Lachie Neale limp in tackle - epidemic amongst the league?

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Shadow89

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Feb 20, 2018
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I usually don't care about this stuff, but this is twice now that Neale has gone completely limp in the contest, and smacked his head into the ground.

The whole idea was to stop player's hitting their heads, but of course, inevitably, players are now drawing dangerous tackle free kicks, by going limp in the contest.

Neale has now got two players rubbed out, for the same offence...getting a little suspect for mine.

Is it really worth smacking your head into the ground just to draw a free? I wonder if the idiot MRO and AFL have asked themselves if there's a direct correlation between the massive increase in free kicks and suspensions, and the umpires now paying a free for it?

Some players are likely innocent, but the amount of players who are getting frees every week for this, is suspect to say the least.

None of these players are getting HIA's...yet the offending player is being rubbed out. The whole thing makes no f*cking sense - and it's getting worse every single week.

All of Parker, Cerra and Laird are gone this week...and we've already had more than 20 suspensions for the year for the same thing.

It's seriously enough already. Game is just f*cked at the moment.
 
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Brisbane supporters will go nutty at Cody Weightman trying to get a goal but will turn a blind eye to a bloke trying to rub out other players lol.
 
ThePhreshOne said:
Brisbane supporters will go nutty at Cody Weightman trying to get a goal but will turn a blind eye to a bloke trying to rub out other players lol.
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yep. neale is out there trying to get players suspended. thats why he lead evidence to help nic newman get off his suspension for striking.

glad youve taken time off from your multiple board crusade to defend the honour of cody weightman to come to this stunning conclusion
 

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Yep, massive problem now.

Add JOM to your list of players gone this week. Spargo put in a massive flop, driving himself into the turf, and JOM has been suspended. Could have cost Freo the game as well, as it gave Spargo a set shot which luckily he missed.

The giveaway is we never had all these players getting "slung" to the ground before the rule, and you can't tell me the tackling has changed all that much in the last couple of years.
 
rye said:
yep. neale is out there trying to get players suspended. thats why he lead evidence to help nic newman get off his suspension for striking.

glad youve taken time off from your multiple board crusade to defend the honour of cody weightman to come to this stunning conclusion
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Joel Selwood did lots of honourable things in the game too. Didn't change the fact that his career for many will be remembered as one of a ducker.
 
rye said:
yep. neale is out there trying to get players suspended. thats why he lead evidence to help nic newman get off his suspension for striking.

glad youve taken time off from your multiple board crusade to defend the honour of cody weightman to come to this stunning conclusion
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He wouldn’t be intentionally trying to get them suspended but he’s definitely aware of what he’s doing in trying to draw the free kick which then inevitably leads to a bullshit suspension
 
rye said:
yep. neale is out there trying to get players suspended. thats why he lead evidence to help nic newman get off his suspension for striking.

glad youve taken time off from your multiple board crusade to defend the honour of cody weightman to come to this stunning conclusion
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Try to exercise nuance here. He's not trying to get the player suspended - that's ludicrous. He is, however, trying to get a free kick, given the intensity of the match, and the knowledge that the umpire will give him one if he lets his head hit the turf.

The key argument here, is what Alfonz stated - there were not even a small percentage of these type of free kicks, in any given round, prior to the interpretation changing. Now that players know they can get a free kick for it, of course they'll ham it up to get the ball going their way.

The blame here is squarely on the AFL and Michael Christian. They've created a monster, and have actually likely created more concussiom incidents, by putting such a heavy focus on it this year - and paying any free when the head touches the ground.

Neale is the example given it's happened twice as a direct result of his being tackled - but it's not even close to what is happening league wide, and definitely not the worst incident/s.

We have a serious problem now.
 
JasRulz63 said:


I'm not saying I agree with the suspension, but I'm not sure Neale was meant to do? He had both feet in the air when he was tackled, and got his feet tangled as Laird went to ground and spun him around.
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I think the issue here for me, is like the Ward tackle, he doesn't fight or try and roll himself to break the tackle. Laird is 177 and 80 kgs or so - so not a big boy and similar stats to Neale himself. Pound for pound, being tackled like that, you could still find a way to protect yourself, rather than just letting it happen and getting the free.

