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AFL rules around dangerous tackles will again be put to the test, with Hawthorn’s Will Day and Geelong’s Gary Rohan set to challenge their respective suspensions.
Both players were charged with rough conduct over tackles in separate incidents during Monday’s clash at the MCG. Day was handed a two-match ban for his dump tackle on Brad Close, which was assessed as high impact.
Rohan’s sling tackle on Changkuoth Jiath was rated medium impact, resulting in a one-match ban. Both tackles were graded careless conduct and high contact after the heads of Close and Jiath hit the turf.
Day and Rohan are expected to have their tribunal hearings on Wednesday night. All forms of head-high contact have been in the spotlight this season amid an ongoing focus on concussion.
Richmond defender Nathan Broad was handed a four-match ban by the tribunal for his sling tackle on Adelaide’s Patrick Parnell, while Port Adelaide defender Ryan Burton accepted a two-match ban for his dump tackle on Collingwood’s Jamie Elliott.
Burton’s offence was graded at the same level as Day’s tackle on Close.
Meanwhile, Hawthorn big man Lloyd Meek has found an ally in Collingwood’s Mason Cox after he was fined $3000 for kneeing Geelong’s Mark Blicavs at a ruck contest.
Cats coach Chris Scott was furious, calling on the AFL to do more to stamp out the kneeing tactic, which he called “so dangerous” for players.
But Cox said on his podcast, The Mason Cox Show: “If you sit there and say we’re not allowed to put our knees up anymore, then what’s the point of the ruck contest? We might as well just have a ball up in the middle of (the ground).
“It’s jumping with your knee to protect yourself. That’s why (ruckmen) wear shin guards, because you know someone is going to be trying to literally injure you. You might break a rib. I’ve broken ribs … it’s part of being a ruckman.”
Geelong’s Rhys Stanley missed one match with a rib injury after he was kneed by Carlton’s Tom De Koning at a ruck contest in round two.
De Koning was offered a $3000 fine but challenged the ‘kneeing’ charge and had it dismissed by the tribunal.
Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron is the latest AFL target of racial abuse as a league investigation widens to include three clubs expressing disgust at vilification.
The AFL’s integrity unit is now probing cases of racist slurs directed at Cameron, Fremantle’s Michael Walters and Nathan Wilson, and Adelaide’s Izak Rankine.
All four Indigenous players were vilified on social media in the past two days. “This has to stop,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Tuesday night.
“It not only hurts the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players targeted but all Indigenous players and players of colour across the league as well as their families, their teammates and friends.
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“There is no place in our game for anyone who vilifies our players.”
(Photo by Jono Searle/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
Brisbane’s chief executive Greg Swann reported the abuse of Cameron to AFL hierarchy on a day when Fremantle and Adelaide expressed disgust at their players being racially vilified.
“I’m angry and disappointed that Charlie, and we as a footy club as well as an industry, have to constantly deal with this,” Swann said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“It’s cowardly behaviour, hiding behind social media and abusing and attacking our players.”
A Brisbane supporter saw racial abuse directed on Cameron on social media and reported it to authorities.
The Brisbane statement came just hours after Fremantle’s chief executive officer Simon Garlick detailed racist and homophobic abuse of Walters and Wilson.
The incident involving the Dockers came a day after Adelaide’s recruit Izak Rankine reported being racially abused on social media.
And the latest cases come only two weeks after Western Bulldogs forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was racially abused by a spectator and also online.
“This unnecessary and disgusting abuse should not happen and it saddens me, and everyone at our club, that it does,” Fremantle’s Garlick said in a statement.
“Individuals that hide behind fake accounts to hurt others are pathetic and we need to be able to curb this capability on social platforms. Enough is enough.”
Earlier Tuesday, Adelaide’s coach Matthew Nicks branded abuse of Rankine as a “cowardly act”.
“It’s just someone who is trying to hurt,” Nicks told reporters.
“If someone is going to the trouble of covering up their identity, it’s not an actual account, it’s never been used – to me that’s a sign that we’re not actually dealing with a human being, we are dealing with someone who is just trying to be divisive.”
Rankine’s teammates and Crows staff have rallied around the goalsneak, who returned to South Australia this season after spending three years at Gold Coast.
“He has got 100 per cent support from everyone at the footy club,” Nicks said.
“Things like this can bind you, a group come together, and we were able to show our support.”
Tarryn Thomas. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos)
North Melbourne say Tarryn Thomas is no closer to returning to the club as a social media post places the troubled AFL player in the spotlight.
North says it’s aware of a social media post made by Thomas on Monday night, but didn’t detail the nature of the post.
“Thomas has been away from the AFL program for the past three weeks and will continue to spend time away from the club,” North said in a statement on Tuesday night.
“The club continues to assess Thomas’ progress towards meeting club and community expectations.
“He has not made adequate progress to be returned into the club environment at this stage.”
In the video he appears to be driving down a highway with his legs up near the dashboard, away from the brake, with the caption “living my best life”.
The 23-year-old utility was last month indefinitely stood down by the Kangaroos for a second time amid concerns over his behaviour towards women.
Thomas has been told to stay away from the club until he makes progress in a respectful behaviour education program.
Thomas was charged in January with threatening to distribute an intimate image and last month faced court. The case will return to the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court on July 18.
In February, Thomas faced two counts of violating a court order, but those charges were subsequently dropped.
North were last month made aware of further allegations of inappropriate behaviour, which they reported to the AFL’s integrity unit.
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