Tom Lynch leaves the Adelaide Oval with a broken jaw following the collision with Jack Viney. Picture Simon Cross Source: Simon Cross / News Corp Australia
A LEADING sports doctor says the bump could be dumped before the start of next season.
Dr John Orchard, an associate professor at the University of Sydney and a co-author of the AFL's annual injury report, told the Herald Sun another two or three incidents like Jack Viney's could force the AFL to ban the hip and shoulder outright.
"I can't see the end game being anything other than a banning of the technique," Dr Orchard said yesterday.
JACK VINEY IS FREE TO PLAY
"If every bump from here to the end of the year is body on body and there's no head damage occurring then there won't be any further push — but each one that results in a concussion or a broken jaw puts the AFL one closer to needing to think of an outright ban."
Dr Orchard stressed that he was not speaking in his capacity with the AFL, but saw the writing on the wall as a sports medicine expert.
He said there were parallels with the NRL's contentious decision to ban the shoulder charge last year.
"The future of all football codes is to try to avoid concussions," he said.
"I can't see this debate occurring in five years ... another two or three in 2014 and you might be looking at it (being banned in the AFL) at the end of the season.
"We may be only one or two incidents away. What the AFL is going through now is very similar to what the NRL was going through two years ago in that there were multiple suspensions for shoulder charges.
"And the same arguments were being thrown up. In fact, the same surveys were being done of fans where 75 or 80 per cent of NRL fans wanted to keep it, and past players and coaches also wanted to keep it. But the NRL was facing this regular occurrence of a concussed player, plus or minus a broken jaw."
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Dr Orchard said shoulder and torso collisions to head were a common cause of concussion.
League figures released this week revealed at least 126 AFL players suffered concussion last year.
Sports lawyers have warned of possible class actions by former players suffering neurodegenerative conditions linked to head knocks.
"It's not like the Viney incident is a one off ... we seem to be getting a similar injury once every three weeks or so, and a higher percentage of players are getting pinged," Orchard said.
"We are tying ourselves in knots with the idea of what obligations do you have in those (bumping) situations? And if you are allowed to make that contact of shoulder/body to the other player, as everybody is pointing out, it's an unbelievably difficult to try to not hit the head.
"So you could simplify the situation by saying if the player has got the ball you are obligated to try make an arm tackle, rather than a shoulder tackle.
"And I think that is where it will go, because I can't see them rewinding the clock and saying we can accept concussions and broken jaws as unpreventable accidents. I can't see that being the position."
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