Tackle this real dog’s breakfast

Beveridge ire at rule confusion

Australian football

WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has railed against significant confusion around tackling rules in the AFL which he labelled a “dog’s breakfast”.

The premiership-winning coach’s call came in the wake of both Geelong’s Luke Dahlhaus and Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper being cleared by the AFL tribunal of dangerous tackle charges. Earlier this season the Bulldogs lost an appeal against a one-week suspension for defender Hayden Crozier, who was banned for a dangerous tackle. Beveridge said in the current environment, Crozier would get off.

In a worrying statement, Beveridge said he couldn’t give his players any instructions around what they could do because he didn’t know, and telling them to “be careful” would send the wrong message.

“There’s a lot of confusion. It’s not just the free-kick aspect, now it’s the sanctions and the penalties,” Beveridge said on Thursday. “It lines up with the lack of understanding around the interpretation of the ordinary prior opportunity rule. We just ask players to play, and since they were six and seven they have played the game, and now they are adults, we’ve got to make sure we continue to play the game with the intent we always have.

“You can’t tell them to be careful, and you can’t instruct them either way because you’re not sure which way to instruct them. That’s the shame of it all.”

The Bulldogs face Geelong on Friday night in a match Bev