AFL stands by Charlie Cameron and Toby Bedford bans after pair’s appeals win amid tackle shock wave

Shayne Hope, Justin Chadwick and Anna Harrington
The Nightly
The AFL has released a video of what it says are dangerous tackles after Charlie Cameron and Toby Bedford's bans were overturned on appeal.

The AFL has doubled-down on its controversial tackling ban policy after Brisbane Lions star Charlie Cameron and GWS tagger Toby Bedford had their respective three-match suspensions for rough conduct overturned on appeal.

In separate Appeal Board hearings on Thursday night, both players successfully argued the league’s Tribunal had made an error of law when upholding their bans two days earlier.

On Friday the league responded by standing by the decisions to ban the pair.

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“In the AFL’s view (shared by the independent AFL Tribunal on Tuesday) the tackles by Cameron and Bedford were dangerous tackles, principally because both of the tackled players had their arms pinned (resulting in vulnerability) and were additionally brought to ground with excessive force,” an AFL spokesperson said.

“But we accept the Appeal Board’s decisions, albeit that they were made on a legal technicality involving a perceived technical deficiency in the Tribunal’s reasons.

“The AFL will reflect on those reasons and will address the deficiency in the conduct of further Tribunal hearings this season. The AFL will also review the system at the end of the season, as we do every year.”

The AFL released two video packages highlighting what it deemed were dangerous and safe tackles.

The AFL has released a video of what it says are safe tackles after Charlie Cameron and Toby Bedford's bans were overturned on appeal.

“Over the course of season 2024, there have been 18,508 tackles so far, with only seven dangerous tackle suspensions. This means that only 0.04% of tackles have resulted in a suspension, with 99.96% of all tackles applied in 2024 effectively determined not to be dangerous tackles.

“In 2023 there were 26,439 tackles, and 32 dangerous tackle suspensions.

“Nevertheless, to help address any perceived uncertainty, the AFL will today release another instalment of tackling examples that highlight a selection of the vast majority of tackles that are safely executed by our skilled athletes week on week. Those examples will be sent to each AFL Club, including their AFLW and State League programs as well as publicly for the purpose of ongoing education on safe tackling.”

Cameron, who was initially charged over the tackle which left West Coast’s Liam Duggan concussed, is now free to play in the Lions’ clash with ladder-leaders Sydney on Sunday.

Brisbane argued the Tribunal “put the cart before the horse” during Cameron’s initial hearing by focusing on the Tribunal guidelines before determining whether the player had actually committed a reportable offence when tackling Duggan.

“The Tribunal reasoned backward from the conduct to conclude the conduct had a certain character to it,” Lions lawyer Chris Winneke said.

“We say it should’ve started by considering for itself what amounted to rough conduct.”

Winneke described Cameron’s actions as a “lawful tackle” according to the laws of the game, disputing the Tribunal’s assertion Cameron had driven Duggan back with “excessive force”.

Winneke said Cameron didn’t drive Duggan backwards at all, and it’s “simply wrong” Cameron’s actions turned a legal tackle into a dangerous one.

Cameron is free to play this weekend after an extraordinary turnaround.
Cameron is free to play this weekend after an extraordinary turnaround. Credit: Will Russell/AFL Photos/AFL Photos via Getty Images

AFL lawyer Lisa Hannon disputed Brisbane’s grounds for appeal, but the Appeal Board sided with the Lions.

Appeal Board chair Will Houghton said it is important the laws of the game have primacy over the Tribunal guidelines if there is any contradiction or inconsistency.

He ruled the Tribunal did not fully consider Law 18.7 when upholding Cameron’s ban.

“The Tribunal made a finding that the conduct of Cameron was unreasonable in the circumstances, however, what the Tribunal did not do was deal with the elements of the charge which is set out in the laws of Australian football,” Houghton said.

“Whilst we accept that the Tribunal found the conduct to be unreasonable, which is one element of the offence, it completely failed to consider the second critical element of the offence: that is, whether the conduct was likely to cause injury.

“Absent that consideration ... we consider that the Tribunal did fall into an error of law that had a material impact on its decision.”

In appealing Bedford’s suspension, GWS argued the tackle which left Richmond’s Tim Taranto concussed was not “careless conduct” under the Tribunal guidelines.

The Giants also took issue with the “severe” grading of the impact and disputed the AFL’s argument that there was an alternative way to tackle.

GWS lawyer Anais d’Arville did not originally plan to piggyback the Cameron decision but was able to use the same issue around Law 18.7 - specifically the “likely to cause injury” element - to his advantage.

“We accept that the Tribunal found unreasonable conduct, however, it made no finding about whether or not the conduct of player Bedford was likely to cause injury,” Houghton said.

Tim Taranto is tackled by Toby Bedford.
Tim Taranto is tackled by Toby Bedford. Credit: Michael Willson/AFL Photos/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Bedford is free to play in the Giants’ home clash with Gold Coast on Saturday.

GWS chief executive Dave Matthews said “common sense prevailed” in regards to the Bedford case.

Coach Adam Kingsley acknowledged the importance of protecting the head and taking actions to do so - but lamented the seemingly sudden “severe” grading of the two tackles.

“It feels like it was sprung upon, potentially that the outcome was a bit too severe and it was almost out of nowhere, given neither were really assessed as dangerous from the football public,” he said.

“A little bit more clarity around what’s deemed dangerous - and the goalposts shift on that, that’s fine - but prior warning is important.

“Not we think we’re tackling in a safe manner and all of a sudden we get penalised pretty significantly.

“I think that the gradings of dangerous tackles needs to be assessed as well. Three weeks for both of those tackles seemed a little extreme. And so that was probably a little bit of the the outcry from the public.”

GWS CEO David Matthews says “common sense” prevailed in the Toby Bedford tribunal case. (Belad Al-karkhey)

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was “relieved” when both cases were overturned, and lamented the current confusion around tackling.

“We’re in a spiral now where everyone’s confused,” he said.

“Whether or not we just have to accept that our game carries risk, we’re going to be in this constant confusion.

“I don’t think anyone’s any clearer. We’ve got to wade through the marsh, really, it’s a little bit murky. We’ll find our way through it together, but at the moment it’s pretty grey.

“It would have been a travesty if they had have missed any footy, let alone the length of the term originally handed down.

“So I’m really happy for those boys and it’s good for the game.”

The two cases caused what Brisbane coach Chris Fagan referred to earlier on Thursday as a “shock wave” for the competition.

But Fagan defiantly declared he won’t be telling his players to change their technique for the time being.

“You can see by the reaction over the last 48-72 hours that there’s a lot of confusion within playing ranks and coaching ranks,” he told reporters on Thursday morning.

“Coaches, we don’t necessarily know how to coach tackling now.

“Things like the sling tackle and driving guys into the ground, we clearly know that’s out.

“We know you can’t bump (high) - if you hit them in the head that’s a problem.

“But what happened on the weekend was a little bit more of a shock wave.”

Richmond coach Adem Yze is thinking outside the box, looking to get help from NRL side Melbourne Storm in a bid to avoid his players falling victim to the AFL’s tackle crackdown.

The first-year Tigers boss has also consulted the club’s boxing coach, who has a martial arts background, on tackling technique.

“We’ve got to look at all those avenues because we’ve got habits that we’ve had as kids,” Yze said.

“It was always around pinning the arms and then taking them to ground.”

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