Carlton coach Michael Voss and Collingwood Magpies star Taylor Adams call for AFL to ban the bump

If the bump isn’t dead in the AFL it ‘should be’ according to Collingwood star Taylor Adams, who says the playing cohort needs to take more care of each other after an opening round littered with questionable acts.

And Carlton coach Michael Voss thinks the bump is ‘well and truly done’ adamant strong bans handed out by the AFL tribunal and ongoing scrutiny is ‘for the greater good of the game’.

Adelaide’s Shane McAdam was slapped with a three-week ban, which the club is appealing, for a hit on GWS youngster Jacob Wehr, and Melbourne livewire Kozzie Pickett was given a two-week suspension for a high hit on Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith.

A one-week ban for Sydney superstar Lance Franklin was the third suspension handed out for the sort of bump that Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said he told his players to avoid.

They were sentiments echoed by Voss on Wednesday morning.

And Carlton coach Michael Voss thinks the bump is ‘well and truly done’ adamant strong bans handed out by the AFL tribunal and ongoing scrutiny is ‘for the greater good of the game’

Kysaiah Pickett, Shane McAdam and Lance Franklin were all suspended

‘What’s come out of the wash over the last 48 hours and watching the games over the weekend … I think if you’ve got a choice to tackle or bump, then you’ve got no choice but to choose to tackle,’ he said.

‘I guess the confusing point is when it’s that real disputed ball and you’ve got point five of a second to make a decision on what you do, what you choose.

‘But I think if you’ve got any choice whatsoever, and there’s a clear gap between the two, then I think we’d be encouraging the players to tackle, not bump.

‘As our environment is changing, you have to adapt with it, and sometimes that comes in rule form.

‘I think for the greater good of the game, it’s a good thing … it was probably very different in my day and what was acceptable back in the day, but we’re all a little bit wiser.’

Former Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury called for the introduction of sin bins for players who dish out hits like those that drew suspensions, and his teammate Adams said they no longer had a place in the game.

‘If it’s not dead, it should be,’ Adams said on Wednesday morning.

‘I think as players now we have a responsibility to look off each other with all that’s going on in the space of concussion … we’re starting to see some of the real impacts that concussion can have on players and I think it’s our responsibility now to look out for each other.

Bailey Smith (left) was flattened by a brutal hit from Demons star Kysaiah Pickett

 ‘I think if you choose to bump you have to get it right. And I agree with Simon (Goodwin), I think we should be tackling rather than bumping given the opportunity.

‘A couple of those examples on the weekend, I thought it was unnecessary.’

Adams said he had ‘never’ done any training around bumping in his career and said both McAdam and Pickett in particular should have tackled instead.

He said taking that action out of the game doesn’t take away from the physicality of AFL.

‘It’s not a character assassination. I don’t like the action … that needs to be stamped out. I think both of those incidents, both players could have rather than bumped, they could have tackled,’ he told RSN.

‘I mean, just because we’re saying that the bump is dead doesn’t mean that there’s no physical contact. I mean, tackle as hard as you want within reason within the rules, and I just think we need to be smarter about it.

‘Let’s understand what the consequences are for guys in the long term, and make sure that there’s a duty of care for us to ensure that we don’t put players in a situation that Bailey found himself in. Those two incidents could have been really messy.

‘I think we can be physical without having to bump particularly in those circumstances when the player is sort of off guard, front on and in a really vulnerable, vulnerable position.

‘We don’t ever train how to bump. I think the bump’s been sort of eradicated. These incidents are obviously outliers, and I think they should be dealt with.’