THERE is "no shame" in "having a quick look" before running back with the flight of the ball, North Melbourne coach Brad Scott said in the wake of the heavy collision between GWS star Jeremy Cameron and Brisbane defender Harris Andrews.
Talking broadly on courage in football following the Giants forward’s high hit on the promising Lions backman, Scott said he had seen first-hand the damage done to former teammate Jonathan Brown.
Cameron has been sent directly to the tribunal for the strike, which has been classified as intentional, severe impact and high contact, while Andrews is recuperating at his parents' house from a serious concussion and a small bleed on the brain.
"We laud players who keep their eye on the ball in the contest, but I think the flaw in that at the moment is we pillory players who have a look," Scott said on Fox Footy.
"I encourage our players to look before you leap. Look before you go back with the flight, there's no problem when the ball's in the air, having a quick look to see what's in front of you before you go.
"I'll never forget (former Brisbane coach) Leigh Matthews telling Jonathan Brown to stop going back with the flight, because he was concerned he was not only going to kill himself, but kill (fellow forward) Daniel Bradshaw as well.
"The courage is fantastic, but there's no shame in looking before you go if you have time."
By contrast, St Kilda coach Alan Richardson – appearing alongside Scott on AFL 360 on Monday night – said technique was key, but the team was proud of players who showed enormous courage when attempting to intercept the ball.
"Our technique is to look, but we want blokes to go, we want blokes to be prepared to sacrifice," Richardson said.
"Gavin Brown was a teammate I played with (at Collingwood), he was quite inspirational, Jonathan Brown not dissimilar. Jimmy Webster and (Jarryn) Geary do it for us and it's something we value."
Scott backed up Richardson's plea for proper technique.
"The technique part of it is critical. We want to teach kids how to do it," Scott said.
"I admired Glenn Archer when he went back with the flight of the ball, not only for his courage, but for his technique in how he did it. He was able to protect himself and very rarely got hurt, funnily enough, because he had a great technique."