Collingwood is sweating on the MRO findings which could put young bull Beau McCreery in doubt for the Magpies Round 24 blockbuster against traditional rivals Essendon and potentially a home Qualifying Final.
In the third quarter, McCreery claimed young Lion Darcy Wilmot and appeared to slam him into the Marvel Stadium turf with a free kick being awarded straight away from the non-controlling umpire.
“This could be trouble for McCreery,” commentator Brian Taylor immediately reacted on Channel 7.
“Is that deemed a dangerous tackle? I think so.” Taylor added.
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Wilmot played out the remainder of the game but the precedence and actions of the Match Review Officer this year would put the Collingwood youngster at risk of being suspended for the tackle.
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The Match Review Officer will first have to consider whether McCreery’s tackle was unreasonable in the circumstances.
Part of his deliberation could centre on whether Darcy Wilmot was in a vulnerable position with little opportunity to protect himself and whether he was slung, driven or rotated into the ground with excessive force.
“I think the only real question for the AFL is whether they suspend him for a week or two and two weeks would be him missing a qualifying final,” The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph said on Fox Footy.
“In this tackle with Darcy Wilmot, he has him in a vulnerable position, he pins one arm and he dumps him in a tackle that sees Darcy hit his head on the ground.
“Medium impact and careless impact would be a week.”
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A finding of careless conduct with medium impact and high contact would result in a one-match sanction, but the MRO has the ability to grade impact higher based on the potential to cause serious injury.
Grading the incident high impact would result in a two-match ban and a missed Qualifying Final for McCreery, barring a successful AFL Tribunal appeal.
Ralph compared McCreery’s tackle on Wilmot to Hawthorn’s Will Day’s tackle on Cats forward Brad Close from Easter Monday which saw the Hawks youngster suspended for two matches.
Day was handed a two match suspension by the Match review officer and was upheld at the AFL Tribunal, with the tribunal labelling the tackle an “inherently dangerous action”.
In that instance, the Tribunal said, there was “significant potential” for both a concussive injury and facial injury.
“The MRO and the Tribunal do seem to have softened since then,” Ralph continued.
“This is two arms pinned rather than one, you can maybe say that Day has a little bit more force there.
“He (McCreery) certainly has a case to answer.”
