David Mackay tribunal: Kevin Bartlett says Adelaide player can’t be suspended for Hunter Clark bump
One of the AFL’s most-outspoken rules critics says the league can’t suspend David Mackay for his hit on Hunter Clark under its own rules — here’s why.
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Footy great Kevin Bartlett believes Adelaide Crows veteran David Mackay cannot be suspended under the game’s current rules.
The AFL will push to have Mackay banned for three matches for carelessly engaging in rough conduct at the tribunal on Thursday night over his weekend collision with St Kilda’s Hunter Clark.
But Bartlett — an AFL Hall of Fame Legend and former Laws of the Game committee member — said Mackay did not make contact with Clarke outside the rules.
“My clear understanding has always been that if a person goes for the ball and has his arms outstretched to pick up the ball, and a collision takes place, then it’s incidental contact,” Bartlett told the Herald Sun.
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“It’s just an unfortunate incident – an intersection where two people meet at the same time doing exactly the same thing … and as long as you are going for the ball it doesn’t matter how hard you are going in for it or what speed you are going in for it. Now if they want to change that as a rule, well then they can change the rule … but they better tell everyone.”
Bartlett said he believed the AFL Tribunal could only adjudicate on the Mackay case on the rules that apply this season.
“I don’t think a tribunal makes rules on the run. They can only make a decision on the rules of the game that are in vogue. Tribunals don’t make changes to rules – they only act on what the rules are,” Bartlett said.
“So it will be fascinating to see whether they abide by the rules as most people would know it or whether they are going to bring a different interpretation to it.
“I’ve read some articles that say ‘he accelerated’. Well that’s what you do when you want to get to the ball first. You accelerate. That’s what you do – you try and get there first.”
Asked if a rule change would alter the fabric of the game, Bartlett said: “Everyone is concerned about head knocks and collisions, but it is a game where you have got 36 players on the field and there are going to be collisions at different stages.
“I mean at the moment, a person is allowed to jump up and take a mark and knee someone in the back of the head and everyone lauds the great, spectacular mark but at the same time someone has been kneed in the head. So do we look at that as part of protecting players?
“It’s always been a physical game, a contact game as long as you are going for the ball – now if you change that you change the whole fabric of the game.
“Do we want it not to be a contact game? If it’s not a contact game, well then it’s not what people know as Australian Rules football, it becomes a hybrid game. You can make it into a hybrid game if you want to … you can have AFLX if you want to with a small number of players on a large ground without tackling … but no-one watched it (AFLX) because it’s not Australian Rules football.”
The five-time premiership Tiger said Mackay’s actions paled when compared to the bump Richmond captain Trent Cotchin escaped suspension for in the 2017 preliminary final.
“At the time, I said, if you are going by the rules of the game he (Cotchin) is going to be suspended because he had his arm tucked in – but he did get off, and how he did I’m not quite certain,” Bartlett said.
EX-HAWK SAYS MACKAY BAN WILL CAUSE CHAOS
Rebecca Williams
Former Hawthorn hard nut Jordan Lewis warns “good luck” to players trying to navigate the fallout from the David Mackay bump if he is rubbed out by the AFL Tribunal on Thursday night.
The comments from Lewis came as his former premiership teammate and now St Kilda assistant coach Jarryd Roughead revealed the impact the Mackay bump had on Saint Hunter Clark, who had “two to three plates” inserted during surgery to repair his broken jaw from the incident.
Mackay was sent straight to the AFL Tribunal after his collision with Clark last Saturday night that has created wild debate this week.
The AFL is seeking a minimum three-game ban for carelessly engaging in rough conduct.
Roughead admitted he originally thought the incident was a “good bump” before he realised the severity of the impact on Clark, who is set to miss between six to eight weeks.
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“Poor Hunter, he had surgery the other day and I think he has got two or three plates in his jaw so he will be on a soup diet for a little bit,” Roughead told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“Purely off ground level and seeing it live, straight away I was like ‘good bump’ and then the next thing you are worried about is ‘Hunts’ because the docs and physios run out straight away and then you see the poor bugger walk off and come to the bench with his hood on and ice on his chin.
“From how quick it happened, I didn’t think much of it until after the game.”
Lewis described the outcome of the tribunal case as “fascinating” but warned fallout from a potential ban would create confusion for players.
“The ramifications in terms of the decision (Thursday) night and — this is just thinking about the Friday night game — to be a player and prepare for that game if the decision is that Mackay gets rubbed out, I am just trying to think as a player, how do you then approach what would be 50-100 times a game that sort of contest?,” Lewis said.
“Not at that velocity or anything but when the ball is on the ground and it’s a 50-50 chance to win the ball, good luck to the players trying to navigate that if the decision goes that there’s a suspension.
