“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” may be the most famous Beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount, but it has a dubious track record in Australian rules football, particularly when thoughts turn to September. But in one of the closest premiership races in recent memory, there may be something to be said for at least a hint of meekness when a harsh tackle or even a “tummy tap” or jumper punch can result in a suspension that could well cruel a club’s premiership hopes.
You would expect Tom Hawkins to be au courant of this this fine line after the Geelong spearhead was suspended for a jumper punch earlier in the year against Adelaide. Although after he went at Sydney’s Dane Rampe on Friday night, connecting with him just below the throat, maybe the message hasn’t quite got through. While the force will likely fall under the match review panel’s definition of “negligible”, it’s a risk his club can do without, particularly after Joel Selwood spent his weekend on crutches and has undergone surgery on his left ankle. He is likely to miss enough games for a Fox Footy three-day news-cycle with hourly dispatches on Selwood’s ankle delivered with the gravitas of Laurie Oakes reporting on a double dissolution.
The Cats’ midfield may also be missing Mitch Duncan for Saturday’s afternoon’s crucial match against a renascent Richmond after he swung his arm into the chest of Swan small forward Tom Papley. Again it will come down to the MRP’s definition of the force of the punch and its critique of Papley’s acting ability. A tummy punch could also interrupt Essendon’s claims on a finals berth after Zach Merrett connected a left fist into the stomach of Carlton’s Lachie Plowman. While the force of Merrett’s punch can be argued, his undisciplined action cannot. With just one game separating places fifth to 11th and just three games to play, the repercussion of an action such as Merrett’s can have consequences well beyond a week’s suspension.
Carlton’s Matthew Kruezer’s 30-watt memory of last weekend also demonstrates the impact of a dangerous tackle can go beyond a suspension. Although it wasn’t Kruezer’s concussion last week that was the issue, but Patrick Dangerfield’s chances of a second Brownlow that meant “the tackle” became an issue and therefore an argument as the AFL continues to deal with football’s difficult relationship with the human head.
And the issue was writ large again on the weekend just gone, with tackles by Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy and GWS’s Shane Mumford coming under scrutiny.
On Saturday night, Grundy pinned the arms of North Melbourne forward Ben Brown and drove him headfirst into the turf. Brown lay motionless for about a minute before medical staff hurried to his side to stabilise his neck. Meanwhile, in tune with the binary world of football popular opinion, Grundy was awarded with a free kick.
“I don’t think there was any malice in the tackle. He was tackling to dispossess, tackling to get the free kick the way the rules are written. So what more do you do?” asked Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley. “There’s a massive grey area there and we’re all swimming in it at the moment.”
While Buckley may be an erudite man who doesn’t retreat into the studied clusters of cliché that have become the soundtrack for AFL coaches, he may have gone a little far by referring to Grundy’s act “the perfect tackle” as Brown lay in a hospital bed.
Mumford’s effort on Melbourne debutant Corey Maynard will never be confused as “the perfect tackle” after he bounced the Demon’s head off a good length on the cricket pitch area in the ground’s middle – and this is before he put his shoulder into Max Gawn’s jaw during the third-quarter. Taken together, the two events will ensure the Giants have a testing month as they try to consolidate the double-chance without their primary ruckman.
Media this week on Grundy, Mumford and the crackdown on dangerous tackles will again rile the old guard who believe that masculinity by any definition is disappearing and that the AFL is run by men who don’t check the oil in their car and take yoga. But if there is a rivalry between the old guard and science, it is a mismatch. There is enough evidence – most of it as scary as hell – to say the head must be protected.
With that in mind, this is not about being meek – it is blessed are the smart. Don’t punch your opponent in the stomach and give away the posturing jumper punch. Yes, that tackles like Grundy’s aren’t malicious is problematic, but it is in the players’ own interests to be cognisant of the risks involved in pinning an opponent’s arms and leaving them unable to protect their head so to be aware of what day of the week it is when their playing days are over. Missing a critical game at the end of the season due to suspension may be harsh and consequential, but the threat of suspension is one of the few ways the AFL change a learned behaviour.
