What?! Shocking changed the rules after a Geelong player was tackled? No way….
Www.heraldsun.com.au
SLING & A PRAYER
The stands were empty when Shaun Burgoyne laid the tackle on Patrick Dangerfield that changed the game.
It was on a cold Friday night in Geelong on June 12, 2020, when Burgoyne pinned one of Dangerfield’s arms and slammed him into the turf so the side of the Cat’s head crashed into the ground.
Under the rules at the time, Burgoyne received a $1000 fine. Dangerfield played on after the tackle, so the rough-conduct charge was graded only low-impact. But for then-AFL operations manager Steve Hocking, it was the iceberg moment. The tipping point. The realisation things had to change.
And within 72 hours, the game’s footy boss made the bold call to alter the rules to strengthen the dangerous-tackle penalties, and more seriously recognise the threat of head-knocks and brain injuries in the game. The league knew it had to make a greater effort to stamp out the tackles in which players had their heads pounded into the ground, without any ability to protect themselves.
Like the punch and elbow from a previous era, and head-high bumps, dangerous tackles were next on the AFL’s hit-list as the wave of concussion lawsuits loomed large. Geelong and GWS great Steve Johnson was blunt about the true nature of tackling early in his brilliant career. “We were told – and this is probably going back 10 years – that if you get an opportunity to tackle a player to the ground with extra vigour, and hurt that player, that will be a win for the team,” Johnson said on Triple M. And in 2015, after Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs knocked out Port Adelaide great Robbie Gray in a tackle, former Power star Chad Wingard said the bigger the name, the more they were targeted. “Gary Ablett cops it all the time,” he said. All the star players you try and rough up and tackle to the ground as hard as you can.
“It’s just unlucky he (Gray) had his arms pinned and couldn’t really brace himself.”
In other words, get footy’s big dogs when you can.
For Hocking, the problem with the league’s rules up until the Burgoyne case in 2020 was as simple as changing only one letter in the tribunal guidelines. Previously, players had to pin both arms of an opponent in a tackle for the incident to be upgraded under the “potential to cause serious injury” clause, increasing the penalty.
Burgoyne had pinned only one of Dangerfield’s arms in the 2020 tackle that whipped him into the turf at GMHBA Stadium, and he subsequently copped a fine. But Hocking knew players were at risk when only one arm was being held. Three years later, it was the determining factor in the tribunal’s decision to uphold Hawk James Sicily’s three-match ban for the tackle that has divided the game over the past four days.
As much as it sent some fans into a spin and sparked fears for the game, tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson on Tuesday night clearly reinforced the Hocking rule change in 2020.
Back then, the AFL had to make a statement on head-slamming tackles, and take the game in a new direction. Football had to create a safer environment for players as concussion concerns grew.
Three days after the Burgoyne tackle, Hocking had received approval from the AFL Commission so that tribunal guideline section 4.3 (e) relating to rough conduct (dangerous tackles) will change from “arms” to “arm” being pinned. It meant only one arm had to be trapped to upgrade the severity of the impact in a bid to bring the penalty more in line with the action rather than the outcome (injury).
“We are pulling it right back to the action here (not the outcome),” Hocking said in 2020. “Dangerous tackles have the potential to cause serious head injuries.
“One of the things that was a frustration for us was that (the existing rules) didn’t capture all dangerous tackles. The potential to cause serious injury (upgrade) was only captured under spear tackles and pinned arms.
“Clearly over the weekend that was not the case. Dangerfield did get an arm free and, moving forward, we can capture all things with this strengthening.”
It meant spear, or slinging tackles, weren’t the only dangerous ones. The AFL had suddenly cast a much wider net on what a dangerous tackle was. And Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews backed in the new approach hard in 2021 after Gold Coast’s Nick Holman was cited for a chase-down dangerous tackle on concussed Cat Mitch Duncan. “If any tackle causes the other player to hit his head on the turf, to me, that’s a careless, dangerous tackle,” Matthews said.
