There it is, the end of the bump:
Patrick Dangerfield tribunal hearing: Why AFL coaches are banning the bump
View attachment 1084220
"Patrick Dangerfield’s report for his bump on Crow Jake Kelly has forced coaches to make a fundamental change, in effect banning the bump.
The bump could soon be extinct in AFL football, with coaches actively encouraging their players not to use it.
Giants coach Leon Cameron revealed in the wake of Patrick Dangerfield’s weekend bump on Jake Kelly – which left the Crow concussed and with a broken nose – that he instructed his players to tackle every time.
Greater Western Sydney’s post-match analysis even includes trying to understand why a footballer opted to bump instead of tackle, as part of the process to eliminate the age-old act.
Cameron’s Port Adelaide counterpart Ken Hinkley also said the Power were trying to reprogram players to “choose the option of tackle more than bump”.
“We talk to our players all the time about not bumping anymore,” Cameron told Fox Footy on Monday night.
“We talk about when you go in and approach a contest, or an opposition player, to tackle at every given time.
“Now, clearly, habit has been there for a long time for these players and it’s not always going to be perfect … so we have little incidents all the time where you have a choice to tackle.
“We review it, but you might have bumped and we say, ‘Well, why did you take the bump there?’.
Hinkley agrees with the AFL’s “strict liability” approach to bumps, where if a player chooses to make contact they must deal with the potential consequences if the opponent suffers injury.
“It will make the game safer,” Hinkley said.
“(Dangerfield’s) intent was to disrupt the ball – it wasn’t to cause injury and harm to the player … (so) there will be consideration to what was the intent, and I think that’s OK, but the injury is the biggest and most important factor in the whole thing.”
However, Hinkley said it wasn’t as straightforward as people might think to remove the bump from the sport.
“It’s a combative game and we usually welcome the combativeness of the game, but the game is now changing,” he said.
“The instruction now is, ‘Tackle or go at the ball and pick the ball up’, and if you go at the ball really hard and the ball’s on the ground, that’s easy.
“But if it’s in doubt and the oppo’s got the ball, yes, I think tackle is the first option.”
www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/news/patrick-dangerfield-tribunal-hearing-why-afl-coaches-are-banning-the-bump/news-story/6407acdd83f4ab8077bb7c334aa11e1d%3famp
*****************
Disagree or not, but given the high profile nature of Dangerfield as an example for all future examples, it's not conspiracy to state that the bump will now be consigned to history moving forward - as there is irrefutable evidence of this above.
Can't really bump, if coaches are actively dissuading it. While I agree that you can, it doesn't mean that after the game you won't get a dressing down and it'll be reinforced that you shouldn't. In the wake of the Dangerfield charge, you can see that coaches are actively holding education sessions on post-training on why the opted to bump instead of tackle (that's the most significant part of the article IMO):
"Greater Western Sydney’s post-match analysis even includes trying to understand why a footballer opted to bump instead of tackle, as part of the process to eliminate the age-old act."
If the coaches aren't endorsing it, it means the leadership group won't endorse it, which means the players as a group won't practice it - in any form. This will be adopted throughout all clubs very quickly I would say - if it hasn't already starting being discussed.
In essence, the bump is now dead.