Scott Pendlebury calls on AFL to follow NRL with major rule shake-up

Collingwood veteran Scott Pendlebury has urged the AFL to stamp out unnecessary head-high bumps by punishing players based on the action rather than the outcome.

Three head-high bumps in round one attracted scrutiny at a time when concussion is a hot topic in professional sport, with the AFL facing a class action from former players.

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Sydney superstar Lance Franklin and Melbourne livewire Kysaiah Pickett were handed suspensions, and have since accepted, one-match and two-match bans respectively for their hits on Gold Coast’s Sam Collins and the Western Bulldogs’ Bailey Smith.

Adelaide forward Shane McAdam could find himself in even more trouble after a brutal bump on GWS opponent Jacob Wehr on Sunday, with the match review officer assessment to come on Monday.

Assessing the Pickett incident in particular, where the Melbourne forward leapt into the air and into the Bulldog’s head, Pendlebury queried whether the ban was only two weeks because Smith had avoided injury.

Wehr and Collins were both assessed for concussions and cleared while Smith got straight to his feet.

“Ours is all outcome-based,” Pendlebury told Triple M radio.

“I think for years there’s been the question around ‘are we going to punish the outcome or the action and where do we live?’ And we still live in the outcome, punishing the outcome. Which rightly or wrongly, I don’t agree with that.

“I think it should be the action that gets punished. They’re not football actions.

“(When you launch at someone like Pickett did), your intention’s to hurt. It’s not a football action.

“I’m talking for everyone in the game here, not about those instances but I think it’s something that we need to get rid of out of our game.

“But this chat’s been going on for five or six years ... Those non-football actions I think we really need to treat seriously and get it out of our game.”

Pendlebury said he would also be in favour of “sin-binning” players like in the NRL.

“Watching the NRL they get sin-binned, and I don’t mind that for our players ... So it’s a complete disadvantage, and now you play 17 versus 18 for ten minutes.”

Franklin’s ban for the Collins bump rules him out of the Swans’ clash with former club Hawthorn.

“Ten years ago, Buddy wouldn’t even get looked at for that but now that’s a week because we’re so keen to protect the head,” Pendlebury said.

“I think we’ve got to take that approach to everything.

“... The MRO, I don’t know if it’s a better system or a better way of looking at things, (need to) make sure we stamp it out and I don’t know if we’re getting it right at the moment.”

7NEWS reporter Tom Browne said the bump wasn’t dead in football and a sin-bin rule would be “hard to judge”.

“The sin-bin would be highly problematic,” Browne said.

“Umpires or a panel would have to make subjective decisions during the game. That could have massive integrity implications.”