AFL footy boss Laura Kane says the league is “comfortable” with its handling of concussion protocols after St Kilda ruckman Rowan Marshall’s controversial head knock incident against West Coast.
An AFL great said the contentious manner in which Marshall’s head-knock was dealt with “beggars belief” amid calls for a mid-season intervention by the league’s powerbrokers.
In the waning stages of Saturday afternoon’s clash with West Coast at Optus Stadium, St Kilda’s Marshall was on the receiving end of a hefty Bailey Williams knee to the back of his head.
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With mere minutes remaining in the game and a narrow lead to protect, the prominent ruckman brushed off a club doctor to stay in the thick of things.
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Marshall played out the remainder of St Kilda’s 14-point win in circumstances that have since drawn criticism.
Addressing the matter on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night, Kane said she’d been in contact with the Saints and emphasised the need for “efficient and effective communication” in instances such as Marshall’s, but ultimately didn’t see any major red flags.
“We want to make sure that club officials, doctors, players … and our umpires communicate appropriately. If there’s a situation where the umpires need to intervene in, they will,” she said.
“But in this case, it looks clunky on vision — we made that point to St Kilda — but in terms of concussion protocols, HIA and process, we are comfortable with it.”
Criticism of the incident included from Fox Footy’s On the Couch panel on Monday night.
“We’ve got to get it right; that’s how important it is,” Melbourne legend Garry Lyon began on Fox Footy.
“(Marshall) gets a knee to the back of the head. Clearly, it’s something you want to have a look at. That’s not a slight knock, that’s a fairdinkum knee to the back of the head.
“You need to have the doctor go to him, you need to have the doctor take time to assess where he sits, and we had this unfold in (a) manner that still beggars belief, for me.
“If he had a cramp, if he had a sore knee right now, the game would stop. We’ve watched that the last couple of years. It stops until they get up off the ground, they walk off and then (play) would recommence.
“But for a brain injury? Look at this — is this sufficient? ‘No, I’m right’. Thumbs up. The doctor — I’m not telling the doctor what to do — I would imagine the doctor says to the umpire ‘look, the last bloke I’m listening to right now is Rowan Marshall, so I’ll go and assess him, you just hold the game until I can get him away from here, and then you can recommence’.”
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Collingwood great Nathan Buckley voiced his thoughts, citing the discourse around a similar situation involving Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron in the late moments of the Cats’ Round 9 loss to Port Adelaide.
“We had this same conversation after Jeremy Cameron, I think it was about three or four weeks back,” Buckley said.
“(Fremantle coach) Justin Longmuir was asked on (AFL) 360 about it and he felt like he wanted the responsibility for the game being paused to be taken out of the (club) doctors’ hands, and to be put in an AFL doctor’s hands — an independent viewer.
“We’ve already known the advent of the microphones in the umpires’ ear — that guy needs to go off. And the game stops, he comes off, then the doctor does what he needs to do for his respective player, and then the (replacement) 18th player goes on and we start again.”
Lyon was adamant that the way Saturday’s events unfolded simply weren’t sufficient, particularly taking into account the changing attitudes regarding concussion in the game.
“There’s no world in which the doctor going to the bloke who’s been hit in the head — in this case, Rowan Marshall — and said ‘how’re you feeling’ and Marshall going like that (giving a thumbs-up),” he said.
“That ain’t cutting it anywhere in the world.”
AFL legend Jason Dunstall cited the blood rule as a comparable regulation.
“It should be no different to a blood rule,” Dunstall told On the Couch.
“If he says he’s got to come off for a HIA (Head Injury Assessment), stop the game, let a player replace so you’re not at a disadvantage, (and) get him off.”
There are calls for the AFL to step in and make the change that allows for independent doctors to force potentially affected players from the field for treatment.
Marshall wasn’t placed in the league’s 12-day concussion protocols following Saturday’s match, shaping to be available for selection when St Kilda hosts Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium in Round 13.
Source Agencies
