Spear Tackle on Morris

[one-eyed]

'Something wasn't right'
By Mark Conway
9:24 PM Tue 03 Jul, 2012


THE UMPIRE who awarded Taylor Walker a free kick despite a reckless tackle that led to his three-game ban, discussed his possible mistake with his fellow umpires on game day.

Umpire Shane McInerney, who penalised Tiger Steven Morris for holding the ball in the incident despite him landing heavily on his head, admits he got the decision wrong and was out of position when making the call.

The issue was immediately raised after the final quarter within the umpiring group, who then lodged a notice of investigation with the Match Review Panel that led to Walker's sanction.

"Any incident that happens we'll have a talk about at the next break among the group and we felt after the game that there were enough cues that said something wasn't right about that tackle," McInerney told AFL.com.au's program It's Your Call.

"We can only pay what we see. The tackle does move quickly, one moment you're in good position and the next minute you're not.

"What we see from the cameras is that it is clearly a free kick and if we were to see that on the day we would pay it as such."

McInerney expanded on the indicators umpires rely on when making decisions.

"There are cues we can use. In this instance, Morris' legs do go above the horizontal [but] he does get straight back up and it is interesting to note when the Tigers' players came in to remonstrate they don't remonstrate with Walker, they remonstrate with the other Adelaide players."

Morris suffered neck stiffness and pain down one side of his body following the tackle but had scans on Monday that cleared him of structural damage.

McInerney, a 19-year veteran of the profession, said the biggest change in his career has been the increase in the "degree of accountability" for umpires.

"When I first started half the games we're covered by TV, now every game is covered and even on game day we have grounds with electronic scoreboards where they can show replays," McInerney said.

Watch McInerney and umpires boss Jeff Gieschen discuss more contentious decisions from round 14 including whether umpires were given specific instruction to focus on players throwing the ball after last week's furore.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/140348/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

Crows coach Brenton Sanderson admits Taylor Walker's spear tackle could have been dangerous

    Mark Stevens
    From: Herald Sun
    July 04, 2012

ADELAIDE coach Brenton Sanderson conceded Taylor Walker's controversial spear tackle on Richmond's Steven Morris could have been dangerous.

After Saturday's match, Sanderson described the tackle as "fantastic".

"Later, once we'd seen the replays, it was pretty clear it could have been dangerous," Sanderson said.

"When I was asked about Taylor's tackle straight after the game, I had only seen it live. He had won a free kick and a shot on goal and Morris jumped straight up."

Significantly, Sanderson stopped short of pointing the finger at Walker, who will miss the next three matches after the Crows accepted a ban offered by the match review panel.

"I'm not going to criticise Taylor. We want him and all our players to be aggressive," Sanderson said. "But we will continue to work on tackling technique."

A medical report provided by Richmond played a key role in the panel determining the impact suffered by Morris was "medium".

Morris had neck soreness, but yesterday said he appreciated Walker approaching him after the game and checking on his welfare.

"Life goes on," Morris said.

There is no suggestion the Tigers spiced up the medical report, but they were not in the mood to do the Crows any favours either after the events of late last season.

Football clubs have long memories and bad blood remains after the Crows were seen to have "dobbed" on Jake King after Round 23 last year.

King copped a two-match ban for a sling tackle on Andy Otten after slipping through the match review panel net.

The panel looked at the incident only after the Crows alerted them to it after the panel findings were released on the Monday.

Adelaide was forced to release a statement as the furore broke.

"The incident was mentioned in a discussion with an AFL official ... but it was certainly not our intention for any investigation to occur," Crows football operations manager Phil Harper said.

"In fact, we thought it was too late for that."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/crows-coach-brenton-sanderson-admits-taylor-walkers-spear-tackle-could-have-been-dangerous/story-e6frf9jf-1226416110666

[one-eyed]

Tiger keeps thoughts on tackle in-school
Martin Blake
July 4, 2012

STEVE Morris would have seen himself on television more in the past few days than in the rest of his life. That's the rub if you are a professional footballer (finally), and you are involved in the incident of the week, in this case the Taylor Walker spear tackle in Adelaide last Saturday afternoon.

Morris, Richmond's tough first-year defender, was surprised he did not receive a free kick for Walker's jarring tackle that sent him head-first into the AAMI Park turf early in the final quarter. In fact, he was pinged for holding the ball, a decision the AFL has admitted was incorrect.

In any case, Morris is moving on. ''I'm not going to comment on something like that, but I just was a little bit surprised that I didn't get the free kick at the time,'' he said yesterday. ''But we all make mistakes and you've got to move on to next week now.''

The television footage shows an angry Morris quickly gathering himself to remonstrate with Walker immediately after the tackle. But the ire towards the Crows' forward has subsided. ''You've got a split-second to make your decision and sometimes you don't get it quite right. I understand that. Taylor came up to me after the game and asked if I was OK and I appreciate that. Life goes on. There's certainly no grudge held on my part.''

Morris had neck soreness on Sunday and sought attention from the club doctor. As match review panel chairman Mark Fraser has acknowledged, that medical report from Richmond, and the fact Morris was sent for a CT scan, hurt Walker's case. The MRP upgraded the level of impact to medium; Walker copped a three-match holiday and some time to ponder his method of tackling.

Morris expects to play against Melbourne on Saturday. ''I pulled up a little bit sore. I spoke to the doctor after the game and again on Monday. I went in for some scans yesterday but I've been given the all clear. I'll hopefully train on Thursday, and be right to play on Saturday.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tiger-keeps-thoughts-on-tackle-inschool-20120703-21ffy.html#ixzz1zaHreFzm