Brisbane’s Dayne Zorko calls out Hawthorn skipper James Sicily

The sight of a concussed teammate at the MCG on Saturday was hard to take for a former Brisbane Lions captain.

: Hugh McCluggage of the Lions lays injured at the MCG (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Brisbane veteran captain Dayne Zorko says he felt “sick” after a tackle laid by Hawthorn captain James Sicily on Saturday left Lions star Hugh McCluggage seriously concussed.

A week after West Coast’s Dom Sheed was criticised for calling out Collingwood’s Jordan DeGoey for a bump that earnt him a three match-suspension, Zorko said Sicily “got it wrong” in tackling McCluggage.

Sicily is staring a possible three-match ban after being referred directly to the AFL tribunal for the dangerous tackle.

McCluggage was immediately subbed out of Brisbane’s loss and Zorko, who didn’t play in the game due to his own suspension, said the tackle and the aftermath was hard to watch.

“Looking at the incident, it wasn’t great. I felt quite sick actually when I saw Hugh on the ground motionless,” he said on Monday.

Hugh McCluggage is helped from the MCG. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

“It was pretty hard to watch, I can’t imagine what his family and that were feeling like.

“That’s a tackle the AFL are trying to stamp out of the game. Every player is aware of that. You put players in vulnerable positions, they hit their head … clearly that’s an action that the AFL doesn’t like.

“Hugh is clearly going to be out with concussion this week and he said he had a bit of a sore neck as well, so that’s obviously not great signs.”

While Sheed said DeGoey should have got “one or two months”, Zorko was less inclined to say what Sicily’s penalty should be.

Zorko said players were struggling to adjust to the new crackdown on dangerous tackles.

“Heading to the AFL tribunal, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with that,” he told SEN Queensland.

“It’s hard as players when you’ve trained something your whole life and then in a split second they want us to change.

“There’s a little bit of a teething period and players are going to get it wrong and unfortunately for James he got it wrong on this occasion.”

Sicily will face the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night.