‘Severe trauma’: AFL ‘asleep at the wheel’ as latest scary incident sparks calls for rule change

Two-time premiership Roo David King has doubled down on his calls for the AFL to stamp out the “horrific” act of pushing a player into a pack as Giant Kieren Briggs became the fifth player injured in a matter of weeks.

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Briggs was stretchered from ENGIE Stadium in a neck brace in sombre scenes on Sunday, after being pushed into a marking contest and colliding with teammate Sam Taylor.

The club later confirmed Briggs was taken to hospital with concussion and a possible neck injury.

“This is exactly what we are talking about … it doesn’t need to be the biggest of shoves. But the trauma it’s caused Kieren Briggs … is severe,” King lamented on First Crack.

“This you have to stamp out.

“We are trying to stamp concussions out – people will say this doesn’t happen very often. It’s happening a lot.

“The game has gone to a new level in terms of the speed; they are big frames, big bodies … we need to find any angle that we can take easily out of the game. This is one small rule change and it’s gone.”

The injury adds to the growing toll from the same pushing action in 2025 which includes Tiger Sam Lalor, Lion Brandon Starcevich, Bulldog Jordan Croft and Saint Mitch Owens.

“It’s been horrific – it’s a bad look for our game,” King said.

“They’ve been asleep at the wheel the AFL.

“I don’t care what we start with (penalty wise) because that player will change his behaviour – that’s all we need to do. Fire a warning shot.

“But to sit on your hands and say we don’t have a problem is wrong.”

Calling for an “obvious and easy correction” to start making the pusher liable, King wants to see change as soon as possible.

“We saw it three weeks ago with (Eagle) Reuben Ginbey,” he said of Lalor’s injury.

“This one to me said, ‘OK, let’s put a rule in place where we take this out of the game’.

“It’s unhealthy this factor in our game. I pleaded with the AFL to at least broach it with the players, the clubs.

“If someone’s injured, you’re in trouble – that’s as shallow as it needs to be. If you want to take the risk – the same as the bump – if you push someone into the pack and they are concussed, you will be heavily sanctioned whether it’s a suspension or a fine that elevates, I don’t care. But you’ve got to take it out of the game.

“When they said it wouldn’t happen again the AFL, we saw it again today.”

Vision shows Magpie Darcy Cameron making contact with Briggs to “nudge” him into the pack in a move that has “no malice”, according to AFL great Dermott Brereton.

“There’s no nastiness in it – but it ends up in a nasty result,” he said in Fox Footy commentary.

Fellow First Crack panellist Leigh Montagna said it was clear Cameron’s actions were different to that of a one-on-one marking contest.

“You do know as a player when there’s a pack coming and there are players converging,” he said.

“If that’s in a one-on-one on the wing, you know it’s not going to cause an injury (with the pushing action).

“The scenes of Briggs going in a neck brace, carted off in an ambulance is exactly the point Kingy’s been making.”

The loss of Briggs rocked an already injury-hit Giants who entered the match against Collingwood without the likes of Jake Riccardi, Jake Stringer, Tom Green and Jesse Hogan.

“Structurally that’ll have an impact,” Buckley said of Briggs’ injury.

Luckily for the Giants, Lachie Keeffe was able to move into the ruck role – in his first game since being delisted by the club at the end of 2024.