Robbo: It’s time the AFL gets serious and suspends Carlton’s Zac Williams for his bump on Hunter Clark
Forget the outcome, if the AFL is serious about trying to lessen concussion in the game, it must suspend Williams for his act of aggression, says Mark Robinson.
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Heaven forbid in 30 years time we don’t read about Hunter Clark struggling with life.
It will be asked: What happened?
His wife will say he has depression because of the head knocks he took during his footy career. He sought treatment, but life just got too hard for him.
People will wonder which head knock in particular did the damage.
His wife will say not one specifically, a build up of hits over time.
Like, the night of the pre-season competition back in ’21, when Zac Williams jumped off the ground and crashed into his head.
Hunter had just got rid of the ball, he wasn’t expecting contact — and nor should he have — and wallop, Williams nailed him.
But there was no damage that night, right? No immediate concussion? He got up straight away? Played the game out?
Yep, but he did have headaches the next week and, worse, got another hit in the same area in ’23.
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You know, it all added up to a deep depression.
Oh, and what happened to Williams?
He was fined. Reckless, medium, blah, blah, blah.
A bit dramatic, you say?
Maybe, but let’s deal with facts.
Two former players have taken their lives in the past two years and many more are suffering from mental health because of head knocks from football.
The AFL in January announced changes to its concussion protocols for the 2021 season, the most notable being a player must sit out for at least 12 days if they suffer a concussion.
That is the outcome to concussion hits.
But the AFL has to deal with the source of these long-term issues - that is the hits themselves.
There are accidents in football which can’t be controlled or punished.
Williams’ action — off the ground, late, high — was anything but an accident.
He was the cause of the collision.
If the AFL is fair dinkum about trying to eradicate as much concussion from the game, and also the potential to cause concussion, it must not only send a message to the competition, it must make a statement for the greater good.
Williams should be suspended for two weeks minimum.
Let’s not run it through the matrix.
Let’s penalise the player for putting another player at risk via a reckless, dumb and half-malicious act of aggression.
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Make no mistake, Williams tried to hurt Clark.
Why else would he launch full body into Clark who could not protect himself?
That Clark was not hurt is not the point.
Attitudes have to change.
Older folk, and maybe even many of the younger folk, might say footy’s a tough game — that you ‘wear ’em and give ’em’.
True, footy is littered with these incidents and folk lore involving the game’s biggest names: Ablett, Matthews, Brereton, Lockett, Sheedy, Ditterich and Dyer.
They are looked upon, and often reverently, as being gladiators of their time.
But time has changed. And attitudes have to change.
Players crashing into another player to the delight of fans is yesteryear theatre.
Those same gladiators, some of whom have a powerful voice in today’s football, need to lead the change in attitude.
Williams should not be the poster boy for condemnation, but condemned he should be.
Not only for what happened on Thursday night, but for what might happen in 30 years’ time.
The head is more sacrosanct than ever before.
This is what the concussion experts tell us — concussion campaigner Peter Jess tells us every second week and the AFL tell us via annual press releases.
Stop telling and start doing, AFL. Williams gets two weeks.
If he does it again this season, it’s four weeks.
It’s time to get really fair dinkum on concussion.
For crisis support, please contact Lifeline at lifeline.org.au or 13 11 14, and Beyond Blue at beyondblue.org.au and 1300 22 4636
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Originally published as Robbo: It’s time the AFL gets serious and suspends Carlton’s Zac Williams for his bump on Hunter Clark
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