MRP “medium impact” my ass!

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Players are still going to (and have already) change the way they tackle and in some cases that's for the better (Parnell for example).

I don't mind that they're targeting this, they've just gone overboard.

I got a really bad concussion as a junior where a guy twice the size pinned my arms and slammed me face first into the ground. I didn't black out which was probably a bad thing as I was unable to talk and tell the coaches that I was ****ed. They made me stay on the ground for the rest of the quarter and I ran around in circles.
 
Key reasons:

Players are taken to know if they rotate a player in a tackle so a player’s head is likely to collide with the ground with some force, they will likely have committed a dangerous tackle.

Rotational tackles can happen very quickly and the tackler is sometimes not the only person contributing to it being a rotating tackle. What is the tackler to do?

Every situation is different, but if a player slows instead of slinging, if he releases or doesn’t pin a defensive arm, all things being equal he may be demonstrating a reasonable attempt to avoid or minimise harm to his fellow player.

In our view, that slowing of momentum, that split second moment of care, contributed to Neale not being slung into the ground and being exposed to injury. The charge is dismissed.
 

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Key reasons:

Players are taken to know if they rotate a player in a tackle so a player’s head is likely to collide with the ground with some force, they will likely have committed a dangerous tackle.

Rotational tackles can happen very quickly and the tackler is sometimes not the only person contributing to it being a rotating tackle. What is the tackler to do?

Every situation is different, but if a player slows instead of slinging, if he releases or doesn’t pin a defensive arm, all things being equal he may be demonstrating a reasonable attempt to avoid or minimise harm to his fellow player.

In our view, that slowing of momentum, that split second moment of care, contributed to Neale not being slung into the ground and being exposed to injury. The charge is dismissed.
Now that’s a decent explanation and something Christian should follow from now on
 
Players are still going to (and have already) change the way they tackle and in some cases that's for the better (Parnell for example).

I don't mind that they're targeting this, they've just gone overboard.

I got a really bad concussion as a junior where a guy twice the size pinned my arms and slammed me face first into the ground. I didn't black out which was probably a bad thing as I was unable to talk and tell the coaches that I was ****ed. They made me stay on the ground for the rest of the quarter and I ran around in circles.
I had a brief concussion myself in a training drill. “Mildly dazed” was probably more the correct term as I was able to train fine afterwards. Anyway, I’m all for head protection and concussion prevention.

However, on the flip side, we don’t want to punish players excessively or unnecessarily, where it can be a detriment to the game and not aid in the concussion prevention. My angst on this particular issue is that “medium impact” shouldn’t even be mentioned in the 1-week suspension summary because there were no signs of injury whatsoever.
 
Players are still going to (and have already) change the way they tackle and in some cases that's for the better (Parnell for example).

I don't mind that they're targeting this, they've just gone overboard.

I got a really bad concussion as a junior where a guy twice the size pinned my arms and slammed me face first into the ground. I didn't black out which was probably a bad thing as I was unable to talk and tell the coaches that I was ****ed. They made me stay on the ground for the rest of the quarter and I ran around in circles.
Yeah, no issue suspending a player for q tackle where they injured a player or the player during the game or they had delayed concussion & missed the following week.

Problem is some players like Neale are playing for frees from sling tackles... & Christian can't tell the difference from this where a player wasn't injured nor likely to have been.
 
I don’t think he has any chance of getting off unfortunately. Thought on replay he was done and that seems to be the case.

The AFL are cracking down on these tackles and unlikely any of the 4 tonight get off - similar to the previous 16


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So happy to be wrong - changes the outlook for this weeks game


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While I’m glad he got off, they’ve now introduced probably the biggest grey area we have ever had in terms of suspension.
Tackling someone has a large percentage of outcome based upon what the person being tackled does, how are you as a tackler supposed to take this into account?
Bumping is easy, you chose to bump (and there is a choice) and get the head it’s your responsibility.
A player doesn’t have a reasonable choice to do anything other than tackle and then the outcome is then governed by the person being tackled and the tackler and the length unto which the umpire decides to blow the whistle.

It’s a contact sport there will be head contact, they need to accept this like a knee to the head in a marking contest, it’s just a football action accident.
Sanity prevails this time but it’s just made it more complicated.
 
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Great decision. If you demonstrate a duty of care to your opponent in the tackle then you get off. If you don’t you rightly get pinged.

Hope this sends a message to all players in all grades
 

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