By Andrew Wu, Jon Pierik and Vince Rugari
In today’s AFL Briefing, your daily wrap of footy news
- Carlton have been dealt another injury blow, with a key winger to miss the clash with Port Adelaide on Friday night.
- Tom Green has been reprimanded for comments he made about the tribunal and match review officer.
- Chris Fagan wants an overhaul of the league’s on-field concussion protocols and for umpires to have greater influence.
Blues hit by another injury, as battle for second spot intensifies
Andrew Wu
Carlton have been dealt another injury blow, with winger Blake Acres to miss the clash with Port Adelaide on Friday night.
Acres is the third Blue to be ruled out this week, joining star ruck Tom De Koning and defender Sam Durdin on the sidelines as the club aims to hold on to the all-important second spot.
Though cleared of damage to his foot, Acres was unable to beat the five-day break to get up this week. But the Blues are confident he will return for the following round’s blockbuster against Collingwood.
With his hard end-to-end running and ability to kick clutch goals, Acres has been an important, though underrated, cog in the Blues’ machine since crossing from Fremantle at the end of 2022.
His absence was not enough for youngster Jaxon Binns to come into the senior team despite amassing 47 possessions and booting three goals in the VFL. The Blues named running machine Matthew Cottrell on the wing.
Defender Mitch McGovern (hip) has returned from injury while backman Brodie Kemp comes back after one game in the VFL to partner Jacob Weitering in defence. As expected, Marc Pittonet was named to replace De Koning.
Carlton’s Blake Acres has been ruled out of the Blues’ clash with Port Adelaide due to a footy injury.Credit: Getty Images
Voss was encouraged by how midfield duo Adam Cerra and Matthew Kennedy performed in defence against North, but said it was unlikely the pair would stay in those posts with key personnel to return in coming weeks. The Blues then named Cerra on the half-back line, as they juggle having all their first-choice midfielders available - a rare occurrence under Voss’s reign.
The value of finishing second on the ladder would be magnified this year for the Blues, who risk heading to Brisbane or west to play Fremantle in a qualifying final should they slip to third or fourth. The Blues have held second since round 14, but losses to Greater Western Sydney and the Western Bulldogs have left them vulnerable.
‘Ruining the game’: AFL reprimands Giant over tribunal rant on podcast
Vince Rugari
The AFL has formally reprimanded Giants midfielder Tom Green for a scathing assessment of the league’s crackdown on dangerous tackles, which he said was “ruining the game” on an in-house club podcast.
Green is the eponymous star of the Giants’ In the Green Room podcast, and took aim at the AFL’s match review officer and tribunal on last week’s episode, which has since been removed by the club.
Reacting to teammate Toby Bedford’s controversial three-match suspension for a tackle on Richmond’s Tim Taranto – which the Giants had overturned on a legal technicality after the episode was recorded – Green said it was a “disgrace” that he was being so harshly punished for a “non-dirty” act which left Taranto “unfortunately concussed”, while Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters had punched him in the face in a match earlier in the year but escaped without sanction.
Tom Green of the Giants.Credit: Getty Images
“I don’t want to see him necessarily miss a game for that, but in terms of intent and what’s a bad look for the game, Zak Butters punched me in the face and didn’t miss any games,” Green said on the podcast.
“Is he going to miss six weeks if he punches me in the face and concussed me?
“There has to be an understanding that sometimes when we play a contact sport, bad things are going to happen. I don’t know what I can and can’t do. We’re changing the game from what it is.
“One of the reasons I love playing this game is because it’s contact. One of the reasons people love watching is because it’s contact. OzTag is not a massively viewed sport, is it? Next time I’ll tell [Bedford to] punch Tim in the face because then you won’t get rubbed out.
“My feel is that they are protecting themselves from a lawsuit in 30 years with the concussion stuff, but it is not fair, and it is ruining the game.”
Green was sent a please explain by the AFL and he offered an unreserved apology for his conduct, which the league said was in breach of AFL Rule 19.18(c) (Excessive, unfair, or unreasonable public comment and criticism), according to a statement on Thursday.
“[Green] acknowledged poor judgment on his behalf, with his actions falling below the standards of conduct expected by the GWS Giants and the AFL,” the statement said. “Green has been given a formal reprimand without further sanction.”
Earlier on Thursday, the Giants announced head coach Adam Kingsley has signed a three-year contract extension, keeping him tied to the club through to the end of 2028. The Giants face Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday night in a clash that will shape their bid for a finals berth.
Blues reprimanded, Crows in the clear
Jon Pierik and Andrew Wu
Carlton have been handed a reprimand by the AFL for their handling of Harry McKay’s concussion test last week, as the league strengthened on-field protocols around player welfare.
The AFL found the Blues had breached the league’s concussion protocols but did not fine the club as it accepted their doctors had been dealing with multiple pre-existing and concurrent injuries at the time.
In an AFL move designed to ensure scenarios such as that involving McKay do not occur again, football club bosses will now be sent real-time mandatory off-field assessment notifications from ARC medical spotters that doctors currently receive. The change comes into effect immediately.
