Torquay teenage footballer receives four-week ban after dangerous tackle leaves Drysdale opponent in hospital

A junior football coach has relived the horrifying 40 minutes where he thought one of his under-16s players would be ‘a boy in a wheelchair’ after a dangerous tackle.

A teenager has been suspended for four weeks after “an MMA move on a footy field” put an opposition player in hospital.

A Drysdale under-16s player said “I can’t feel my legs” after a Torquay opponent pinned his arms in a tackle, lifted him off the ground and drove him into the ground.

Hawks coach Mark Wells said the child did not move for about 40 minutes after the ugly incident.

“He just didn’t move, not even his foot, not a twitch,” he said.

“The first thing that came into my mind was a picture of a boy in a wheelchair.

“What he did there could’ve had such a bigger impact on a kid’s life than what happens in a game of footy.”

Torquay president Jenny Wood said the club had dealt with the matter in-house and stressed that the club did not condone the action.

She said the club’s thoughts were with the injured Hawk as he recovers.

The AFL Barwon tribunal suspended the player for engaging in rough conduct.

Play was stopped during the match, with the player taken to the Geelong Hospital for scans, which cleared the teenager of permanent damage.

Wells said the players and spectators around the ground were “shocked” at the “violent” event.

“My initial reaction was ‘who goes in with that much intent to try and hurt somebody?’,” Wells said.

“You can’t put that much risk into a tackle where a child may never walk again.”

It was the first match of the season that Drysdale had an official umpire with first-aid training, who had advised parents not to move the child after the incident.

“We were so lucky to have that umpire there, all year we’ve been using volunteer umpires,” Wells said.

“If it had been a parent umpiring we might have tried to move Joey, but he wasn’t giving the umpire the responses he wanted to hear so he said we can’t move him.

“Who knows what sort of damage we could’ve caused if we had shifted Joey.”

The player spent 10 hours in hospital before he was cleared of any major injury, and he returned to training as a spectator on Monday.

It is unclear when he will be able to play football again.

Originally published as Torquay teenage footballer receives four-week ban after dangerous tackle leaves Drysdale opponent in hospital