Imagine if the AFl adjudicated high bumps the same way it adjudicates 'kicking in danger'. For the latter, it doesn't matter if you meant to hurt your opponent or just got your timing wrong, it also doesn't matter if you made contact with them or not. You've gone to kick the ball when there's a risk your foot will make contact with an opponent, tough.
If I ran the AFL, and you'll all be glad I don't, a deliberate bump that makes contact from the neck up would be an automatic suspension that clubs would not be able to contest at the tribunal (I'd like to see lawyers out of the game almost as much I want to see gambling out of it).
The AFL has to take a hardline from here on or it may as well add litigation costs to its annual budget.
But of course it won't stop concussions. Players will still fall awkwardly, bump heads... and now here's the hard part. Fans think getting rid of the high bump will ruin the game? Wait until you see your star player forced out for a month after a concussion, and then for the whole season after a second one in the same season. How about your club no longer being able to honour a player's contract if he gets a certain number of concussions in a set number of years, and he is obliged to retire?
Because that's where we're headed. We know one severe concussion can do permanent damage on its own, but the real damage is done from multiple concussions. And once you've got one, your risk of another is high for many weeks, even months, afterwards. I think the AFL's two week protocol will come to be seen as not sufficient to safeguard players' brains.
And if that's the case, trying to eliminate deliberate high hits becomes even more important, because that one bump could contribute to ruining your opponents season or even career.
The game will have to change, the AFL has no choice.
