BRISBANE will not change its approach to tackling regardless of the outcome of Thursday afternoon's Appeals Board hearing for small forward Charlie Cameron, says coach Chris Fagan.
The Lions will attempt to overturn Cameron's three-match suspension for a front-on hit that left West Coast's Liam Duggan concussed on Sunday, before Greater Western Sydney tries its luck with Toby Bedford's ban later in the evening.
Speaking ahead of its main training session on Thursday morning, Fagan said there was genuine confusion among players and coaches about what constituted a legal tackle, saying the weekend's events had sent a "shockwave" through the competition.
However, he said he wouldn't be coaching any differently – for now.
"You can see by the reaction over the last 48 to 72 hours that there's a lot of confusion within playing ranks and within coaching ranks," Fagan said.
"Coaches don't know how to coach necessarily, the tackling now, and players not being sure if they do something, and it ends up in a concussion, that they'll end up in trouble.
"Hopefully over the course of time we'll learn something from it and things will be clearer going forward."
Fagan said players and coaches had adjusted quickly to eradicating high bumps and sling tackles over recent years, but thought the incidents from round 18 were a little different, saying accidents still occasionally happen in the game.
He said decisions were made in a split-second before slow-motion replays "turn it into something bigger than it actually is".
"That's probably the first time I've ever seen a perfectly executed front-on tackle end up where it's ended up, so that's new," he said.
"There's a lot of pressure on players and I don't want my blokes going out there second-guessing tackles, it's an instant action.
"If you see an opposition player about to get the ball, close the gap as quickly as you can and lay the tackle in a legal way.
"Don't give away a free kick and don't let the player get the ball out.
"That's how we coach it and that's how we should coach it.
"I don't want my players corralling and not putting the right amount of pressure on the opposition with the ball. For the time being, we won't be changing anything.
"We'll wait and see what happens, whether we have to coach it differently or not."
