06-22-2015, 02:48 AM
(06-22-2015, 01:36 AM)PaulP link Wrote:If the AFL is serious about the whole "head is sacrosanct" business, then each and every player that lays a tackle like Gibbs must serve time. Perhaps you could argue that in cases like Gibbs, where the head hitting the deck is more likely accidental than not, a reduced suspension is justifiable. Players must understand that to all intents and purposes, the AFL is a modern workplace, and as such a duty of care applies. Players simply must learn to tackle in a way where such incidents don't occur.
Paul, in my past experiences the only way to remove the risk of what happened to Gray is to ban any forceful tackling altogether. If you go in with any kind of forceful impact there will always a danger of the guy being knocked to the ground before he has the chance to brace himself to absorb the impact - that's just the way it is unfortunately. The only way to significantly reduce the risk is to institute some form of standing tackle whereby if the guys forward momentum is stopped he is deemed tackled.
This all needs very careful and thorough and discussion as I think we are in danger of altering the game to the detriment of its spectacle if we rush to react too swiftly to this. All options need to be looked at to protect players from potentially harmful concussion but let's not ruin the game in doing that. Hell, we and the media were only a couple of weeks ago criticising our boys for being too shy in the tackling dept.
Reality always wins in the end.