- Aug 30, 2017
- 16,392
- 67,790
- AFL Club
- St Kilda
I agree that’s how it played out. But you can’t actually brace like that anymore unless you run the risk of getting the player high like this situation. The exception imo would be if you were stationary. But in this situation Paddy came off his line & engaged the player. I get that it’s not really fair but it’s where there games at now.I’m not sure he actually went to bump though. He was running up to him because given the fact Day had the ball he had to go at him- to either try to tackle him, or smother the kick, or whatever), but once Day disposed of the ball, those two options were off the table and then I think all Paddy did was effectively stop and brace for contact.
If he’d actually gone the bump he would have cleaned him up and you’d still be cleaning him up off the ground.
So given the fact he’s 34yo and a big unit I’m not sure what else he would have been able yo do in that situation. There may not have been enough time for him to anything but stop and brace.