“I think it’s the unfortunate part of our game that someone has ended up really hurt.”
Bump on trial: Legends at odds on landmark case
Mark Robinson
Footy’s ultimate gladiator — AFL Legend Leigh Matthews — says David Mackay carries some liability for breaking the jaw of St Kilda’s Hunter Clark.
Matthews likens the Mackay hit on Clark to the incident in which Carlton’s Lachie Plowman crunched Hawthorn’s Jaeger O’Meara in Round 10 — a collision that cost the Blues two weeks.
Matthews is unsure if Mackay will be suspended by the AFL tribunal on Thursday night because, he says, the landmark case will be a test of the AFL rules more than anything.
“It’s about the players going at high speed who in the last second knows there’s contact coming and protect themselves, and in protecting yourself therefore the other guy is vulnerable and you’re less vulnerable in a way.
“It’s a matter of where the game thinks it sits and this is really what it’s all about.
“But I look at it as an ex-footballer and say, ‘who knows if there is contact coming’.
“Plowman knew and so did Mackay. O’Meara and Clark weren’t not looking at the contact, but the other two were looking exactly at the body and ball.
“Have they got some liability? Yeah, I say they have.”
Specifically on the Mackay incident, Matthews said: “If it’s an accepted accident then it isn’t guilty, but I don’t think it was a complete accident.’’
Mackay will front the tribunal on Thursday night to fight the AFL’s position that his hit on Clark was high contact, had caused severe impact and was “unreasonable in the circumstances” – even if he was contesting the ball.
In a divided economy, the popular opinion is that if Mackay is suspended the fabric of the game — the actual physical contest — will change forever.
“I’m a definitive no on that,’’ Matthews said.
“For instance, if it is deemed that Mackay’s duty of care wasn’t sufficient, and the other guy has a bad head knock and you created it — because he did create it — Mackay has to be conscious of where Clark’s body is.
“I don’t see that as changing the fabric of the game.
“What I call the deliberate rough stuff was more allowable back in the ’70s, ’80s and even the ’90s, and there’s virtually no deliberate violence now.
“But the game is still more dangerous than it’s ever been because the players are so big, so quick and strong.
“What Mackay did, that high speed into the contest, all the players do that.
“That was a little bit unusual in the ’70s and ’80s.
“The problem we’ve got is because we have these magnificent football athletes, and they play at such high speed, your incidental and accidental contact is more dangerous than the rough stuff of the old days.”
"I think it's absolutely ludicrous that it's been straight to the tribunal"
— Triple M Footy (@triplemfooty) June 15, 2021
Daisy Thomas is not a fan of the decision to send David Mackay to the tribunal for his bump on Hunter Clark. pic.twitter.com/mbF20YckjC
Matthews is not a campaigner to change rules, or the game, but supports duty of care, the protection of the head and the prevention of concussion.
“We spoke to Adam Simpson on 3AW and I think he said it best, that was, ‘I’m not sure where it sits today but we know where it’s all going’,” he said.
“Obviously it’s about head knocks.
“It was something we accepted as part of playing the game, but now we’re going into a different direction.
“I observe what’s going on with rugby league up here (Queensland) and it’s exactly the same thing.
“This (Mackay) has been sent to the tribunal because it tests the rules as they sit, and if the tribunal says, according to the rules, this is not a guilty offence, that’s when Steve Hocking and the AFL have to change the rules.
“I think eventually these kinds of incidents are going to be outlawed. That’s the direction we’re all going.”
A brutal competitor, Matthews has seen a groundswell of change since playing his first game for Hawthorn in 1969.
For the good of the future of the game, and for its participants, the Mackay clash had to be flagged.
“It’s a little unfortunate because I’ve come from a different era, but that’s where we are now with the whole concussion stuff,’’ he said.
The acceptance of change has to come, in part, from the “when we” brigade — the former players who often cast back to a time “when we played”.
“That point is really valid,” Matthews said.
“To play footy you’ve got to think of yourself as a bit like a gladiator.
“And when you’ve just finished playing footy you still think of yourself as gladiators, but I’m well past the gladiatorial aspect.
I think I might’ve found a loophole to get David Mackay off.
— Sean Craig Murphy (@seancraigmurphy) June 13, 2021
Thanks Luke Darcy.
Sorry @TDoedee31#weflyasonepic.twitter.com/VK3E15UaUp
“But when you think of yourself as a gladiator, you think the physical contact is just part of it.
“Sometimes, I think to myself, ‘I wonder if heavy physical contact sports will still be played in 50 years’.
“This sport has to survive. That’s the big picture. We have to find a level of contact which is less likely to support head contact.
“What the future holds is more certain to what the present holds.
“In the future, you won’t be able to do that (be in a collision like Mackay). That to me is obvious. It’s only a matter of a month or two, or a year to two.”
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