GWS coach Adam Kingsley has raised concerns with the AFL Match Review Officer's decision to hand Giants forward Toby Bedford a three-week suspension for a dangerous tackle.
The MRO charged Bedford with rough conduct for his tackle on Richmond's Tim Taranto late into Sunday's win over the Tigers, with the former Giant suffering a concussion as a result of the incident.
Bedford is seen to tackle Taranto from behind before both players go to ground, with the latter's head crashing into the turf before medical assessment placed him in the AFL's mandated concussion protocols.
The outcome of Taranto's injury has led to a strict punishment for Bedford, who was handed a three-game ban after his actions were graded as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.
The Giants immediately confirmed they will challenge the charge at the AFL Tribunal, with Kingsley tellingย RSNย on Tuesday that he believes Bedford shouldn't have received a suspension at all, let alone three weeks.
The GWS coach questioned the lack of 'eye test' being used in the MRO's decision, stating "accidents happen" and that Bedford not tackling Taranto is never an option.
"We're asking our players to tackle but if they pin both arms they're culpable and if they pin one arm it's a 'chicken wing' tackle. And if they don't tackle, then their opponent runs out of a stoppage and potentially scores a goal, which has implications on everyone's jobs," Kingsley said.
"It's a very, very difficult one. Clearly, with Toby's one we didn't feel he drove Tim into the ground at all, he certainly didn't sling him. We're certainly deeming it as a football action.
Toby Bedford has received a three-match ban for this incident involving Tim Taranto.
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"Accidents happen, as we know. The concussion stuff is really important, and if you're going to legislate against that then you're opening up all these sort of incidents. To the eye, [Bedford's tackle] is certainly not a three-week suspension, in my view it shouldn't be a suspension.
"There's got to be a level of the eye test. There's no malice in that tackle at all, it's just an accident. Accidents happen, we move on.
"I don't think we need to suspend everyone who just so happens to concuss someone or draw blood from someone's face. I'm not sure we need to be suspending everyone just to satisfy any future litigation.
"We need to accept that accidents do happen and that occasionally, while we don't like people getting hurt, it does happen."
Kingsley went on to criticise whether the AFL is punishing the outcome rather than the action of certain incidents, drawing attention to a tackle from Opening Round where Giants veteran Callan Ward dislocated his shoulder after having both of his arms pinned by Collingwood's Beau McCreery.
Ward went on to miss a month of action due to the injury, howeverย McCreery was not charged by the MRO.
"I understand what [the AFL] is trying to do, I think. So long as what they're trying to do is eliminate concussion out of the game as opposed to eliminate tackling out of the game," Kingsley said.
"Earlier in the year we had Callan Ward dumped in a tackle, but certainly had both arms pinned and landed on his shoulder, and dislocated his shoulder. He missed four or five weeks.
"Just because he didn't have his head hit on the ground it wasn't considered a dangerous tackle. I mean, are we punishing the action or are we punishing the outcome?
"What we feel at the footy club is that we need to be punishing the actions. A dangerous tackle is a sling tackle or if you excessively drive someone into the ground, then by all means it's a suspension. That would be fair and reasonable.
"But when you're not doing any of those things, and someone accidentally gets concussed, then I think it's too hard to punish them through suspension."
An upheld three-game suspension for Bedford would see the GWS tagger miss matches against Gold Coast, Melbourne and Hawthorn, with a return scheduled for Round 22 against Brisbane.
A successful appeal will mean Bedford is available to face the Suns this weekend at GIANTS Stadium.
