The head is sacrosanct - but common sense needs to prevail

In past weeks there's been a focus on the West Coast Eagles receiving a lot of free kicks for high contact in tackles by causing the tacklers arms to slide above the shoulders. Somehow they do this by shrugging their shoulders, or lowering their bodies just before the tackle. Whether they cause the high contact is irrelevant in my opinion, as the tackler should not be anywhere near the shoulders.

West Coast Eagle's player Ashton Hams is caught high in a tackle

When I was a kid learning to play football, the coaches always told us to tackle the opposition around the hips. Now, I don't claim to be a football genius, but if you tackle around the hips there's very little chance that the arms can slide up around someone's neck. It seems that this basic fundamental of a tackle has been lost by quite a few teams, and rather than go "back-to-basics" (a typical football cliché) they are whining about the Eagles players "causing" high contact. There is another trend related to this that I find a little bit more worrying.

Following an horrific injury to Collingwood player Blake Caracella in 2006 where his neck was fractured in a collision while on the ground (no free-kick was paid) the AFL has been cracking down on high contact in all situations. Players have worked this to their advantage in recent seasons by turning their head towards oncoming opposition players, resulting in free kicks. I saw one player on the weekend (team and player slip my mind) pick up the ball, run straight at an opposition player and ram him with his head - and he was rewarded with a free kick!

There's a difference between courage and stupidity. Everyone used to think Jonathan Brown was courageous, but after his last 18 months most would think what he does on the footy field verges on stupidity. The same applies to throwing yourself head first into a contest. Geelong's Joel Selwood is highly regarded as the most courageous player in the game at the moment, but I believe he deserves to be listed in the stupid category. Whether he can still talk when he's in his 50's we will have to wait and see. Selwood is also regarded as the "pioneer" of the shoulder shrug that West Coast are now reported to be employing. He also lowers his knees and twists his body, and does not deserve half the free kicks he is given.

Two NFL players clash "helmets"

There has been a lot of talk in the American National Football League (NFL) about head injuries of late. The NFL is now fining players for head high hits after a spate of past player issues that are believed to be from head injuries incurred while they were playing. Several players have committed suicide, and there are rumours circulating that the depression and mental issues these players had been suffering had been caused by high numbers of concussions suffered during their playing careers. The head has been used as a weapon in the NFL with both offensive and defensive players using their helmet to batter the opposition. So far only defensive players have been fined though, as the offensive player is usually trying to catch the ball and is therefore defenceless.

In the AFL both players are generally going for the ball, and we are seeing players dive head first so they get hit in the head (although a few incidents recently have been feet and knees first, another issue for another day) and receive a free kick.

In my opinion, if you cause head high contact, it's on your own... head... and not a free kick. But in saying that, with the pace the game is played at it's really hard for an umpire to determine this at the distance they are from the contest. For those of watching from over the fence or on TV, coupled with the benefit of instant replays, it's much easier to see.
It's something we must work out a solution to - and we will, just like every other issue that has come up in our great game.