Head High Bump, Kysaiah Pickett, Lance Franklin, Shane McAdam, Match Review, First Crack, David King, Concussion, Lawsuit, Contact, Tribunal

Kangaroo great kangaroo David King has blasted current penalties for brutal head-high kicks and believes short suspensions are “not a deterrent” for players.

King has appealed for the AFL to scrap their current match review matrix regarding head contact after Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett was just two weeks off with his bulldog bump against Bailey Smith, while Swan Lance Franklin received a one-match ban for his Contact was offered with Sun Sam Collins.

“I think it’s a bit like Retro Round what we saw this round and it’s disappointing to say that despite all the work we’ve done with protecting the head and all the issues we’ve had had with previous players, re. Concussion and head trauma and life changing situations that they’re in right now – we’re going to court in one form or another (and) it’s going to cost us millions of dollars – nothing has changed,” he continued First crack.

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“Absolutely nothing has changed.

“They tricked Kossie Pickett into hurting herself with real intent and that takes two weeks. There should be at least three, and if he knocks out the player, it would be six, seven, or eight.

“You have Buddy Franklin walking past the football looking for contact with the head of an opponent who gets a week.

“It’s not even a deterrent. One week? Buddy would take a week off just to spell and reload and leave again.

Referring to Shane McAdam’s brutal punch on Sunday, which saw young giant Jacob Wehr hit the turf, King said those types of clashes were just “old days.”

“Shane McAdam lines up, starts and takes a player out in the most gruesome way,” lamented King.

“Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, but it’s a perfect hit’ — those are the old days.

“Those days are over.

“Until we take this seriously from a criminal perspective, there is no deterrence at the moment.

“And I don’t care what your matrix says – ‘oh, we can only upgrade here to on purpose, do this and that, risk of injury’ – risk of injury gets us in court!

“When will the dime drop for MRO or the AFL that we have 200 ex-players suing the AFL because they can’t live their lives meaningfully in their 50s?”

King said it’s about time the AFL put headknocks in a completely different penalty category in the match review.

“Why don’t they just headbutt their own matrix?” he said.

“It gives Michael Christen an opportunity to say under the matrix that there are two, but we have to take a stance and give four.

“Some of those hits are very brutal and when they go into those bumps they don’t know what’s coming out the other side.

“A week for buddy? I mean come on!”

fellow First crack Panelist Leigh Montagna agreed that the bumps seen in Round 1 were something from years past.

“We haven’t seen actions like this in a while where players made a conscious choice to get off their feet and lunge at someone,” he said.

“It was a real surprise (Pickett’s two-game ban) so he’s a lucky guy who only has two weeks.”