‘It should be a civil test’: Beveridge’s message to AFL as Bontempelli faces anxious wait

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has called for an easing up on the strict interpretation of the rules governing head knocks as his captain Marcus Bontempelli faces an anxious wait from the match review officer.

Bontempelli could be facing suspension for his collision with Port Adelaide’s Dan Houston on Friday night, although Beveridge wasn’t too concerned about him potentially copping a ban.

Bontempelli and Houston contested a loose ball early in the second quarter, but the latter came off second best after Bontempelli made heavy contact with his shoulder/head region, dazing the Port defender for a few seconds.

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Houston dusted himself off and resumed playing, but given the current climate surrounding head knocks in the AFL, especially hot on the heels of St Kilda forward Dan Butler’s one-week ban for his tackle on Sydney’s Nick Blakey on Thursday night, Bontempelli could be in trouble.

However, Beveridge viewed it as a “50-50 ball” that both players were fighting for.

Butler’s ban is further proof of how hard the league is cracking down on dangerous tackles, even if some of them don’t seem too dangerous to the average fan, and Beveridge believes the instigator’s intent should be strongly considered by the MRO before handing out suspensions.

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“Young Blakey hasn’t got the broadest shoulders. If he (Butler) is tackling a ruckman, then maybe his (Blakey’s) head doesn’t hit the ground,” Beveridge said.

“So you can be a bit stiff depending on who you tackle as well, so there’s all those variables.

“But, look, I’m a big believer that when we look at it, and even if we’re looking to evolve, is to really focus on if there’s any intent to actually hurt a player.

“And it probably should be the civil test, or the balance of probabilities – 51 per cent, no it didn’t look like he was trying to hurt him, then I think it’s OK because there’s accidents in sport.

“But it’s a challenge in our game at the moment and the package came out from the AFL around tackles and ultimately, you choose whether you show your players, because they’re just going to be unlucky if we keep going on the way we are.”

Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley thought players across the league had been adapting well to the strict interpretations, despite the sharp increase in suspensions this year.

“I think the game has been cleaned up for safety reason and I think that’s a great result and I think we’ve just got to understand that and we work with that,” Hinkley said.

“I think players, you can see it by the week, can’t you? You can see the tackle attempts, you can see players being more careful.

“The game is always played quite ferociously, we don’t need to make too much out of taking too much contact out of the game because these guys just go crazy at each other – they’re pretty brave the way they play.”

After starting the season 7-3, the Bulldogs find themselves in a hole, having lost their last three games, and could slip out of the top eight by the end of the round.

But just like his team did after they lost their first two games this year by a combined 101 points, Beveridge is confident that his team can turn things around in the second half of the season.

“Even in the last few weeks, the games have probably swung on decision and skill at times, and ours has been marginal and it’s hurt us,” Beveridge said.

“The series of games that we won, some of those games were pretty tight and we were able to do just enough right.

“So it’s not like we’re absolutely shooting the lights out, but the area that we had improved significantly was probably our defensive action and our team defence.

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve been challenged by three pretty good teams and we’ve worn it, so it just means that we’re below the upper rung at the moment and we’ve got to keep pursuing, trying to get up there.

“You can improve in this game in a very short space of time and I believe in our guys and I think we can find those increments.”

Meanwhile, Beveridge said he would “monitor” Arthur Jones during the week after the young forward failed to register a disposal from 68 per cent of game time.

“He put some pressure on, Artie, but it’s unusual to go through a whole game and not actually have a statistic with the Sherrin,” he said.

And Beveridge was confident that Alex Keath would be fit to face North Melbourne next week after spending a significant portion of the match being concussion-tested, before being cleared to return to the field.