, Hawthorn aren’t very good. So let’s take option 3 out of the equation for now.

The video evidence may not show Scarlett’s fist actually making contact with Leigh Harding’s eye, but it looks pretty bad nonetheless. So the Cats hierarchy must have known the AFL would want to punish him somehow, meaning option 1 was somewhat unlikely. Which leaves us with, (drum-roll please…) option 2, Scarlett suspended for the maximum three weeks.

The next three Geelong opponents are Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and Sydney. Similar to Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs don’t have a powerhouse full forward and rely on an even contribution from smaller, quicker, players, so again, no obvious match up for Scarlo. Sydney, however, has Barry Hall.

Taking the two weeks now makes sense. Geelong can get Scarlett rested and refocused, and anyway, he may not be missed all that much against the smaller, quicker forward lines. So relax Kenny, Bomber knows when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, and when to swing Cam Mooney into defence.

In completely unrelated news, the other half of Big League Little League’s dynamic duo, Mrs. Watson, will be absent for the next week as he takes some time out of his busy schedule to take over as Richmond’s kicking coach, St. Kilda’s stylist, Chris Connolly’s lawyer and act as a consultant on a new Reality TV series based around the life of Michael Gardiner, tentatively titled, “The Chop”.

He will remain, (and I will join him for this week) drunk and churlish in Skilled Stadium’s outer. So if anyone is at the game, and wants to know what churlish means, come say hello, we’ll be under the scoreboard.