The AFL has reinforced it will penalise tackles that involve double moments, excessive rotation or driving an opponent into the ground after a month that has so far seen five players banned for dangerous tackles.
Zach Merrett and Taylor Adams both failed to overturn one-match bans for dangerous tackles this week at the AFL Tribunal.
In a memo sent to clubs on Thursday, the AFL once again emphasised the elements constituting a dangerous tackle.
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The memo also reminded clubs the Match Review Officer and AFL Tribunal “must factor the potential to cause injury” into its grading of impact, after several failed appeals attempted to have impact downgraded.
Former AFL football boss Brad Scott – now Essendon coach – insisted there was no doubt over what constituted a dangerous tackle.
“There’s not confusion. The AFL sent out absolute clarity again last night in terms of clarifying what constitutes a dangerous tackle and all the factors that go into that,” he said on Friday.
“But there was nothing new in that – that was clarification of what’s existing at the moment.
“But there’s a very big difference between understanding what is acceptable and what’s not, and executing that.
“I really feel for players who are trying to be aggressive in a tackle but yet show duty of care all at the same time. I think the players are clear, but they’re not clear on how to exactly execute that.
“So that’s going to be an ongoing discussion for the whole industry to address because we all agree that we don’t want to see players getting hurt, but we’ve also got to put some onus on the ball carrier that they’ve got a responsibility also to protect themselves.”
