‘Fortunate he didn’t flip him upside down’: Demon’s ‘really dangerous’ act amid alarming AFL trend

Melbourne forward Bayley Fritsch is likely to face scrutiny from the Match Review Officer for a tunnelling act that has become an alarming trend.

Melbourne forward Bayley Fritsch is likely to face scrutiny from the Match Review Officer for a tunnelling act that Fox Footy commentator Gerard Whateley believes has become an alarming trend at the start of this AFL season.

Geelong star Tom Stewart went up for a mark late in the third term against Melbourne on Friday night, only to receive some contact to his legs from Fritsch while in mid-air.

A free kick was immediately paid against Fritsch, with Stewart left less than impressed by the premiership Demon’s treatment.

You can watch the incident in the video above

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“That’s not what you want … That’s really dangerous from Bayley Fritsch,” Melbourne champion Garry Lyon told Fox Footy.

“That’ll be looked at (by the MRO) for sure. He’s very fortunate he didn’t flip Tom Stewart upside down.”

Whateley said Fritsch was looking at a fine.

“He’ll be writing a cheque for that, but we are edging towards a dangerous moment with tunnelling the way it has been in the early stages of this season.”

Post-game, the respected commentator said: “I fear we are inching towards something bad here.

“As matters stand, this will be a fine, I would expect.

“The players (and) the league ought to have a real think about this, and think about when this goes horribly wrong, what it’s going to end up looking like before it happens.”

Two weeks ago, Essendon’s Mason Redman was fined $1,000 for a tunnelling act against Adelaide’s Riley Thilthorpe.

“Under the current provisions it’s what it is,” Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph said.

“Do we need a Laura Kane memo? We don’t need a mid-season rule change, but how do we make sure, as Gerard says, something happens and we change it now.

“Maybe she just needs to put the memo out again — ‘we’re not changing the rules, but just a reminder here — something horrific could happen’.”

Whateley added: “We’ll get to a suspension by virtue of a serious injury. And that’s not it (a resolution).

“So, I do think this is one of those moments peer-to-peer — ‘don’t be doing that to opponents’. There’s all sorts of ways to contest and to be fierce and hard — don’t do that.”

Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley questioned the idea of penalising Fritsch’s act.

“This is a tremendously difficult game to play. It is in the margins, there’s increments ... I don’t know if that (act) is deliberate,” he said.

“(Fritsch) may have seen him late, so to penalise a player in a circumstance like that could be really difficult to hold up, given that there’s so many decisions that are being made.

“We’re making it pretty hard for the players.”

Originally published as ‘Fortunate he didn’t flip him upside down’: Demon’s ‘really dangerous’ act amid alarming AFL trend