AFLW clubs have been contacted by the AFL regarding the prevalence of dangerous tackles and head-high contact amid an uptick in free kicks and MRO citations this season.
The memo, which womens.afl has seen, states that player safety and duty of care is of paramount importance, and it is the shared responsibility of clubs, players, umpires, and the AFL itself.
It further notes that umpires are paying an average of seven correct high tackle free kicks per game.
Essendon forward Daria Bannister and Geelong midfielder Georgie Prespakis both received suspensions for dangerous tackles in round five - ruled out for one and two matches respectively - while Kiara Bowers, Courtney Hodder, Kate Surman and Haneen Zreika all received reprimands for the same offence.
Earlier in the season Demon Tayla Harris was suspended for one match for a dangerous tackle on St Kilda's Molly McDonald, who has since missed two games due to concussion.
Collingwood co-captain Steph Chiocci, who was tackled by Bannister, has been dealing with delayed onset concussion since the incident. Meanwhile St Kilda's Erin McKinnon, who was on the receiving end of Prespakis' tackle, has developed severe concussion symptoms and is likely to miss at least two matches.
While the majority of dangerous tackles have been classed as careless, low impact and high contact, for which players typically receive a reprimand for a first offence and progressively larger fines for subsequent offences, those tackles deemed medium and high impact incur suspensions.
So far this season, the MRO has cited 14 players for dangerous tackles across five rounds, on track to break last season's record of 16 citations.
Comparatively, across the first four seasons of the AFLW just two players were looked at for dangerous tackles: Katie Brennan, who ultimately missed the Western Bulldogs' premiership, and Richelle Cranston.
The AFL has been contacted for comment regarding the memo.
Collingwood captain Bri Davey appeared on the W Show on Thursday morning and said different clubs approached tackling differently.
“Teams talk a lot about pressure now and getting up to the opposition as quickly as possible,” Davey said.
“So they’re doing what they’re being told and what they’re being trained to do but controlling the tackle is something that they’re not quite executing as much this year.
“[Tackling training] is different from club to club, and some clubs really prioritise it and they might bring in a tackle coach or prioritise learning or practicing the skill of tackling.
“At Collingwood we do practice the skill of tackling and it’s something we dedicate part of the training session towards.
“You’d hope every team would be doing it as it’s such an important part of the game with duty of care, and we don’t want to see people going out with concussions and head injuries."
