In the midst of new dangerous tackle interpretations that are suspending stars of the AFL, Joey Montagna has called for umpires to blow the whistle quicker to limit tackles dumping players into the ground.
JOEY MONTAGNA ON DANGEROUS TACKLES:
“Players are wanting to bring players to ground, because if you let them stand up, and the umpire’s giving them a couple of seconds, a lot of players are good enough to make something happen out of that,” Joey said on Triple M’s Midweek Rub.
“That’s where I think the umpiring needs to help the players as well, blow the whistle quicker so that they’re not trying to force a player to ground to stop him from breaking out of that tackle.”
Zach Merrett and Taylor Adams were the latest recipients of suspensions under the ‘potential to cause serious injury’ clause that has graded slinging or dumping tackles as ‘dangerous’ by the MRO and Tribunal.
No player has successfully challenged a dangerous tackle charge at the tribunal this year.
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Daisy Thomas added that a players’ ability to fashion disposals in tackles is making it pointless to tackle around the hips.
“The old school where you’d go low at the hips and then players like Patty Cripps would just put their arms up and just get rid of the ball, there’s no point in applying that tackle so now you try to grab an arm,” he said.
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