That's the point though, players have figured out that if they let their head hit the ground, they'll get a free - no matter what the impact is. This is creating more incidents rather than less, and has led ro the state of affairs we see this year re: 20+ suspensions for apparent 'dangerous tackles.' Something we have never seen before.
 
Shadow89 said:
I think the issue here for me, is like the Ward tackle, he doesn't fight or try and roll himself to break the tackle. Laird is 177 and 80 kgs or so - so not a big boy and similar stats to Neale himself. Pound for pound, being tackled like that, you could still find a way to protect yourself, rather than just letting it happen and getting the free.

That's the point though, players have figured out that if they let their head hit the ground, they'll get a free - no matter what the impact is. This is creating more incidents rather than less, and has led ro the state of affairs we see this year re: 20+ suspensions for apparent 'dangerous tackles.' Something we have never seen before.
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I'm just not sure there's much you can do when the tackler drops their body weight and your legs get tangled and taken from under you?
 
JasRulz63 said:
I'm just not sure there's much you can do when the tackler drops their body weight and your legs get tangled and taken from under you?
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Legs don't really get tangled at all, watching the second bit of replay vision. He had one arm free and the other wasn't wrapped up and more just touching, so could have braced to protect his own head, rather than accepting contact.

Like I said though, this is a symptom of a much, much bigger issue that is plaguing our game right now.
 
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Shadow89 said:
Legs don't really get tangled at all, watching the second bit of replay vision. He had both arms free and could have braced to protect his own head, rather than accepting contact.

Like I said though, this is a symptom of a much, much bigger issue that is plaguing our game right now.
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The rules also dictate that you can't drop the ball without being punished though, so the rules dictate he can't just drop the ball and brace for the tackle. He tries to bring his other arm around to brace.

I get your overall point you're making that there should be some responsibility for a player to look after themselves. I do agree that it's gone too far in the other direction, but there is still some onus on the tackler to protect the player they're tackling. You point out they're similar in weight, so if Neale should be spinning rolling himself out of the tackle, why can't Laird drop his body weight to bring Neale to the ground without spinning Neale around?

Like all new rules/interpretation, I think it'll end up regressing more toward the mean.

EDIT: As a side note, given the rules, it's ridiculous that (Brownlow Medal contender) Oliver didn't get rubbed out for his sling tackle on Parker back in round 3.
 
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Based on this years previous suspensions, that's at least a week off any way you look at it. Jonas has been rubbed out twice for the same thing, Burton got suspended for two weeks and I reckon his tackle was safer than this one.
 
I don’t think it’s fair to scapegoat Neale with this, we’re seeing lots of players do it.

The issue is that in all of the AFL’s efforts to limit concussion it’s all about player’s duty of care to each other. There seems to be no focus on players duty to protect themselves as best as they can.

We saw it with Hickey and Cerra, I don’t want to make the assumption that he did it on purpose, but Cerra was not overly forceful, you’d have to wonder if the 104kg Hickey could do a bit more to not get brought to ground by the 87kg Cerra.

We also saw it with Hunter and Rozee. Hunter attacked the ball with correct technique, protecting himself, meanwhile Rozee slides in head first pretty recklessly and wins a free kick, and Hunter is rubbed out.

If the goal is to limit/prevent concussions, then surely we should not be rewarding players who intentionally put their head in harms way?
 
Shadow89 said:
I usually don't care about this stuff, but this is twice now that Neale has gone completely limp in the contest, and smacked his head into the ground.

The whole idea was to stop player's hitting their heads, but of course, inevitably, players are now drawing dangerous tackle free kicks, by going limp in the contest.

Neale has now got two players rubbed out, for the same offence...getting a little suspect for mine.

Is it really worth smacking your head into the ground just to draw a free? I wonder if the idiot MRO and AFL have asked themselves if there's a direct correlation between the massive increase in free kicks and suspensions, and the umpires now paying a free for it?

Some players are likely innocent, but the amount of players who are getting frees every week for this, is suspect to say the least.

None of these players are getting HIA's...yet the offending player is being rubbed out. The whole thing makes no f*cking sense - and it's getting worse every single week.

All of Parker, Cerra and Laird are gone this week...and we've already had more than 20 suspensions for the year for the same thing.

It's seriously enough already. Game is just f*cked at the moment.
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This generation watched Selwood forge a career out of milking frees and you're surprised they do it too?
 
