AFL tackle crackdown analysed: From Shaun Burgoyne to James Sicily, how penalties have evolved
It’s almost three years to the day since the Cats played the Hawks on a Friday night, however a seemingly forgettable game featuring a seemingly forgettable moment set the tone that changed footy.
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The stands were empty when Shaun Burgoyne laid the tackle on Patrick Dangerfield which changed the game.
It was on a cold Friday night in Geelong on June 12, 2020 when Burgoyne pinned one of Dangerfield’s arms and slammed him into the turf so the side of the Cat’s head crashed into the ground.
Under the rules at the time, Burgoyne received a $1000 fine. Dangerfield played on after the tackle, so the rough conduct charge was graded only low impact.
But for former AFL operations manager Steve Hocking, it was the iceberg moment. The tipping point. The realisation things had to change.
And within 72 hours, the game’s footy boss made the bold call to alter the rules to strengthen the dangerous tackle penalties, and more seriously recognise the threat of head knocks and brain injuries in the game.
Simply, the league knew it had to make a greater effort to stamp out the tackles where players had their heads pounded into the ground, without any ability to protect themselves.
Like the punch and the elbow from a previous era, and the head-high bumps, the dangerous tackles were next on the AFL’s hit-list as the wave of concussion lawsuits loomed over the AFL.
This was ONLY a fine in 2020.
— AFLCENTRAL (@aflcentral1) June 14, 2023
How many weeks would it be in 2023? pic.twitter.com/NbKFT3nHob
Geelong and GWS great Steve Johnson was blunt about the true nature of tackling in the earlier part of his brilliant career.
“We were told — and this is probably going back 10 years — that if you get an opportunity to tackle a player to the ground with extra vigour, and hurt that player, that will be a win for the team,” Johnson said on Triple M.
And back in 2015, after former Blue Bryce Gibbs knocked out Port Adelaide great Robbie Gray in a tackle, former Port star Chad Wingard said the bigger the name, the more they were targeted.
“Gary Ablett cops it all the time. All the star players you try and rough up and tackle to the ground as hard as you can,“ Wingard said.
“It’s just unlucky he (Gray) had his arms pinned and couldn’t really brace himself.”
In other words, get footy’s big dogs when you can.
For Hocking, the problem with the league’s rules up until the Burgoyne case in 2020 was as simple as changing only one letter in the tribunal guidelines.
Previously, players had to pin both arms of an opponent in a tackle for the incident to be upgraded under the “potential to cause serious injury” clause, increasing the penalty.
Burgoyne had pinned only one of Dangerfield’s arms in the 2020 tackle which whipped him into the turf at GMHBA Stadium and, subsequently, copped a fine.
But Hocking knew players were at risk when only one arm was being held.
Three years later, it was the determining factor in the tribunal’s decision to uphold Hawk
James Sicily’s three-match ban for the tackle which divided the game over the past four days.
Jack Ziebell, a tough, at the ball footballer was criticised for not going at the ball or tackling an opposition player in a head on contest at the weekend.
— Nathan Buckley (@ncb_cfc) June 13, 2023
James Sicily wins a HTB free for what the commentator described as a great tackle. 3 weeks
This is the modern game 🤷â€â™‚ï¸
Gerard and Jordan speak on the complicated tribunal cases, including those of James Sicily and Dan Butler.
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) June 12, 2023
📺 Watch #AFL360 on @Foxtel CH 504 or stream via @kayosportshttps://t.co/7kvglvquIapic.twitter.com/Rr1RjCS7tZ
As much as it sent some fans into a spin and sparked fears for the game, tribunal chairperson Jeff Gleeson on Tuesday night clearly reinforced the Hocking rule change in 2020.
Back then, the AFL had to make a statement on head-slamming tackles, and take the game in a new direction. Football had to create a safer environment for players as concussion concerns grew.
Three days after the Burgoyne tackle, Hocking had received approval from the AFL Commission so that tribunal guideline section 4.3 (E) relating to rough conduct (dangerous tackles) will change from “arms” to “arm” being pinned.
It meant only one arm had to be trapped to upgrade the severity of the impact in a bid to bring the penalty more in-line with the action rather than the outcome (injury).
“We are pulling it right back to the action here (not the outcome),“ Hocking said in 2020.
“Dangerous tackles have the potential to cause serious head injuries.
“One of the things that was a frustration for us was that (the existing rules) didn’t capture all dangerous tackles. The potential to cause serious injury (upgrade) was only captured under spear tackles and pinned arms.
“Clearly over the weekend that was not the case. Dangerfield did get an arm free and moving forward we can capture all things with this strengthening.”
Nick Holman is free to play this weekend, Gold Coast have overturned his two-match ban for his tackle on Mitch Duncan. pic.twitter.com/jCAtzguwdJ
— 7AFL (@7AFL) May 25, 2021
Well………I’m aghast, completely dumbfounded. Our game is seriously at the crossroads between the reputation built globally over 100yrs & incompetent fools trying to put square pegs in round holes in an inexplicable attempt to appease “society†& exempt themselves of litigation
— Grant Thomas (@Thomo_Grant) June 14, 2023
It meant spear tackles, or slinging tackles, weren’t the only dangerous ones. The AFL had suddenly cast a much wider net on what a dangerous tackle was.
And Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews backed-in the new approach hard in 2021 after Nick Holman was cited for a chase-down dangerous tackle on concussed Cat Mitch Duncan.
“If any tackle causes the other player to hit his head on the turf, to me, that’s a careless, dangerous tackle,” Matthews said.
“That’s where we’re going, that’s the future.”
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said “it was obvious” the rules weren’t tough enough on tackles, setting in motion a domino effect which this year has resulted in almost one suspension a week in 2023.
While the rule change barely caused a ripple at the time, three years later the consequences are significant.
This season, the tone was set from the match review office in Round 2 when Richmond’s Nathan Broad was suspended for four matches for his dangerous tackle on Crow Patrick Parnell, and Port’s Ryan Burton was given a two-match ban for pounding Collingwood’s Jamie Elliott to the ground.
And almost every week another dangerous tackle has been booked.
Finding that right balance in a contact sport remains one of the game’s most divisive, and hotly-debated issues.
The football world erupted this week when Sicily’s three-match ban was upheld for the dangerous tackle which concussed Lion Hugh McCluggage at the MCG on Saturday.
There was a similar reaction only days earlier when Saint Dan Butler was cited for tackling Swan Nick Blakey from behind on Thursday night, toppling him over at speed so Blakey’s head, again, hit the ground.
Footy was either doomed or dead was the outcry, and again traditionalists lined up to criticise the decision to uphold Sicily’s ban on Tuesday night.
It has left clubs, players and fans feeling unsure about where the line stands in this frantic and brutal contact sport where the biggest hits and bumps are some of the most feted moments in the game.
Think Lion king Michael Voss on Alan Richardson and Adelaide’s Mark Ricciuto on Dean Kemp (both in 1996). Stan Magro on Alex Jesaulenko in 1979. Wrecking ball Byron Pickett.
But the shirtfront is long gone. This is about the tackle.
AFL greats, including Collingwood legend Tony Shaw, said the game’s bosses had to understand accidents happen in a game as physical and unpredictable as Australian Rules.
“Some things are unavoidable in our game and need to be adjudicated as such,” Shaw said.
Sydney Swans great Jude Bolton agreed. “There has to be an acceptable level of risk to play footy at the highest level,” Bolton said.
Former Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett said the Sicily verdict was “unreasonable and unfair” and tore at the fabric of the game.
“Football is in real trouble when a player now gets penalised for how an opponent falls after a tackle,” Kennett said.
“The penalty risks further changing the way the game is played.”
But here is the important clarity moving forward in footy’s muddiest puddle.
The tribunal’s decision to clear Butler for his momentum tackle from behind was an intriguing test case.
The tribunal verdict means head contact from momentum tackles (being chased down from a player coming from behind) could be OK moving forward.
It is the Sicily tackle, where the Hawks’ superstar holds onto McCluggage’s left arm that is the no-go zone. Pinning one arm left McCluggage vulnerable.
Just like Hocking said in 2020. This is exactly how he designed the new rule to work.
Tribunal chairperson said Gleeson said: “He (Sicily) could have released the left arm. Had he done so, McCluggage would not have been rotated across his body into the ground with such force.”
The big take out for clubs and the stars is don’t pin an arm if players are being taken to ground in a tackle.
McLachlan was adamant three years ago the tackle had to evolve for the players’ benefit and safety.
And match review officer Michael Christian has followed orders in recent years, gradually tightening the tackle threshold to meet the game’s demands.
“Protection of the head is our highest priority and we want all players at all levels and age groups to better understand that these tackles shouldn’t be part of our game,” McLachlan said.
In the email sent to clubs last week, the league showed 12 examples of players adjusting to the new tackle requirements, and being more careful and cautious.
In footy’s new age, players must decelerate, go lower or even let go in the tackle, the league said.
They showed how Saint Brad Hill released Blue George Hewett near the boundary line to avoid Hewett’s head hitting the ground.
Tackle to hurt? Not anymore.
“Over the past several weeks we have seen a noticeable change in tackling technique with players showing a greater level of care to their opponents as they tackle them to ground,” the AFL email said.
But the league knew there would always be speed bumps in the transition phase.
A period which perhaps began eight years ago when the alarm bells first began to ring over the Gibbs tackle on Gray at the MCG in Round 12, 2015.
Gibbs had both of Gray’s arms pinned when Gray’s head hit the turf like a sledgehammer. Out like a light, Gray was concussed and stretched off.
Gibbs was banned for two matches, despite some initial outcry about a “fair tackle”.
At the time, Wingard said those sort of tackles were OK, but history will disagree.
Three weeks later there was another bad one.
Port Adelaide’s Jay Schulz laid out Swan Ted Richards after pinning both of Richard’s arms and pounding him into the ground.
Richards laid motionless on the grass, afterwards.
The AFL initially cleared Schulz of any wrongdoing, before football boss Mark Evans made a big admission.
It was an embarrassing backflip. The league made a mistake not charging Schulz.
Richards was in a completely vulnerable position when he was slung to the ground, but the league’s match review panel (it was a panel rather than one person back then) let Schulz off.
“It has caused us a deal of concern on reflection over the last week,” Evans said.
The league was too soft on the tackle, something the game’s lawmakers knew they needed to change.
But it has been easier said than done.
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