Momentum is growing for the AFL to introduce an NRL-style send-off rule in the wake of Dan Houston’s bump on Izak Rankine in a fiery Showdown last week.
Rankine was left concussed and won’t feature again in 2024 after Houston laid a huge bump on the Crows star.
Rankine was immediately subbed out of the game, while Houston went on to be one of Port Adelaide’s most important players in the 22-point win.
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But should Houston have been allowed to play on?
“We must instantly change the rules to sit to be able to adjudicate when a player is knocked out by an illegal act,” Herald Sun journalist Mark Robinson said on Fox Footy’s AFL360.
“This in the NRL would be the straight up shoulder charge,” AFL360 co-host Gerard Whateley replied.
Robinson couldn’t understand why the AFL hasn’t taken a leaf out of the NRL’s book and introduced a send-off rule in order to avoid instances such as the Houston-Rankine one.
“I can’t understand why we don’t have shoulder charges in the AFL, but it’s really weird that a player can be knocked out and be spasming on the ground and the umpire in charge calls play on and now he might get six weeks,” Robinson said.
“How does that work? I think the AFL has done a lot to identify and try and eradicate head contact, but they’ve got to keep doing more. This is going to be worked on from here to kingdom come, they’ve got to address this situation.”
Houston, Ash head to AFL Tribunal | 01:59
Whateley believes there are some “really clear markers” as to what would constitute a send-off or red card.
“The year has given us a set of case studies, which is probably five or six now. If we did go along the path of a send-off rule, a red card, there’s some really clear markers of how this would apply,” Whateley said.
“You think it could gain momentum?” Robinson asked.
Whateley replied: “I do, I think you can logically build the case across the sequence of events from Peter Wright to this and go these are the incidents where it results in concussion, which is a definitive now, player out of the game and then you simply have to go, was it a reportable incident?”
“In every one of these instances where we’ve had three, four, five, six plus week suspensions, they’ve been really clearly identifiable, and it had a material impact on the game.
“Adelaide lost their cool as a result of a player being felled and there’s no restorative justice. I can see a world in the not too distant future, it’s not controversial in our game because it doesn’t change your 18 versus 18, you took my guy out so your guy goes and sits out the rest of the game as well, because this is clearly a reportable offence.”
Houston is set to front the AFL Tribunal tomorrow night.
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