Alastair Clarkson says Hawk pair are duckers, fears serious injury and wants AFL to stamp it out

THE AFL has conceded Joel Selwood should not have been paid Monday’s contentious shrugging free kick as Alastair Clarkson declared war on ducking season.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has spoken to Hawk Paul Puopolo about ducking. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

THE AFL has conceded Joel Selwood should not have been paid Monday’s contentious shrugging free kick as Alastair Clarkson declared war on ducking season.

Clarkson lit the fuse for a weekend of debate when he said the AFL needed to outlaw the practice to protect players from themselves.

The controversial issue flared again when Joel Selwood received a free kick for a tackle from Ryan Burton which started well below his shoulders.

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But Selwood’s ability to shrug his shoulders and lean into the tackle meant he was rewarded a free kick as the tackle slipped high.

Clarkson wants umpires to call “play on” when players shrug their shoulders or drop their knees in a tackle, insisting the practice could lead to ongoing concussion problems.

Joel Selwood has come under fire for using his body to win free kicks for high contact. Picture: Getty Images

AFL umpires coach Hayden Kennedy told the Herald Sun the league’s whistle-blowers were determined not to hand free kicks to players milking high tackles.

The AFL’s crackdown last year made it clear any player who ducks, raises their arm or drops at the knees in a tackle should not be rewarded.

Kennedy conceded Burton’s tackle started at Selwood’s bicep, but said it was almost impossible for umpires to determine the starting point of tackles without the benefit of slow-motion replays.

Kennedy said the umpires could not go into games with pre-conceived beliefs about not paying free kicks to players with a reputation for ducking.

“We say to the umpires if it’s clear the player is responsible for the high tackle they should call ‘play on’,” he told the Herald Sun.

“There were two tackles in a row (from Burton on Selwood) and we called play on for the first one.

James Sicily was incensed by Selwood’s ducking free kick on Easter Monday, but Alastair Clarkson says the fiery Hawk is guilty of the same thing. Picture: Colleen Petch

“The second one if you go to the slow-mo it starts around the same area but the difficulty is around seeing where it starts in normal motion. That is the challenge for us at the moment.

“I can understand the umpire paying it but if you go to the slow motion you will find it probably started below the shoulder.”

Selwood is one of a number of players including Toby McLean, Rhys Mathieson, Luke Shuey, Paul Puopolo, Anthony Miles and Dylan Grimes with a reputation for the practice.

“I believe if we are actually fair dinkum about head injuries then we shouldn’t try to be providing extra protection for someone who contributes to the high contact,” a candid Clarkson said.

“All that is doing for me is encouraging more and more players to use that tactic.

“Joel’s had them himself. He’s going to keep playing like a bull in that sort of manner whilst he can continue to get those sorts of free kicks. He’s had 10 concussions in his career, or thereabouts.

“The concern isn’t for him right now. The concern is, for him and the game, in 10, 15, 20 years’ time, and if we want to do something about concussion, we should be policing the game in a manner that dropping the knees, shrugging the shoulders, raising the arm, ducking the head, all those sorts of things, we could get out of the game really, really quickly if we were fair dinkum about it.

“As we’re seeing in the (United) States, concussion is a significant issue. At the moment, we’re thinking that we’re protecting the player by paying a high free kick every time he drops his drops his knees or shrugs his shoulders. In actual fact, we’re not doing the game any good by doing that, or the player, to be fair.”

Alex Rance tackles Paul Puopolo around the neck.

Clarkson maintained it wasn’t solely Selwood who had used it as a tactic to draw free kicks, saying several of his own players, including Puopolo and James Sicily, had been counselled about doing it.

“We’ve spoken about Joel, which is a little bit unfair in a sense, because many players do it, and ‘Poppy’s’ probably a ripper for us. It’s the way they play the game,” Clarkson said.

“Poppy’s a little bit different because he’s a little bit shorter again. It’s still a natural sort of movement for his to shrug the shoulder and get low and he gets a lot of free kicks.

Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury had a contrary view, saying the onus was on the tackler to go in low and hard, as Levi Greenwood has done at times with Selwood.

I think it’s a bit of stupidity (from tacklers),” Pendlebury said on the Jock and Journo podcast.

“I just don’t get why people don’t tackle him around the hips, (because) absolutely it’s possible.”

“If you have a look at all of those tackles (from Hawthorn on Monday), they’re all hitting him here (high on the arm).

“If you hit him in the arms he is that strong he will go ‘whack’ (and lift his arms) and you get him high.

“If you know that, why do you keep doing it (tackling high)?”