Imagine if the players in the AFL didn't return after half-time of their round 22 matches in protest of Lance Franklin copping a two-week ban for his bump on Richmond's Ben Cousins.

Franklin's suspension was in the name of 'protecting the head' – one of modern footy's catch-cries. Back in the 80s - and earlier – the banning of the Hawk forward for his bump on Cousins would simply not have happened and barely raised an eyebrow post-match.

Times change, however, and as society moves away from viewing 'violence as a form of entertainment', the AFL has tried to promote 'Aussie Rules' as a safe game for kids to play and parents to let them play. Any AFL player making significant contact with another player's head is frowned upon by the league and punished by its tribunal.

It seems to be no coincidence the increased popularity in this country of football (as the rest of the world calls it) or soccer (as AFL fans still call it) has links in a timing sense with the AFL's hardline stance on the rough stuff in the game Rex Hunt says the league utilised to promote via the 'I'd like to see that' advertising campaigns of the mid 1990s.

In those advertisements, official AFL advertisements no less, bumps which would now be scrutinised by the Match Review Panel are shown as something great about our game.

Keeping all of this in mind, AFL players and the body which represents them, the AFL Players Association, realise the newfound importance of protecting the head regardless of any possible political motivations behind what league boss Andrew Demetriou constantly refers to as a medically-driven decision.

While an anonymous player poll would arguably reveal most players think Franklin should have been let off for his hit, they all got on with it. Franklin missed his side's do-or-die clash with Essendon in round 22 and the 'show' went on.  

OK, time to switch sports in light of a major issue making news.

How can the Australian Jockeys' Association possibly think it's alright for jockeys around Australia to walk off the job midway – MIDWAY - through a series of regional race meetings across the country, including Ballarat in Victoria?

Jockeys claim a rule put in place by the Australian Racing Board on August 1 which restricts them to whipping a horse no more than three times in the last 200 metres, and over consecutive strides, threatens their safety. The ARB says the so-called threat to jockey safety is 'irresponsible' and wrong.

The jockeys - which will be penalised with fines and suspensions for breaking the new rule - want the rule altered so they can use as many strokes with the whip on their horse in the final 100 metres if it is in a winning position. After the ARB met and heard submissions on Thursday from parties including the AJA and rejected the requested amendment, the national strike action ensued.

Emotional jockey Glen Boss, never shy in offering his thoughts on pretty much any subject, explained on racing broadcaster TVN jockeys have been backed into a corner.

"When you're angry you act … we are the ones the rules are imposed on and they haven't listened to one thing we have tried to say."

The decision to change the rules has not been made lightly by the ARB, and has come on the back of another torrid season for jumps racing where every horse death was accompanied by calls to ban the sport forever.

Boss told TV viewers he and his fellow jockeys had the support of all relevant stakeholders, including the trainers.

However, his cocky assertion the strike action midway through a race meeting was supported by all seemed to go down in flames when, live on TVN, trainer Rick Hore-Lacey grabbed a microphone and said in the direction of Boss: "What you are doing is just a bastard act and you are putting everyone against you!"

Moments before his verbal spray, Hore-Lacey said the trainers agreed with the jockeys in principal. But a strike halfway through meetings at Ballarat, Hawkesbury in NSW and Ipswich in Queensland has angered trainers and owners who had set their horses for races and had no idea they would not be run.

A lot of races are used for trainers and owners to prepare horses for other meetings later in the animals' campaigns, which usually span a period of two or three months. Missing a single lead-up race can significantly effect a horse's entire campaign.

Aside from the anger expressed by some owners and trainers, the betting agencies lost millions of dollars in revenue on Thursday.

For its part, the AJA has confirmed normal practices will resume on Friday and there is no threat of industrial action being carried out until after Monday's meeting. The ARB said it will not review its rule until February.

"It should not be forgotten that 10 months ago all of the groups who now say that padded whips are working well were vehemently opposed to them," said ARB Chairman Bob Bentley. "It is a credit to the industry it has come this far in such a short space of time."

"The incidents of breaches of the new rules are less than one per cent and this is incontrovertible evidence the overwhelming majority of riders have adapted to them."

The new rules relating to the number of times a jockey can whip their mount are said to be in the name of changing community attitudes toward the treatment of horses in the thoroughbred racing industry.

"Stop whipping and the punters will stop betting say industry heavyweights and that cannot be tolerated. Better that a few thousand horses suffer so many punters can prosper," 3AW Drive's Peter Maher, a racing enthusiast and horse-owner, said earlier this week.

"It makes you wonder if those people with these views also promote the same use of cruelty on other defenceless animals like household pets."

"Probably not because there is no betting on making the household cat perform to the punter's expectation. Not as yet anyway."

Regardless of one's stance on the entire 'whips in racing' issue, one thing appears to be unanimous after Thursday's drama; there has to be a better way for jockeys to gain public, stakeholder and industry support than spitting the dummy - and that is all the strike really was - on the eve of Melbourne's Spring Carnival.

Suck it up jockeys. Life doesn't always seem fair and workplace rule-changes happen all the time which most Australian workers put up with and move on. Either that or they attempt to settle the matter behind closed doors with a mature, measured approach.

Office workers are constantly bombarded with changes to email inbox storage limits, hospitality workers may be asked to wear terrible-looking ties to work or cut their hair, AFL players may be asked to change the way they bump opposing players – but they all get on with it.

Perhaps jockeys should cop the new rule on the chin and get on with it too?

Jockeys stop work

Jockeys at Ballarat and Hawkesbury are holding stop work meetings to consider their position after the Australian Racing Board (ARB) rejected any change to the controversial whip rules. Peter Maher has his say on the matter and speaks to the Australian Racing Board boss.

We don't whip our cats - yet

"There is a very interesting debate happening at the moment in the horse racing world that highlights the gap between the racing industry and mainstream society." Read and comment on Peter Maher's editorial by clicking the image on the right.