What will it take for the AFL to act?

Greg Swann put the heat on the umpires mid-season. It fell on deaf ears. Nothing’s changed.

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Perhaps it’s time for new AFL Commission chair Craig Drummond, who’s had his own leadership challenges recently, to act decisively on player safety before it’s too late and demand change, just as Mike Fitzpatrick did 20 years ago.

Fitzpatrick picked up the phone and demanded of the then-AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson: “Adrian, stop the push in the backs!”

When the rule was introduced, putting hands on the back in any way was illegal. After a few weeks of grizzling, the players adapted and flourished. The umpires had a simple decision to make: Were the hands in the back or not? Just like the grab the jumper or not. No one argues with the latter, the decision is black and white.

No one knew why it was changed back, but I’m sure no one envisioned the debacle it’s become today, for the rule was working perfectly. I can vividly remember Mike Sheahan’s expression and reaction to the shift on Fox Footy’s On The Couch, saying words to the effect of: “Why would they change it back? It’s working perfectly!”

Fitzpatrick’s motivation was that it was killing high marks, which is still true today. But there’s a far more urgent need: Player safety.

Ollie Henry of the Cats is pushed out of the contest. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

It was an incident involving Geelong forward Ollie Henry on Friday night — which you can watch in our video player above — that moved me to write this blunt column. Who didn’t gasp when they saw this unfold?

Henry, who was on a roll at the time against Fremantle, leapt a metre or more in the air. His opponent, Fremantle’s Heath Chapman, pushed him forward in the lower back, tunnelling Henry. It’s simply a reflex pushing action now from players, who’ve been conditioned to do it with impunity, due to poor umpiring for a decade.

This incident could well have paralysed Henry – or worse – had he rotated in the air slightly more and landed on his neck, fracturing his cervical vertebrae, compromising the spinal cord.

Enough is enough. It will end in tragedy.

That incident was the most dangerous thing I’ve seen on a footy field this year. It should’ve been a four-week ban.

Instead, Chapman was cited by the MRO and fined just $2500 for ‘rough conduct’ against Henry.

And in the main, silence has followed.

Ultimately, a suspension would be unfair due to the AFL’s inaction on so many other basic and dangerous incidents.

The push in the back has Gerard Healy fired up.Source: FOX SPORTS

The push is now so endemic it’s long been at a dangerous level.

It’s time for Swann to act over summer. He’s only got two choices, because someone is going to get badly injured. Or worse.

Either he replaces the umpires’ coach, who clearly can’t get it right, or preferably gets rid of the ridiculous hands in the back rule, full stop, which no one at present seems capable of coaching or adjudicating properly, much to the game’s demise. Watch old replays from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s and no one pushed habitually.

But the professional era has seen it coached into the playing cohort and allowed to evolve by poor umpiring into the mess it has become.

It was rampant again across the four qualifying/elimination finals.

If a forward plays against Hawthorn captain James Sicily from the front, you need your head read. Sicily, as well as Aliir Aliir, are the masters at exploiting the umpires’ confusion. I’d be very surprised if the Dockers didn’t seek serious clarification.

James Sicily of the Hawks on Freo’s Patrick Voss.Source: FOX SPORTS

Then in the two semi-finals, there were again many frees totally ignored, with too often commentators referring to players “nudging” opponents under the ball or saying nothing at all. The conditioning is complete.

There were a couple of standout ones, though, that need to be addressed.

If Matt Stevic got the axe for one bad call last week, Brett Rosebury should be nervous ahead of preliminary final selection. How from three metres away he could not assess an illegal push from big Lions ruckman Sam Draper straight into the back of Adelaide’s Riley Thilthorpe on Saturday night is staggering.

I use it as simply one example of so many others. It’s now so widespread, you can’t play in front of your opponent. You can’t bend over to pick up a ground ball because you just get shoved in the back with no protection from the umpiring department, as the rules and history dictate.

Sam Draper on Riley Thilthorpe.Source: FOX SPORTS

Ruckmen don’t want to take the front spot at boundary throw-ins for fear of being pushed – sorry, “nudged” – under the ball as they so often are. The result? They compete for the back spot and begin from 40m away, making throw-ins appear shallow too often.

Another example was Collingwood star Nick Daicos, who shoved Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli violently in the back in a wildcard contest a few weeks ago. No injury, no free kick, no report. He was lucky but one day the luck will run out.

Yes, they suspended a couple of players months ago and last year for reckless actions, but nothing has been consistently enforced. But the suspensions always come after an injury, not before with incidents like Chapman’s.

The bottom line is the behaviour hasn’t changed. It begins with the basic rule itself — and that’s where the change must begin.

So it’s over to the Commission, Swann and the umpiring department to act decisively and again ban any hands in the back, for they will be responsible for anyone who is injured.

Oliver Henry of the Cats is taken out of a marking contest by Heath Chapman of the Dockers. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

Henry is lucky that he’s standing upright today, but it’s only a matter of time before someone becomes a victim.

The high mark is the most spectacular element of our game and it needs protecting. Player safety, though, is an even higher priority.

I worked as a student in a spinal ward as a physiotherapist. It’s tragic to see people’s lives destroyed with a high cervical injury, confined to a bed and intubated for the rest of their days.

Is this what it will take for the game’s leaders to finally take the appropriate action?

A triple All-Australian, five-time club best and fairest winner and 1988 Brownlow Medallist, Gerard Healy is a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame. He played 211 games across stints with Melbourne and Sydney. He has been a commentator with Fox Footy for two decades.