“You can’t not laugh”: The aspect of AFL Tribunal's verdict that Cornes cannot accept

Kane Cornes has slammed the AFL Tribunal’s reasoning for upholding Toby Bedford’s three-game suspension following his tackle that concussed Richmond’s Tim Taranto.

The Tribunal suggested that Bedford should simply have taken a few extra steps before tackling him or let go of one of his arms during the tackling motion once he realised they were going to ground.

The GWS midfielder laughed at the suggestion of the latter during the hearing, saying it all happened too fast for him to consider that.

Cornes agrees, believing the laws of the game are heading down a dangerous path.

“This is the laughable part,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.

“That bit where they’ve said it would’ve been possible to tackle him without diving at him and that he could have taken another step – as if he is thinking about that in the moment.

“He’s thinking about playing on Taranto, Taranto’s got the footy, all you’re thinking about is tackling him and he did that in a reasonable manner that was not careless. This was not a reportable offence.

“The Tribunal says he could have released the left arm once he started falling. Do you know how quick this was? To think in that moment ‘I’m going to tackle him at speed and then in a split second I’ll release an arm so Tim can brace his fall’.

“Like, it’s absolutely laughable and to anyone who thinks this was the correct decision, sorry, this one is going to do my head in.

“You can’t not laugh (at the Tribunal’s explanation). When you actually listen to it. You can’t not laugh at what the suggestion is.

“It comes from someone who has not one bit of feel for the game or what it’s like to be in that situation at the elite level with high stakes where you’re asking someone moving at full speed and all these factors where you wouldn’t have time to reasonably think about it.

“We are always going to have concussive incidents in our game and if it is the result of someone who has done their due diligence and laid a perfectly legal tackle, then they should have no case to answer.”

Read the Tribunal’s reasoning below:

“A reasonable player in Bedford’s circumstances would have realised that by leaping at Taranto in the way that he did from behind was likely to drive him into the ground,” AFL Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson said.