Port Adelaide defender Ryan Burton has explained what he was thinking as he tackled Collingwood’s Jamie Elliott during Saturday’s loss at the MCG.
With the tackle deemed dangerous as the Magpie was dumped on his neck, Burton was suspended by the MRO for two weeks after the act was graded as careless, high contact and high impact.
While Burton admitted he was trying to get Elliott to ground, he says he had no idea the Magpie was off-balance at the time which led to the way he landed.
“I knew I had his arm, which was going to be an advantage to get him holding the ball,” Burton explained on SEN SA The Run Home.
“I knew the only way he’d dispose of it would be to kick it, so I thought if he was standing on two feet, he was going to be able to kick it and he was pretty close to goal.
“My decision was to take him to ground, and he went to ground rather easily.
“I was a bit surprised, but after looking at the footage you could see he lost his right leg trying to kick and that’s the way I pulled him down.
“He was off balance as I took him out.”
After wrongly assuming Elliott would have been harder to take down, Burton says from now on he’ll have to be careful when wrapping up an opposition player as he had no intent to hurt his opponent.
“I think from now on you’ve got to be really careful when you choose to take them to ground,” Burton said.
“I had no intent to hurt him, to put him on his head or anything like that.
“Next time I need to keep him on his feet and hopefully the kick doesn’t go through the goals.
“Or somehow, I need to lay him down easier.”
In receiving his two-week ban, Burton says he was told by the AFL that they’ll punish players if an act has the potential to cause injury instead of purely off the end result.
“We’ve been told that if you tackle like I did and it looks like they could have been hurt if it was a little bit worse then they’re going to punish you,” Burton said.
“They said mine could have been really bad if it was a harder tackle or if he hit his head or something like that.
“That’s what they’re going to punish you on now, they really want to stamp that stuff out.”
Burton will now miss this weekend’s Showdown against Adelaide and the Power’s Round 4 clash against Sydney at the SCG.