Shane Edwards was hit with the weight of a 110-kilogram man moving with intent.

Shane Edwards thought this big man coming at him from the other direction had the same plan he had – to get the ball.

The thought came too late for Shane Edwards that he might be wrong and the big man did not have the thought in mind he presumed he had. The big man's intent became suddenly and bruisingly apparent – he intended to bump Edwards.

Silly old Shane Edwards was wrong once when he was cleaned up for not knowing Lance Franklin would bypass the ball and bump him. And then he was apparently wrong again when the match review panel said Franklin actually didn't plan to run through him and hit him, well not in the head, anyway. He was just careless.

The panel said it was OK for Franklin to ignore the ball and run through him like a wet banner. He was just a bit careless when he planted his shoulder in the little man's face. Big Lance wasn't intending to bump Little Shane in the head; all he thought he would do was, um, what exactly?

Shane Edwards is a littler man than Lance Franklin, but most men are. Lance probably knows he is littler than him and knows the chances are that when he bumps a little man he will probably get him in the head. Lance didn't want the ball. Lance wanted to bump. Then he hit someone in the head. That is not careless, that was his intent.

The MRP was correct in one way – Lance was careless. He didn't care less about the ball and he didn't care less his hit would probably mean he hit him in the head.

The MRP typically does this – it classifies a head-high bump as careless because you are allowed to bump and you are only careless if in the process of doing that legal thing you do an illegal thing (hit him in the head).

But the rules also ask that the player's bump be a last course of action. The first course of action should be to get the ball or do something else not likely to knock someone's head off. And if bumping is not the last course of action but the first then you lose the protection you otherwise get for doing something legal and being careless. Lance didn't want the ball he wanted to bump Edwards. And he got him.

Shane Edwards was hit to the point of concussion – he was off the ground for just shy of the 20-minute assessment period to check if he was concussed. He was shaken up. He might have been knocked out, he might have – like other players – broken his jaw.

I know what you are saying – yes, but he didn't. Well, the rules – you know those pesky things – they also ask that the potential to cause serious injury be considered for impact. Oops, forgot that bit.

Just have a little refresher peek at the rules: "The potential to cause serious injury is also relevant in the following cases ... any head-high contact with a player who has his head over the ball particularly when contact is made from an opponent approaching from a front-on position". Edwards' head was not yet exactly over the ball, but that was only because Franklin knocked it into Oxford Street as he got close enough.

The tribunal heard about this potential to cause serious injury issue when Luke Hodge was banned on the night they also looked at Jordan Lewis' round-arm to the head of Todd Goldstein. You remember that, it was the one Lewis got three weeks for. It was just like the whack Kurt Tippet gave Dylan Grimes at the weekend.

Hang on a minute ... Tippett only got a week. Or, like his Buddy, two with one for the plea which of course was so breathlessly accepted the MRP had barely dropped to one knee with the proposal when they had the ring on their fingers.

Tippett elbowed Grimes in the head as he attempted to spoil a mark. That is if you call elbowing someone in the head after they have taken a mark attempting to spoil it. But he didn't intend to elbow him, he was just careless.

Tippett's fist was a lot further away from the ball than Lewis's because Tippett used his elbow not his forearm. Lewis used his forearm, it's a bit fleshier than the elbow, but that one got him three weeks and no option of a plea down to two.

How these cases differed so much for the panel to come up with such different results is hard to fathom. Leaves you feeling a bit like Shane Edwards expecting Buddy to do one thing and then he does another ... dazed and groggy.