Will Day and Gary Rohan handed different bans over sling tackles

The AFL world has been left dumbfounded after two stars were handed different bans for doing effectively the same thing.

Will Day handed two-week ban

The AFL Match Review Officer has left footy fans seeing red after handing out his findings from the Easter Monday clash.

Geelong proved far too strong against Hawthorn, but it was two sling tackles that captured the attention of Michael Christian.

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Geelong’s Gary Rohan slung Changkouth Jiath to the turf midway through the second quarter while Hawthorn’s Will Day slammed Brad Close to the ground early in the third quarter.

Both incidents were assessed by Christian with Rohan being offered a one-week ban while Day was offered a two-week ban.

Day’s charge was graded as careless with high impact and high contact, Rohan’s was graded as medium impact rather than high.

Before we go any further, here’s the two tackles in question.

Will Day has been offered a two-match suspension for this tackle on Brad Close. pic.twitter.com/pzzaxP5oly

— AFL (@AFL) April 11, 2023

Gary Rohan has been offered a one-match suspension for this tackle on Changkuoth Jiath.

Full details: https://t.co/JjVEp60U0Tpic.twitter.com/8aYA33Z0J0

— AFL (@AFL) April 11, 2023

Shortly after the rulings were handed out footy fans were perplexed as to how differing suspensions were offered for effectively the same action.

The AFL has been strong on trying to remove sling tackles from the game with multiple stars handed suspensions in season 2023.

But it was the difference in bans for two sling tackles that had fans fuming over the MRO’s findings.

Former player Will Schofield summed up the feelings of most when the punishments were handed down.

“How on earth have those two tackles been penalised differently? Farcical at the MRP,” he wrote.

The Herald Sun’s Tim Michell wrote: “How can Will Day get double the Rohan penalty?”

Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton was equally as confused as to why Day received a harsher penalty than Rohan.

“He takes him down, there’s no sling there. It does look violent, the end bit of it, but he just takes him straight to ground,” Brereton said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.

“I don’t think either are intended to injure the opposition. The second one (Day), and people’ll say ‘ooh Hawthorn and Geelong (the rivalry)’, I couldn’t give a fat rat’s (about the teams involved).

“I just thought with the Rohan one, he (Jiath) got slung 270 degrees. The other one, he (Close) just went face-first. Pulled down hard. There was no sling in it.

“Is it dangerous? Probably is, so it’s a hard determination but I can’t understand how one’s worth two (weeks) - which I thought was the lesser (and one’s worth one).”

Will Day handed two-week ban

The Herald Sun’s Jon Ralph spoke about the tackles on Monday during Fox Footy’s coverage, labelling it the definition of what the AFL is trying to stamp out.

“Gary Rohan’s sling tackle is the absolute textbook definition of a tackle the AFL is trying to get out of the game,” Ralph said.

“You pin the arms, you have a secondary action and then you dump your opponent into the ground – and in this case the ball had gone.

“So the only question really the AFL has to answer is whether Jiath’s head hits the ground. It’s not immediately apparent from that angle there, but I think the secondary angle shows that it is more likely.

“So if Michael Christian can find any evidence there that his head hits the ground, he’ll do what he did with Luke Pedlar when he suspended him last week.”

Originally published as Will Day and Gary Rohan handed different bans over sling tackles