Robbo: Should Will Schofield’s hit on Dylan Shiel be worth more than a free kick?
The Polly Farmer concussion revelation have put bumping back on the agenda, with someone calling for it to be banned all together. Perhaps greater penalties for unnecessary bumping should be increased, Mark Robinson writes.
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This is the kind of bump the AFL wants to eradicate from the game.
It happened during the third quarter of Thursday night’s Marsh Series game between Essendon and West Coast in Perth.
Dylan Shiel was running down the wing and, with an Eagle opponent approaching at speed, delivered a handball to a teammate who was running parallel on the right.
Will Schofield bumped Shiel after he had off-loaded the ball.
A free kick was paid and the umpire paid advantage because the Bombers had the ball.
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Seconds later, a scuffle started behind the play because the bump was executed when Shiel didn’t have the ball and Shiel’s teammates though it was cheapish.
Why would they remonstrate if they thought it weren’t? Shiel was not injured, but he could’ve been.
What if Schofield’s timing and accuracy was marginally wrong and Shiel was hit in the head, knocked out and couldn’t play for two weeks?
We would collectively say that’s footy, which seems to be the standard answer to any physical contact.
Yes, a free kick was paid against Schofield, but the Bombers already had the ball and were attacking anyhow.
To discourage these sorts of hits, maybe the AFL has to add a 50m penalty to the free kick.
Maybe a match review charge of unnecessary contact with a potential to injure is an option? You might ask, what option did Schofield have?
Agreed, he couldn’t tackle Shiel because he would’ve given away the free kick.
But the alternative — which resulted in a free anyway — allowed Schofield to bump at speed a player who had a nanosecond to protect himself.
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So, it’s a free either way and as a consequence Schofield gets away with a cheap hit.
Fox Footy commentators Jordan Lewis and Garry Lyon had interesting takes.
Lewis said: “Here we see a player not looking and sometimes players try to check the run so they can’t run on and get the overlap handball.”
Lyon said: “That’s too aggressive. That’s a free kick. You’ve got every right to stand and make some contact so he doesn’t get involved in the next passage of play.
“That’s why they remonstrated with him. No head contact, there’s no problem other than giving a free kick away. Dylan Shiel does need to expect that contact.”
Good points, mainly about stopping Shiel running on and getting involved again.
But should Schofield be allowed a free hit on a player without the ball to stop that player getting involved in the next play? Is the action in doing that more important than the potential of the action to seriously injure Shiel?
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These questions should be asked after the Graham “Polly” Farmer brain injury revelations this week.
The AFL will say a free kick was paid and if Schofield had hit Shiel in the head, he would’ve been suspended.
Perhaps the AFL needs to be stronger, as premiership coach Mark Williams declared in the Herald Sun.
An MRP charge of unnecessary contact, plus a 50m penalty, plus a free kick, might be the sufficient deterrent.
Originally published as Robbo: Should Will Schofield’s hit on Dylan Shiel be worth more than a free kick?
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