Why the AFL should stop Harry McKay from playing this Friday night

Harry McKay should not be playing in Friday night’s game against Port Adelaide.

A week after AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon declared player safety was “priority No.1, 2 and 3″, the decision to allow the Carlton forward to play seems a glaring contradiction.

Carlton’s Harry McKay on all fours after copping a knock in the third quarter against North Melbourne.Credit: Getty Images

McKay went down late in the third term following a head clash in a marking contest against North Melbourne on Sunday. He appeared dazed and completely out of it. Rather than leave the field immediately for a concussion test, he stayed in the action and kicked a goal just minutes later. The Blues’ doctors were in the rooms with another player at the time of the incident.

Although he was eventually checked off-field by Carlton’s medical staff – which copped a “please explain” from the AFL – McKay remained active and kicked his second goal of the game, helping to seal the victory against the Roos.

Coach Michael Voss defended the club’s handling of McKay, saying he went into the correct protocols but was cleared to keep playing. A Blues spokesperson confirmed McKay had since passed further tests.

But the fact that McKay has been cleared to play this week, despite such visible signs of a head injury, underscores a shocking inconsistency in the AFL’s concussion guidelines.

The league has a history of intervening in similar situations to enforce concussion protocols, even overriding experienced club medicos to protect player welfare.

In 2022, the league stopped Adelaide AFLW captain Chelsea Randall from playing in the club’s semi-final clash with Collingwood. This decision came after AFL specialists reviewed footage and deemed she needed to enter concussion protocols, even though the club’s doctors had cleared her to play.

Randall, who also missed the 2021 AFLW grand final due to concussion, was bemused at the ruling.

“It is frustrating, and I’m disappointed,” Randall told reporters. “Around the system and the process in place because, clinically, I was cleared of all of that, and I only found out late last night that the story had changed.”

In 2021, the AFL overruled Adelaide’s decision on defender Tom Doedee, forcing him to miss a week despite the club clearing him of concussion. Adelaide confirmed that Doedee’s injury, that led to his substitution, was from a knock to his body and not a head injury.

“He wasn’t actually concussed,” Crows assistant Scott Burns said at the time. “We didn’t take him out of the game because of concussion, but I think the AFL docs now can overrule or have their say. They were confident enough that there were concussion symptoms and they wanted him to have this week off.”

Doedee had initially reported blurred vision but said he had no concussion symptoms and he was “frustrated and angry” at the thought of missing a match.

At the time, I believed the AFL was setting a dangerous precedent in ruling players out over the top of club doctors. And it also raises concerns about how clubs and players could try to mask concussion injuries should they occur in a preliminary final, forcing the player to miss the grand final. But if that is the position the league takes, it must be applied consistently.

Last season, Port Adelaide were fined $100,000 for not testing defender Aliir Aliir before sending him back to the field after a heavy collision with teammate Lachie Jones in the round 20 Showdown.

Port Adelaide teammates Aliir Aliir and Lachie Jones collided in the Showdown last year.Credit: Fox Footy

At the time, the league’s legal counsel Stephen Meade declared: “The AFL concussion protocols are some of the most stringent that exist in world sport, however they require strict and consistent adherence to protect the health and safety of our players.

“In this instance Port Adelaide admitted that Aliir should have undergone SCAT5 testing at the time immediately following the collision on Saturday night. By not undertaking the test, and Aliir returning to the game without being subject to that further detailed assessment, Aliir’s wellbeing was potentially at increased risk.”

Given this strong trend from AFL House, consistency and safety principles would demand that McKay miss this round.

Instead, the league has been shooting itself in the foot with mixed messages on concussion in recent weeks.

The AFL’s “please explains” to three clubs this week highlight the concern in leaving difficult concussion questions on match-day to club doctors.

But is the AFL consistent itself?

The league intervened in the case of Lions co-captain Harris Andrews after the club initially cleared him following an incident in the third quarter against Sydney at the Gabba.

Lions coach Chris Fagan explained to AFL 360: “That incident at the time, it just looked like he got a hit in the ribs and was winded, so somebody back at AFL House obviously looking at it felt a different way about the incident. That’s, I think, how the communication arrived to us.”

Fagan confirmed Andrews suffered another knock in the dying stages of the game and will miss a week as a result of that incident, not the one the AFL was concerned about.

Why has the AFL not taken similar action with McKay? His dazed appearance following the head clash should have triggered immediate and stringent concussion protocols, preventing him from returning to the field and certainly ruling him out this week.

Why is the league apparently selective in its ability to override club doctors?

The AFL’s handling of McKay’s situation is confusing at best and completely hypocritical and dangerous at worst.

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