AFL review of tribunal may mean longer suspensions
SHANE EDWARDS is slowly making his way in his short but eventful AFL career.
The young Richmond quick has played 34 senior games for the Tigers -- more than half of them this year -- since being drafted from North Adelaide in 2006.
Edwards is one of an emerging crop of young Tiger tyros the club will look to to take it through to the next phase of coach Terry Wallace’s five-year plan, which has 2011 as its end point.
But Edwards may have already played a bigger, if unintentional, role in football in general and it could be just as significant and long-lasting to the safety of players for years to come.
The AFL is looking at placing a greater deterrent on players executing 'sling' tackles after several were made on players this season.
The catalyst came in Round 18 when Richmond played Geelong.
Edwards' head was slammed into the MCG turf in a ‘slinger’ executed by Cats defender Darren Milburn when not in possession of the ball in their match in August. The teenager was taken from the ground and suffered minor concussion.
Milburn went to the AFL tribunal and was offered a three-match ban for the tackle but his defence team successfully argued to have it downgraded on a technicality to one week’s suspension.
The rising trend of players making these tackles has moved the AFL to a review of the tribunal system with the league seemingly unhappy with the leniency of Milburn’s eventual suspension.
The league yesterday issued a memo to all AFL clubs canvassing their thoughts on the subject of sling tackles and penalties for those who execute them.
The AFL is looking at creating a separate category for dangerous tackles, removing the slinger from the domain of ‘rough conduct’, which could mean that any player making such a tackle, and knowing the opposition player does not have the ball, may face more time on the sidelines.
"As part of the review, we will be revisiting the adequacy of sanctions for this offence," Adrian Anderson, AFL football operations manager, said in the memo yesterday.
AFL Tribunal chairman David Jones is behind the push for a separate category for dangerous tackles.
"This case, to my mind, illustrates the need for the AFL to consider, when they do their review of the rules at the end of the year, introducing a specific offence for contact of this nature," Jones said.
DARREN MONCRIEFF
AboriginalFootball@westnet.com.au
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Last Modified on 16/10/2008 22:25