Premiership coach Alastair Clarkson is puzzled by tackle rulings

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson says players could soon be prohibited from doing one thing amid a league-wide crackdown.

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson says the need to protect players may lead to a ban on pinning the arms while tackling. Picture: Michael Willson / Getty Images

North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson says players could soon be prohibited from pinning their opponent’s arms in tackles presenting an an “enormous dilemma” for the game amid a league-wide crackdown.

The premiership winner said he was perplexed by the suspensions handed down to players this season who had tackled their opponents to the ground in one motion – a different technique to the sling tackle that players are well aware they cannot execute without consequences.

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Essendon captain Zach Merrett and Collingwood’s Taylor Adams are both appealing one-match suspensions for tackles which led to their respective opponents’ head hitting the turf.

But Clarkson, now in charge of North Melbourne, said those incidents and the tackle by Hawthorn’s Will Day on Brad Close in round 4, which earned the Hawk a suspension, had confused players and coaches.

Zach Merrett has been offered a one-match suspension for this tackle on Tom Sparrow. pic.twitter.com/jhrDk4JElY

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“It’s a difficult one for the game, you’ve got these issues around concussion that they obviously need to be very, very mindful of, but we can’t lose sight of the fact of just how difficult our game is,” Clarkson said.

“In some of these incidents – the Will Day one from Hawthorn, he was just in the process of tackling a player, and if you’re tackling you’re sometimes going to lose balance.”

Alastair Clarkson says it’s a difficult issue. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The Kangaroos coach said the league may need to alter the umpires’ interpretation of a legal tackle if it continued to crack down on tackles where a player’s arms are pinned.

“The whole idea of tackling is to actually pin their arms so they can’t dispose of the football, because the ball is in their hands,” he said.

“So you want to pin the arms but if you pin their arms, there’s going to be a risk there if they fall to the ground because they lose balance, there’s sometimes going to be head contact with the ground.

“It’s nearly to the point where we’re going to say you can’t even tackle the arms now, because everyone who gets tackled and their arms pinned, they’re at risk of hitting their head on the ground.”

Collingwood’s Taylor Adams was given a one-man ban for a dangerous tackle. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

Clarkson said players and coaches faced an “enormous dilemma” on the field in addition the one posed by concussion concerns for players, and he said North Melbourne may need to adjust its training program due to the stricter MRO interpretation.

“It’s an enormous dilemma for the players and coaches just on how to go about it, because at the minute, we’re having three (suspensions) a week,” he said.

“It was very definitive what it looked like when there was two motions, grabbing a player and then slinging him, now these are just motions of actually tackling the player.

“80 per cent of the time the player gets away with it because the player doesn’t fall over and hit his head, 20 per cent of the time or less than the player is at significant risk … that’s going to be a challenge for everyone in the game.”

Originally published as Premiership coach Alastair Clarkson is puzzled by tackle rulings