Crow sent straight to AFL tribunal over nasty bump

Adelaide striker Shane McAdam is being sent back to the AFL court after his massive bump on GWS’ Jacob Wehr drew a rough driving charge.

McAdam is considering a minimum three-game ban, his bump ruled as reckless driving, severe impact and high contact.

The ‘severe impact’ rating separates him from Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett, whose own brutal bump on Western Bulldog Bailey Smith only drew a ‘high impact’ tag which allowed him to escape with a two-game ban .

Wehr passed a concussion test and returned to the field for the remainder of his win over the Crows, although that did not detract from the seriousness of McAdam’s charge.

Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury previously urged the AFL to eliminate unnecessary head-high bumps by punishing players based on action rather than result, after Sydney’s Pickett, McAdam and Lance Franklin all were penalized in the first round.

It comes at a time of heightened scrutiny, with concussion a hot topic in professional sport, with the AFL facing a class action lawsuit from former players.

Assessing the Pickett incident in particular, where the Melbourne forward jumped through the air and into the Bulldog’s head, Pendlebury asked if the ban was only for two weeks because Smith avoided injury.

Wehr and Collins were both assessed for concussions and cleared as Smith rose straight to his feet.

“Ours is completely results-based,” Pendlebury told Triple M radio.

“I think for years the question has been asked, ‘are we going to punish the result or the action and where do we live? And we always live in the result, punishing the result. With which, rightly or wrongly, I disagree.

“I think that should be the action that should be punished. These are not football actions.

“(When you go after someone like Pickett did), your intention is to hurt. This is not football action.

“I’m speaking for everyone in the game here, not those instances, but I think that’s something we need to get rid of in our game.

“But this discussion has been going on for five or six years… These non-football actions, I think we really need to treat them seriously and get out of our game.”

Pendlebury said he would also be in favor of “sin-binning” players like in the NRL.

Franklin’s ban for the Collins bump rules him out of the Swans’ clash with former club Hawthorn.

“Ten years ago Buddy wouldn’t even be looked at for this, but now it’s a week because we’re so keen on protecting the head,” Pendlebury said.

“I think we have to take this approach to everything.

“…the MRO, I don’t know if that’s a better system or a better way to look at it, (needs) to make sure we get rid of it and I don’t know if we get there for the moment .”

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