Www.heraldsun.com.au
SLING & A PRAYER
The stands were empty when Shaun Burgoyne laid the tackle on Patrick Dangerfield that changed the game.
It was on a cold Friday night in Geelong on June 12, 2020, when Burgoyne pinned one of Dangerfield’s arms and slammed him into the turf so the side of the Cat’s head crashed into the ground.
Under the rules at the time, Burgoyne received a $1000 fine. Dangerfield played on after the tackle, so the rough-conduct charge was graded only low-impact. But for then-AFL operations manager Steve Hocking, it was the iceberg moment. The tipping point. The realisation things had to change.
And within 72 hours, the game’s footy boss made the bold call to alter the rules to strengthen the dangerous-tackle penalties, and more seriously recognise the threat of head-knocks and brain injuries in the game. The league knew it had to make a greater effort to stamp out the tackles in which players had their heads pounded into the ground, without any ability to protect themselves.
Like the punch and elbow from a previous era, and head-high bumps, dangerous tackles were next on the AFL’s hit-list as the wave of concussion lawsuits loomed large. Geelong and GWS great Steve Johnson was blunt about the true nature of tackling early in his brilliant career. “We were told – and this is probably going back 10 years – that if you get an opportunity to tackle a player to the ground with extra vigour, and hurt that player, that will be a win for the team,” Johnson said on Triple M. And in 2015, after Carlton’s Bryce Gibbs knocked out Port Adelaide great Robbie Gray in a tackle, former Power star Chad Wingard said the bigger the name, the more they were targeted. “Gary Ablett cops it all the time,” he said. All the star players you try and rough up and tackle to the ground as hard as you can.
“It’s just unlucky he (Gray) had his arms pinned and couldn’t really brace himself.”
In other words, get footy’s big dogs when you can.
For Hocking, the problem with the league’s rules up until the Burgoyne case in 2020 was as simple as changing only one letter in the tribunal guidelines. Previously, players had to pin both arms of an opponent in a tackle for the incident to be upgraded under the “potential to cause serious injury” clause, increasing the penalty.
Burgoyne had pinned only one of Dangerfield’s arms in the 2020 tackle that whipped him into the turf at GMHBA Stadium, and he subsequently copped a fine. But Hocking knew players were at risk when only one arm was being held. Three years later, it was the determining factor in the tribunal’s decision to uphold Hawk James Sicily’s three-match ban for the tackle that has divided the game over the past four days.
As much as it sent some fans into a spin and sparked fears for the game, tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson on Tuesday night clearly reinforced the Hocking rule change in 2020.
Back then, the AFL had to make a statement on head-slamming tackles, and take the game in a new direction. Football had to create a safer environment for players as concussion concerns grew.
Three days after the Burgoyne tackle, Hocking had received approval from the AFL Commission so that tribunal guideline section 4.3 (e) relating to rough conduct (dangerous tackles) will change from “arms” to “arm” being pinned. It meant only one arm had to be trapped to upgrade the severity of the impact in a bid to bring the penalty more in line with the action rather than the outcome (injury).
“We are pulling it right back to the action here (not the outcome),” Hocking said in 2020. “Dangerous tackles have the potential to cause serious head injuries.
“One of the things that was a frustration for us was that (the existing rules) didn’t capture all dangerous tackles. The potential to cause serious injury (upgrade) was only captured under spear tackles and pinned arms.
“Clearly over the weekend that was not the case. Dangerfield did get an arm free and, moving forward, we can capture all things with this strengthening.”
It meant spear, or slinging tackles, weren’t the only dangerous ones. The AFL had suddenly cast a much wider net on what a dangerous tackle was. And Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews backed in the new approach hard in 2021 after Gold Coast’s Nick Holman was cited for a chase-down dangerous tackle on concussed Cat Mitch Duncan. “If any tackle causes the other player to hit his head on the turf, to me, that’s a careless, dangerous tackle,” Matthews said.
Last edited:
