The Roar
The Roar

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Duncan deserves a suspension for breaking Hodge's arm

Four-time premiership Hawk Luke Hodge in action. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Expert
29th March, 2016
57
1050 Reads

In the past decade, the AFL has been pretty clear in its determination to make the game as safe as possible while maintaining most of the combativeness that makes it great. Some would even argue they’ve gone too far, and made the game an inferior one.

It’s perfectly legal for one player to hip and shoulder another, but it’s a gamble every time: get it wrong, make any contact with the head, and a suspension will follow.

Tackling will always be part of the game – and players have never been better at it – but the AFL, rightfully, has tried to stamped out slinging tackles that see defenceless players thrown head-first into the turf.

Both moves make sense. You can’t have human missiles launching at unsuspecting opponents and knocking them into next week. The same goes for tackling; players are too strong and their techniques too good to not put some kind of restriction on what they can and can’t do to a wrapped-up opponent.

It’s not just the head that’s being protected, though. Human straitjacket Cyril Rioli has been penalised for his chicken-wing method of pinning and pulling the arm of an opponent in a tackle.

Players are warned about charging recklessly into an opponent with his head down over the footy for fear of the damage that could be done. Time and again we hear about players owing each other a ‘duty of care’.

Where then was the duty of care shown by Geelong’s Mitch Duncan when he leapt into the air towards a vulnerable Luke Hodge and, rather than contest the ball, chose to tuck in and turn to protect himself?

Contrary to what some well-known football voices will have you believe, Duncan did not go for the ball – to do that, he would have needed to stick his hands out at some point – and now Hodge has a broken arm.

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“Duncan took his eyes off the footy,” the great Leigh Matthews said after taking a look at a replay.

It was a crap action, and Hodge was rightfully awarded a free kick, but should it have been more than that?

The match review panel didn’t think so: “Mitch Duncan cleared contact L Hodge. Contact was made between Duncan’s shoulder and Hodge’s arm and there was no forceful high contact made,” AFL spokesman Patrick Keane tweeted on Tuesday.

If one player bumps another who expects contact and breaks his arm, players and reasonable fans would think it’s just an unfortunate result to part of the game.

Jumping and bumping a player attempting a mark though? That’s not an accepted part of the game, which is why the umpire paid a free kick and reported Duncan on the day.

I got a text from a friend whom I went to the game with more than 24 hours later. The incident happened right in front of us and obviously she’d been thinking about it too:

“The tribunal should come down hard on Mitch Duncan for the Hodge incident. Just because it didn’t involve a head strike doesn’t make what he did any better. A broken bone is still a pretty serious injury. And he was totally negligent the way he went into that contest!”

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Not every illegal action needs to result in a suspension. Sometimes a free kick is appropriate, even if a player does get injured, but the AFL’s explanation that “there was no forceful high contact made” doesn’t cut it for me when a guy’s arm is broken.

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