It’s born of good intentions,clumsily realised. As awareness of concussion and related long-term injuries has grown,the premium on protection of the head has risen,steeply. The first shift,to outlaw and punish blatant attacks,was easy. Injuncting recklessness followed naturally. It was moving with society anyway.
Then the margin for error thinned. Earlier this season,in a borderline case,Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield could have pleaded that he had no choice in his late shirtfront of Adelaide’s Jake Kelly because he was already committed to the action,but did not. He accepted three matches.
Later,Carlton’s Lachie Plowman did try to overturn a two-match suspension for fractionally late and arguably unavoidable contact with Hawthorn’s Jaeger O’Meara. He failed. In each case,it was down to a slither of time. That seemed to be the line.
But Adelaide Crow David Mackay’s summons to the tribunal for his head-on meeting with St Kilda’s Hunter Clark looks to be a test case for a new threshold.
To most eyes,Mackay and Clark went from opposite directions with equal ferocity at the ball. They were peripherally aware of one another. Mackay wasn’t late. He got his hands on the ball just as Clark did.
It was inevitable that their bodies would collide,and not the exclusive fault of either player. As it happened,the body parts were Mackay’s shoulder and Clark’s jaw. It was an accident,of a kind that but for the grace of God could happen a dozen or 20 times every game.