Following Saturday’s sickening collision between Fremantle giant Aaron Sandilands and courageous Crow Phil Davis, this Monday’s Match Review Panel will take on added interest for the average fan as the ‘bump’ issue rears its head again.
Those watching the Fremantle-Adelaide match on Saturday would’ve been left stunned when 211cm, 123kg Sandilands cannoned into Davis at full speed late in the second term, leaving the Crow concussed on the Footy Park turf.
It was a brutal collision which left Davis completely out of it and in need of a stretcher. Reports from the changerooms said even by the final quarter, Davis still didn’t know who and where he was.
Interestingly, though, following the incident there was little retaliation from the Crows players, while the parochial Adelaide crowd paid little attention to booing Sandilands.
It’s fair to say there was little malice in the collision.
It was a marking contest, where Davis had courageously, but blindly, backed into Sandilands’ path. The big Freo ruckman did little wrong, except be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Nevertheless, the incident will inevitably come under the scrutiny of the Match Review Panel on Monday night, along with a few curious other bumps this weekend from Geelong’s Corey Enright and Carlton’s Jarrad Waite.
The outcomes of all three incidents will be monitored closely, as we try to make sense of the illegal bump interpretation which has troubled AFL footy in recent times.
But the Sandilands-Davis collision will take on greatest interest, as it was an incident which appeared unavoidable. On the other hand, it was brutal, leaving Davis with concussion.
Head injuries like this are the exact reason why the AFL changed its interpretation on legal and illegal bumps. After all, players getting concussed on a weekly basis is a bad image for the game.
Under the current interpretation, players can be charged with ‘rough conduct’ if forceful contact is made to another player’s head, accidentally or not, while bumping.
The wording of that criteria is damning for Sandilands, as unfair as that seems.
Fremantle may argue Sandilands wasn’t attempting to bump Davis. The incident wasn’t dissimilar to the sickening clash earlier in the season between Hawthorn’s Jordan Lewis and the Western Bulldogs’ Jarod Harbrow, which left the former concussed.
That incident rightfully went unpunished, with both players having their eyes on the footy.
The Match Review Panel, though, may deem Sandilands’ eyes weren’t solely on the footy, as he turned his body and made contact with Davis milliseconds after the young Crow took the mark.
But what was Sandilands supposed to do… cannon into Davis with no protection and risk personal injury?
Indeed, you hope the Match Review Panel can show some common sense and look beyond the specific wording behind the interpretation.
Of course, we want to protect the head, but footy is a contact sport and players will occasionally get hurt.
After all, there is a difference between a bump and a collision. One is intentional and one is accidental.
If Sandilands gets suspended for an accident like this, then the bumping interpretation needs to be revised… once again.
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