Jack Higgins’ three-match suspension for a dangerous tackle on Port Adelaide defender Aliir Aliir has been upheld after a marathon three and a half-hour Tribunal hearing.
Higgins’ tackle, which left Aliir with a concussion and ruled him out of the Power’s Showdown clash with Adelaide on Thursday night, was graded as careless conduct with severe impact and high contact by Match Review Officer Michael Christian.
The Saints argued the tackle should not be considered rough conduct, while also claiming ‘exceptional and compelling circumstances’ should be taken into account, saying Aliir was partly responsible for his head hitting the ground by attempting to kick the ball and citing his height and weight advantage over Higgins as contributing to the injury.
Speaking to the Tribunal, Higgins said he ‘can’t tackle a 95 kilo man to the ground’, saying Aliir’s body weight and momentum coming across his body led to him coming off balance and pulling the Port defender down.
“Even a Port Adelaide player said it was a good tackle and that I was stiff,” he added.
The Saints brought in biomechanist Dr Helen Bayne to give evidence that Aliir’s ‘angular momentum’ as he tried to kick the ball led to him being dragged down, though she said there was no certainty he wouldn’t have suffered the head knock even if he hadn’t made the attempt.
Saints counsel Adrian Anderson summed up their case by giving 10 reasons Higgins shouldn’t be suspended, which included Aliir being ‘taller, bigger and stronger’ than Higgins, that the Saint had no alternative in laying the tackle, and that the innocuous nature of the incident was reflected in no Power players remonstrating with him afterwards; while also claiming a dangerous tackle by GWS captain Toby Greene on Gold Coast’s Mac Andrew, which wasn’t cited by the MRO, was a far worst incident.
The AFL counter-argued that Higgins had made the tackle unsafe by holding onto Aliir’s arm and preventing him from being able to brace for contact, saying he should have foreseen an attempt to kick and claiming he’d failed in his duty of care by placing Aliir in a ‘vulnerable position’.
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“In other words, Higgins initiated the dangerous tackle and placed Aliir in a vulnerable position,” AFL counsel Nick Payne summed up.
In upholding the suspension, the Tribunal deemed the tackle ‘a clear case of rough conduct’.
“Higgins used a poor and dangerous technique tackling Aliir to ground,” the statement read.
“He grabbed hold of Aliir’s left arm and forcefully rotated him to ground. Higgins applied excessive force through a combination of dragging Aliir down by his left arm, while also using his bodyweight and right arm to help bring a bigger player to ground.
“Importantly, at no stage did Higgins release Aliir’s left arm as he was coming to ground so that Aliir had control of his arm and could try to use it to protect himself. Higgins had hold of Aliir’s arm in such a way that Aliir had no or little ability to use it to try to protect himself.
“A player exercising reasonable care would have released control of Aliir’s left arm to give him some opportunity to try to protect himself.”
The Tribunal also dismissed any case of exceptional circumstances that could have downgraded the sanction, and said Aliir’s contribution to his head hitting the ground was not sufficient to clear the Saints forward of responsibility.
Higgins will now miss the Saints’ matches against North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Fremantle.
Laurie
Roar Rookie
It's not easy to tackle a much taller opponent when your heart is pumping a thousand minutes per second.
Naughty's Headband
Roar Rookie
The umpire needs to blow the whistle for holding the ball when they've actually been caught. They now give the player 2 lots of prior opportunity; before they're tackled and after they're tackled. It takes far too long so the players feel they have to drag the opposition to the ground to prevent them from kicking or handballing, even though they've already been caught with the ball. This is 100% the AFL's fault.
RT
Roar Rookie
And it will reduce congestion and ball ups, two things the AFL love. (Instead of using the rules staring them in the face they come up with garbage like stand.)
RT
Roar Rookie
Even if Aliir did, Higgins was still pulling or pushing him to ground. Players need to stop dumping their opponents.
Wikipetia
Roar Rookie
we've created the circumstances where a full rugby style tackle is required to win a stoppage let alone a free kick. umps should just start paying holding the ball like they used to. this will encourage teams to dispose of the ball rather than have their larger players encouraged to take on tacklers. or knock it to advantage rather than take possession as a negative move i.e. knowing they won't dispose AND won't get pinged. this will reduce the number of tackles which will reduce the number of dangerous tackles which will reduce the number of concussions, other injuries - and suspensions the game will be faster and people will likely do more long kicking yay!
Curmudgeon1961
Roar Rookie
Or a Channel 7 eyelash flutter nickname favourite
junk
Roar Rookie
The Higgins problem is. in the tribunals opinion, that he not a good bloke and he is not a Brownlow prospect.
BillyW
Roar Rookie
It's beyond time for the afl to come out and say you can't grab a player below the elbow for any reason! I don't care what anyone says its not good technique and its dangerous.... I don't like dealing in hypertheticals but there's a good chance Higgins would have let go instinctively, for fear of giving away a free kick, and both players would be available to play this week...he probably still would have prevented legal disposal and won a free kick himself... Just like contact below the knees we need to leave the limbs alone! Shame we had to wait for someone to get hurt... over to you AFL....
Chancho
Roar Rookie
I don’t buy that Aliir kicking had anything to do with it. I know they had a biomechanist in, but if you watch he’s being pulled down to the left, and in the tackle it’s his left foot that’s planted and he’s kicking with his right. Even if he wasn’t trying to kick the ball his right would be off the ground as his body weight is over his left. Plus Aliir has to kick the ball under the rules, otherwise he’d give away a holding free kick right in front of goal
dargerovitch
Roar Rookie
This is a good example how a spur of the moment action has unintended consequences. The suggestion Higgins should have let go of Allir's arm so he could break his fall is unrealistic as it all happened so quickly. Looks to me Higgins tried to get his arm around Allir for an effective tackle but couldn't make it and just hung on to his arm as that's all he had hold of and had no idea in that nano-second his head would hit the ground. I suspect the three match suspension is a result of the concussion . I don't think Higgins was careless - he was just a desperate small player tackling a bigger one , getting it wrong with an unfortunate result. (I'm not a St. Kilda supporter.)