SIMON Goodwin's strong advice to his Melbourne players is now an order – don't bump.
Kysaiah Pickett's two-week rough conduct ban for his high hit on Western Bulldogs opponent Bailey Smith has highlighted Goodwin's belief that the bump is dead in the AFL.
Adelaide forward Shane McAdam has been sent to the AFL Tribunal for his high bump on GWS' Jacob Wehr, where he faces a ban of at least three weeks.
"From my perspective, I think it is," Goodwin said.
"There's always the way you use your body with your shoulder in contest situations, but not in a bumping sense.
"Our game is about tackling, there's no need to bump. I think it is dead, yeah."
It is the third-straight March where Goodwin has said in the wake of a high-profile bumping incident that his players should eradicate bumping from their game.
Only this time, he was even more adamant.
"There is no element in the game where we should be bumping," he said.
"It just puts you in a situation that you don't want to be in.
"We certainly won't be encouraging our players to bump. We want them to tackle, we want them to play tough, contested footy."
Goodwin said Pickett and his teammates were reminded about the matter in the wake of his suspension.
"It's obviously an incident we don't like to see," he said.
"I was asked after the game whether I'd speak to Kozzy about the way he plays – I'm certainly not going to talk to him about the way he plays.
"I love the pressure he puts on, I love the intensity he plays with.
"But I did speak to our playing group, and Kozzy was involved in that, about the bump."
Goodwin said the game is played on instinct and bumps occasionally will still happen, but it is clear the consequences are too risky.
"We've spoken for a couple of years now about the bump. For a few years now the AFL has been pretty clear that if you choose to bump, there could be a situation in that you don't want to find yourself as a player," he said.
"So we'll try to limit that risk where we can – we want our player to tackle ... we want them to play tough, but we don't want them to bump in any situation that they don't need to be bumping in.
"Kozzy knows that, Kozzy knows he's probably got it wrong. Thankfully Bailey Smith was in a good place after the game and wasn't concussed.
But Goodwin does not see the need for the AFL to introduce a sin bin for such incidents.
"It just adds another complexity to the game that we don't need ... it just provides a bit more fuel for something to go wrong," he said.
Goodwin also confirmed that premiership stars Jack Viney (knee), Bayley Fritsch (foot), Steven May (calf) and Christian Salem (thyroid) would be available for selection against Brisbane on Friday night.
"Steven May, Jack Viney, Bayley Fritsch and Christian Salem will all be available, which is great for us. You know, they've had a couple of weeks of training and are ready to go," Goodwin said.
"Mayzy had that little calf that we've sort of been working through, but he's trained fully on Saturday, and we expect him to train fully today, and Viney is really started to increase his loads the last few weeks.
"So, we know the challenge that's in front of us heading up there to play against a high-quality side that did some things to us in that final that we'll be ready for. We’ve worked really hard over the summer to improve our own game in a whole range of different areas.”