I'm surprised more players haven't gone down the Darcy Byrne-Jones route. Grab the ball, and just run into the oppositions arm.

Unlikely to get concussed, and umps not compentent enough to ping the player.
 
Alfonz said:
Yep, massive problem now.

Add JOM to your list of players gone this week. Spargo put in a massive flop, driving himself into the turf, and JOM has been suspended. Could have cost Freo the game as well, as it gave Spargo a set shot which luckily he missed.

The giveaway is we never had all these players getting "slung" to the ground before the rule, and you can't tell me the tackling has changed all that much in the last couple of years.
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Let's not mention the Amiss dive 30m directly in front of goal but sure.

I agree regarding Neale. He has a free arm, he could protect himself. He's done it twice now.
 
danster168 said:
Let's not mention the Amiss dive 30m directly in front of goal but sure.

I agree regarding Neale. He has a free arm, he could protect himself. He's done it twice now.
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Lol you lot are so set on the dive. He launched at the ball and then fell when he collided with May. There wasn’t a push in the back but this supposed ‘dive’ was a genuine launch at the ball.
 
HugeJohnson said:
Based on this years previous suspensions, that's at least a week off any way you look at it. Jonas has been rubbed out twice for the same thing, Burton got suspended for two weeks and I reckon his tackle was safer than this one.
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Burton and Day both got 2 weeks for tackles less dangerous than the ones given one week.

As for OP, Selwood created head high contact literally a thousand times in his career. I assume you have a long history of posts calling it out and wanting the AFL to stop rewarding him ?
 
HairyO said:
Burton and Day both got 2 weeks for tackles less dangerous than the ones given one week.

As for OP, Selwood created head high contact literally a thousand times in his career. I assume you have a long history of posts calling it out and wanting the AFL to stop rewarding him ?
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Most of Selwood's early career incidents occurred from him being either tougher at the contest (throwing himself head first in to win contest), or rolling his arm up, to break the tackle. The difference between him and players who do it these days, is that he didn't look for the whistle, but rather was trying to break the tackle to win possession - and most often did.

I will admit though, once he crossed 30, he raised the shoulder more and lowered his centre of gravity, due to his skill level dropping and age contributing. He also looked for the whistle a lot more. It's why oppo players fairly criticised him in his latter years, rather than remembering him as an out and out champ with little flaw, because it got worse as he got older.

With all of this said though, in his last year, he got far fewer free kicks after umpires stopped rewarding it. Given the MRP has overturned Laird and Cerra's bans, it looks like there may be hope we can go in that direction too moving forward - rather than just favouring the player being tackled, over the tackler.
 
In my opinion the only truly unfair aspect of this rule is how it seems to make it impossible to bring down bigger players. How do you tackle Cripps, Bont, Petracca, Dangerfield to the ground unless you are absolutely ferocious as a smaller player.
 
Lachie Neale: Has limp tackle

got it loud and clear!!!! 😳
 
Shadow89 said:
Most of Selwood's early career incidents occurred from him being either tougher at the contest (throwing himself head first in to win contest), or rolling his arm up, to break the tackle. The difference between him and players who do it these days, is that he didn't look for the whistle, but rather was trying to break the tackle to win possession - and most often did.

I will admit though, once he crossed 30, he raised the shoulder more and lowered his centre of gravity, due to his skill level dropping and age contributing. He also looked for the whistle a lot more. It's why oppo players fairly criticised him in his latter years, rather than remembering him as an out and out champ with little flaw, because it got worse as he got older.

With all of this said though, in his last year, he got far fewer free kicks after umpires stopped rewarding it. Given the MRP has overturned Laird and Cerra's bans, it looks like there may be hope we can go in that direction too moving forward - rather than just favouring the player being tackled, over the tackler.
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Look, it's better when you just pretend you can't hear the criticism, because defence is futile.

"From 31 games in his past two seasons, Joel Selwood has received 49 head-high free kicks – 23 more than the next highest, Brisbane's Rhys Mathieson."

You wouldn't try to tell me Rhys Mathieson's head high free kick count came from his attack on the ball, or that Selwood simply went in 200% harder than every other player. Nobody's buying it, so don't bother selling. Great player, but he milked free kicks until the teets bled.
 
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