Heavy hit: Carlton’s Harry McKay was slow to get back on his feet after copping a knock in the third quarter against North Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images
The football manager can then prioritise a doctor, or other club personnel, to remove the player from the field so they can receive care and assessment as soon as possible.
Clubs have also been told by the AFL to tell players they must comply with orders to leave the field for assessment after head knocks. The league will explore further the introduction of independent doctors at games as part of its review into existing concussion measures at the end of the year.
The Blues took several minutes to take McKay off the field for assessment, despite receiving a notification from medical spotters over the forward’s head knock.
But the league accepted Carlton’s doctors had not seen the incident live and were delayed in reviewing the ARC message and vision as they were treating injuries to Blake Acres and Sam Durdin.
There was a further short delay until the Blues reviewed the vision before doctors ordered for McKay to be taken from the field on the stroke of three-quarter time.
“Whilst the club was in breach of protocols on account of the short delays in removing McKay from the field, the AFL acknowledges the club’s explanation predominantly on account of Carlton’s doctors dealing with multiple pre-existing and concurrent injuries,” the league said in a statement.
Carlton coach Michael Voss had earlier said the Blues had been given the all-clear by the league.
“We were asked to put a series of events together in the way we saw it,” Voss said. “We were able to do that and they were comfortable with where that lies, so we move on. We’re comfortable we followed the protocols that we needed to.”
Adelaide have been cleared of any wrongdoing in their treatment of Jordan Dawson, whose head knock did not trigger a notification from medical spotters, but the investigation into Brisbane’s handling of star defender Harris Andrews is yet to be completed.
Andrews has been ruled out of this week’s Q-Clash against Gold Coast due to concussion from a contest the Lions say happened in the “final seconds” of their win over Sydney. Andrews had returned to the field only minutes earlier after passing mandatory off-field assessment, including a SCAT6 test, for a separate incident.
“There is no bigger priority than the health and safety of all players. We will continue to ensure our AFL and AFLW concussion protocols are followed,” AFL general counsel Stephen Meade said.
“We want to acknowledge the cooperation from all three clubs, and their shared view that player care is, at all times the priority.
“The updated process of informing the club GM Football will assist with the priority management on concussion care when the doctors are potentially managing other players at the time.
“The AFL will work with the respective medical experts at the end of the season on the continued updating of the AFL and AFLW concussion guidelines.
“In the meantime, it is incredibly important that clubs reiterate to their players that they must comply with club doctors, physiotherapists, trainers and runners who direct them to leave the field for assessment.”
Lions coach Chris Fagan wants an overhaul of the league’s on-field concussion protocols and for umpires to have greater influence, while the AFL Players’ Association backed calls for players to be assessed only after they have left the field.
Fagan, a veteran football department boss and coach, said it was time for change, and called for umpires to have full control on whether a player immediately left the field.
“What I would say about that, regardless of what happens, is I think there needs to be a better way to communicate what happens on field, so that decisions can be made more quickly,” Fagan said on Thursday.
“The umpires are miked up. Why can’t somebody who is watching the game and sees the vision, talks to the umpires, they stop the game [and say]: ‘That guy needs to go off’.
“That would take a lot of unnecessary inquiries, fines, all those things out of it. I think that’s what you need to do for clubs because I sit down on the bench every week, and it’s really hard to see whether a bloke has got a knock that could have caused a bit of concussion.
“I think we need to have an overhaul of the whole system to make it easier on clubs and take a bit of responsibility away from us, because I, as a coach, don’t get any say in the decision. I just get told that a player has got concussion and he is coming off. I don’t want to have any more say in that … because we know player safety comes first and foremost. I just think it’s a bit of a messy process at the moment and it could be tidied up a lot. All the lines of communication could be taken out - it could just be given to the umpires.”
Under Fagan’s plan, umpires would immediately stop play to allow a player they felt needed assessment to leave after a head knock. They would then undergo a 15-minute SCAT6 test.
As it stands, club doctors, often after reviewing replays in real time, and independent spotters in the league’s ARC, have the power to force players to leave the field for assessment.
AFL Players Association acting chief executive Regan Bunny said club doctors did not want to assess players on the field.
“The AFLPA shares the concerns raised by the AFL Doctors’ Association in relation to the difficulties in assessing players for potential head injuries on the field,” Bunny said.
“As such, the AFLPA supports the principle of removing players from the field to assess significant head injuries that occur during play. It’s critical that medical intervention, assessment and potential treatment occurs in an environment that allows doctors to effectively evaluate the people under their care.
“If this means temporarily stopping the match by officials or umpires to safely remove players in this situation, we are open to exploring this with the AFL and the AFLDA to understand the practicalities of doing so.
“Concussion is the biggest issue in the game so it’s vital we continually progress medical standards and processes to minimise risk and improve the identification of head knocks as much as possible.”
The AFLDA maintains it wants AFL-appointed independent medicos to assess concussions.
Concussion campaigner Peter Jess said players needed to leave the field immediately, and wants the AFL to adopt greater assessment using the King-Devick concussion test, which features rapid number reading and impairment tests. He also wants immediate blood tests which “track the proteins that are released when the brain is suffering trauma”.
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