Source : the age
Carlton coach Michael Voss has strongly condemned Bomber Sam Durham’s brutal front-on bump on midfielder Adam Cerra, saying acts like that no longer had a place in the game.
The Blues escaped with a much-needed eight-point victory over injury-ravaged Essendon after leading by as many as 38 in the first half, but Durham’s bump, which left Cerra dazed and briefly flat on his back in the second quarter, overshadowed the match.
Sam Durham’s bump on Adam Cerra.Credit: Seven Footy
As Durham turned his body and lowered himself, most of his force crashed into Cerra’s right shoulder, but he also made contact with his opponent’s head in a case that is sure to attract match-review scrutiny.
The incident occurred on the same day match review officer Michael Christian cleared Geelong defender Tom Stewart of any wrongdoing for his bone-crunching bump on Gold Coast’s Noah Anderson.
Cerra received a free kick, and his teammates, starting with Adam Saad, instantly and angrily remonstrated.
The midfielder remained on the field for more than 10 minutes afterwards before leaving to undergo a head injury assessment, but the Blues clarified at half-time that they performed an on-ground assessment immediately that cleared him to continue playing.
Not happy: The Blues remonstrate after Adam Cerra was crunched by Sam Durham.Credit: AFL Photos
The HIA confirmed the Carlton star had not sustained a concussion, but Voss said they would continue to monitor him across the coming days.
“I couldn’t tell you about the AFL intervention, but [Cerra] was assessed, as we do, and we had the capacity to be able to do it at the time,” Voss said.
“I guess we probably took quite a cautious approach and did the HIA [later], so we followed that through. Once those two processes are done; it’s pretty clear from there. I would have thought the incident is probably more the conversation for me.
“I think it’s pretty black and white – you just can’t do that any more.”
Voss said it was a perfect example of the type of situation the AFL was trying to protect players from, where they have their head down and are trying to win the ball.
“The reality is we are coached differently now,” he said.
“We have to coach our players to let them win the ball and sort of step to the side [instead of bumping] and give them the opportunity to get their hands on it first. That’s the nature of the competition and what we’re asked to do – but I won’t go any further than that. It’ll get dealt with in the right channels.”
Channel Seven’s commentary team also denounced Durham’s action – Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes described it as “old school”, while Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon was highly critical of the Blues’ decision to let Cerra keep playing.
“That’s old school – that was removed from the game a long time ago,” Cornes said. “[Durham] is so lucky there is no serious neck injury and [there] appears to be no serious concussion. You just can’t do that.”
Bombers coach Brad Scott said he had deliberately not looked at a replay of Durham’s bump, but that in general he encouraged his players to “go low in the contest and make the ball their objective”.
“They’ve got to make split-second decisions,” Scott said. “Imagine being a player now. You bump because if they haven’t got the ball, it’s holding the man. You want to tackle to dispossess, but you can’t dump them.
“I understand all the challenges in the game around health and safety, but players have probably a more difficult job now, in terms of duty of care to their opponents, than they’ve ever had at any stage in AFL history.
“Durham’s a go-ahead-type player and as hard at the ball as anyone, and that’s really what we encourage him and our players to do.”
The Blues led by 38 points and had seven of the first eight goals when ex-Bomber Orazio Fantasia kicked truly in the second term, but Essendon roared back into contention with six of the next seven majors either side of half-time, including three to Peter Wright.
They slashed the deficit to nine during the third quarter and were still within 11 at the final break.
A brilliant Blake Acres goal from 50 metres out, and right on the boundary line, early in the fourth quarter preceded Zac Williams’ finish from point-blank range, which again gave Carlton breathing room.
But the Bombers, who overcame Blues ruckman Tom De Koning’s best-on-ground performance to swing the momentum, continued to fight and were within six points when Xavier Duursma kicked a goal after soaring high for a pack mark.
There were still almost four-and-a-half minutes left at that stage, but Essendon could not get any closer, with Carlton pair Charlie Curnow (two goals) and Acres missing shots in the dying minutes.
The Blues’ second-half fadeouts have been an issue all season, starting with their shock round-one defeat to Richmond after being 41 points up, but Voss took a positive approach to the trend.
“The bye gave us an opportunity to look at all those things and maybe dig a little bit more into the why, and how we can get it better,” Voss said.
“Some of that was around our ball movement and some was around just being able to make sure that we execute for longer and continue to persist.
“It’s a good problem to have, if you’re in front by that much, and you’re getting that many opportunities … the harder one to solve is you’re behind all the time, you get no opportunities, and you’re trying to win your game from a completely negative base.”
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