News & Events

Interview 612 Brisbane
A Queensland judge has put footballers on notice after an AFL game got out of hand with excessively rough tackles.  One player was left with disfiguring facial fractures while the perpetrator received an eighteen month wholly suspended jail term.  Paul Horvath is an expert in sports law, sitting on numerous AFL tribunal boards and was the National Co-ordinator of the AFL Players’ Association 24 Hour Legal Advice Service.

Paul, good morning.
Good morning Madonna.

Are these kinds of injuries common?
I guess there’s a distinction between injuries in the course of play and those not in the course of play, and just to take an AFL example, Jonathan Brown, the captain of the Brisbane Lions received a serious similar facial injury in the first round of the AFL competition this season.  However, no one sought to suggest that there was anything improper on the part of the player who caused him the injury in that particular tackle.  So the important distinction is to something that occurs in the course of play or very close to it, for the purpose of this discussion, or something that it outside the course of play.

So inside the course of play is considered part of the game, and there’s rules to the game and it’s unlikely to lead to a charge.
Yes, I mean if a player executes a tackle, albeit somewhat crudely, one might think that that’s, in simple terms, part of the course of the game.  If something occurs off the ball or behind play and another player is struck and a well known example is when Barry Hall struck Brent Staker of, I think he was the West Coast Eagles then, when Barry Hall was at Sydney Swans.  That was, in my view, had the West Coast and Staker wanted to make an issue, that would have been a case for a clear assault because there was nothing near the course of play, there was no reason for it, and it was a clear, straight-out strike. 

So, to parents listening, what is the advice here?
To would-be people that cause the injuries?

Well, to playing football, given that a young man has faced charges for a tackle …
Look, I mean, no doubt I would expect that all coaches would teach the players to play within the rules, and the difficulty comes when they get told to play outside the rules. 

Yes …
So, that’s the simplest way to put it.  Obviously the issue in this case it seems to me is the fact that there was a raised elbow, because it was the raised elbow that struck the injured player in the face.  That’s the issue, so no raised elbow … that’s not part of the game.  In simplest terms, that’s why I say, play within the rules.

So play within the rules of the game.  A tackle is a tackle, part of the sport.  A tackle with an add-on, not as part of the game of sport is where you’ll get in trouble.
That’s right.

Paul Horvath, thank you.
Thank you Madonna.

It gets trickier and trickier doesn’t it?  That’s Paul Horvath, an expert in sports law, sitting on numerous AFL tribunal boards.

The Experts In Sports Law © Copyright Sports Lawyer 2009