Four-time premiership player Luke Hodge has called on the AFL to make an immediate change to the rules to ensure the safety of players following a farcical scene at Marvel Stadium on Friday night.
Richmond midfielder Jacob Hopper was left dazed when he was floored by a head clash with Western Bulldogs opponent Adam Treloar.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jacob Hopper goes down with head knock.
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Richmond’s doctor immediately rushed to Hopper to bring him off the ground.
“I think this could be a rest on the bench for a bit of a look at Hopper, (the) doctor’s out there with him,” Channel 7 commentator Brian Taylor noticed straight away.
But upon regaining his feet, the hard-nosed Tigers star insisted he was okay to stay on the field and play on. The doctor took Hopper’s word for it but, after returning to the bench and assessing a replay of the incident, he made the definitive call to take Hopper off the ground for a proper head injury assessment.
The only problem was: they couldn’t get him off the ground.
Runners who send messages to players are only allowed to enter the field of play after goals are kicked, and must be off the field by the time the ball is bounced to recommence play.
“Hopper, by the way, has run as far away as he can so he doesn’t have to come off. It’s hard for the doctors to get them off,” Taylor said as the Tigers tried desperately to get Hopper off the ground.
“It’s a difficult situation, because the player is saying, ‘I want to stay, I’m okay, doc’.”
Richmond great Matthew Richardson added: “Surely the runner can go out in this situation. You’re trying to get him off for a concussion protocol, the runner’s got to be able to go out there.”
Hodge made the point that Hopper may have been unaware.
“That’s the thing: Hopper probably doesn’t even know that he has to come off — his rotation could be at the 12-minute mark … so they’ll need someone to actually tell him,” Hodge said.
A goal was finally kicked by Marlion Pickett and the Tigers were able to get Hopper off the field for further assessment.
The hit occurred with 19:30 left on the clock in the second quarter but, by the time they finally got him off the ground, there was 15:29 left on the clock, meaning over five minutes of actual time had elapsed (including time-on) between the hit and when he got to the bench.
Discussing the gap in the rules at half time, Richardson and Hodge both agreed the rules need to be changed to allow clubs to get potentially injured players off the ground.
“The doctor went out there initially and spoke to him, he stayed out there, the doctor then came off, saw the vision, and then they had to hold up the sign to try and get him off the ground,” Richardson said.
“There were no goals either in that time, but surely the runner (should be able to) just run out there and grab him. If not, the doctor had to run out.”
Hodge added: “Richmond did everything right there. You looked at Hopper and thought, ‘He’s looking fine, he’s running around fine, he’s communicating’, but the rules say, if he’s had a head knock then you have to bring him off and assess him, so Richmond did the right thing.”
Richardson: “You just had to get him straight off though, and he was stuck out there.”
Hodge: “That will be changed this week; the AFL should change that straight away and say, ‘As soon as you’ve got any concern about a concussion, a runner or a doctor can just run out and bring him straight back off’.”
James Brayshaw: “You feel for the doctors, you really do, in this game. Because they’ll tell you, you can be knocked in the head and not be concussed — and they’ve got to try and work that out in a very small space of time.”
The incident comes in the same week that Port Adelaide were fined $100,000 for mishandling a concussed Aliir Aliir after a big headknock.
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