Geelong star Gary Ablett had been charged and offered a week suspension by the AFL Match Review Panel for a rough conduct charge for what commentators described as a good old fashioned hip and shoulder.
Geelong appealed the sanction and argued that if Ablett was suspended for the bump it would spell the end of hip and shoulder in the game.
The appeals board, which is made up of former players of the game, agreed and cleared the small forward. Ablett being cleared was the right decision.
AFL is a unique contact sport. It is one of the few sports in the world that has a player can expect contact from 360 degrees. The contact element is what makes our game so great. It sorts the men from the boys. If you are within 5m of the ball you can expect to have strong contact in our game.
Earlier in the season the debate about the bump flared after Daniel Giansiracusa clashed with the Saint’s Justin Koschitzke. Kosi was plain unlucky as he ended up with a fractured skull because the two clashed heads in the collision.
It was just one of those things. If the situation was replayed a number of times and the two players probably wouldn’t have clash heads, and both would have got up and played on.
The AFL Match Review Panel decided not charge the young Bulldog for the bump as the young Bulldog had not done anything outside of the rules.
It always seems that every time a player is injured or reported because of a bump it reignites the issue about whether there is a place for it in the sport. The bump is an integral part of the game and has to stay.
I understand concerns from various groups about the injuries and the message it sends to kids. There are rules in place to protect a player’s head and that is important, but in every match of AFL there are numerous collisions yet the injury rate is quite low when you consider this.
Football has been a contact sport for 100 years, and that is a major part of its appeal and I hope it continues like this for the next 100 years.
.
