Two dangerous tackles are going under the microscope at the AFL Appeals Board after a week of controversy and backlash from the footy world. Live below!
Brisbane are hoping to overturn Charlie Cameron’s three-match ban for a dangerous tackle that left Eagles captain Liam Duggan concussed.
Meanwhile, the Giants will be hoping Toby Bedford has his own three-match suspension overturned which was handed down after his tackle left Tiger Tim Taranto with concussion.
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Cameron tried to argue his driving tackle which concussed West Coast’s Liam Duggan was reasonable, claiming the Eagles’ co-captain was to blame for the backward momentum.
However, the Tribunal found Cameron acted unreasonably and drove Duggan forcefully backwards, a finding that has caused uproar across the AFL landscape.
“I must admit, I’m a bit stunned by that one… I think the Brisbane Lions would be absolutely filthy,” Sydney champion and Fox Footy expert Gerard Healy said on SEN Sportsday.
Former AFL superstar Wayne Carey took to X to say: “Charlie C gets three weeks for a tackle in that way is an absolute joke !! AFLPA do something please #bulls**t”
Sydney Swans champion Jude Bolton tweeted: “FFS. 3 weeks! Seriously… where are we at?”
Daniel Harford posted: “#absolutegarbage”.
‘Tackle is going the way of the bump’ | 00:37
Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown held grave concerns for the state of the game on Monday night’s episode of Fox Footy’s On the Couch.
“What has happened to our great game? It’s getting into troubling territory for me. It’s just astonishing, I know where we’re going as a game, we’re trying to protect the head but what in the hell is Toby Bedford meant to do? We are allowed to tackle in our game, I feel bad for Tim Taranto, but we are starting to eat in to the fabric of our game,” he said.
“I’m telling him ‘mate, don’t pursue and don’t tackle, I’d rather have you playing for us instead of missing the next three weeks’.
“Concussion crusaders, be careful what you wish for… this is a crossroads moment.”
CAMERON HEARING
Representing Brisbane, Chris Winneke KC said there were two grounds for the appeal:
– With their reliance on the Tribunal guidelines in preference to the laws of the game, Tribunal impermissibly prioritised the guidelines over the laws. The path of reasoning thus created a material error of law;
– The factual findings and conclusion of rough conduct were so unreasonable that no reasonable Tribunal could’ve reached the same findings and conclusion.
The Lions argued the Tribunal focused on how the rough conduct guidelines impact the offence, rather than first finding whether the tackle was a reportable offence, and “in effect put the cart before the horse”.
“The Tribunal applied the text of the guidelines as if they had legal force, which we say is an error of law … the guidelines are directory only,” Winneke said.
Appeal chairman Will Houghton KC asked what material effect this had on the Tribunal’s decision-making, with Winneke pointing to the rules which state the consideration of rough conduct must include “whether the conduct was likely to cause injury”.
“We say this tackle, the approach to the tackle and the actual tackle itself was a lawful tackle,” Winneke said.
“It’s not contact between members of the public in a supermarket. It’s between strong, fit people playing on a football field in a contact sport.”
The Lions also argued it was “fanciful” to suggest Cameron could’ve tried to sit Liam Duggan down in their tackle.
“This is a great game, Australian football, because it’s an incredibly skilled game with incredibly skilled players, who engage in conduct which by definition and requirement requires body-on-body contact,” Winneke said.
“There’ll be circumstances where players will suffer injury despite players exercising reasonable care. To find that Cameron did not exercise reasonable care was simply not open on the evidence.”
Lisa Hannon for the AFL said there was no error of law and the Appeals Board should ignore the suggestion the Tribunal only listened to the guidelines over the rules; and that even if the Tribunal did that, their approach would’ve been “no different” had it behaved differently.
Appeal chairman Houghton questioned the AFL’s case, that the Tribunal had considered the rules of the game and not just the guidelines, based on the Tribunal not mentioning the rules within its stated reasoning.
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Source Agencies
