Frampton free to play despite tackle that left Mihocek with a fractured neck

Collingwood defender Billy Frampton is free to play, after the AFL tribunal found his tackle on Brody Mihocek that resulted in a fractured neck for the Demons forward was not considered unreasonable.

In Wednesday night’s hearing, the Magpie detailed his immediate concern for Mihocek, a 2023 premiership teammate, when he realised the Demon was injured.

“He said he needed help, [and] he couldn’t move, which was quite a distressing thing to hear,” Frampton said.

“He said that a few times straight away, which is why I reacted the way I did to call some people.”

Match review officer Michael Christian initially handed Frampton a three-match ban for the tackle that he graded careless and high, with severe impact. The incident left Mihocek with a neck injury that required surgery and almost certainly ended his season.

But the tribunal found that Mihocek’s injury was caused by an “accidental impact”. The outcome was “not reasonably avoidable”, they said.

“We find that the majority of the force was provided by Mihocek,” said tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson KC.

“Two field umpires had a clear view of the tackle and neither awarded a free kick for a dangerous tackle.

“No Melbourne player remonstrated with Frampton.

“These latter matters are often of no great [significance] ... umpires and teammates may not have seen what the vision reveals has occurred.

“But this tackle did not happen in a pack, or in any congestion. It was just the two players [there].

“Most accidental impact on the football field results in no injury. This accidental impact resulted in a dreadful injury to Brody Mihocek.

“It was, however, not reasonably avoidable.”

The AFL, through its counsel Nick Pane KC, argued the tackle was inherently dangerous, that Mihocek was vulnerable, and the Demon was rotated into the ground with excessive force.

“I’m not suggesting he shouldn’t have instigated a tackle ... once the tackle had begun, and he [Frampton] was aware of where Mihocek’s head was and the angle of the rest of his body, he should’ve then released his arms so he wasn’t contributing to the impact,” said Pane.

Collingwood’s representative, Myles Tehan, said it was clear through Frampton’s actions that his conduct was reasonable and what happened was a “terribly unfortunate football incident”.

“The tackle started as one thing, which was an attempt to corral and tackle a player who was low to the ground, but then ended as something else once that player [Mihocek] sought to drive through the tackle and lift his head upwards as he did,” Tehan said.

“Neither arm was pinned. Both the arms were free to brace and they did brace. Most of Mr Mihocek’s body landed on top of Mr Frampton, which in ordinary circumstances – admittedly this was a very unusual tackle – but in ordinary circumstances that would operate to protect Mr Mihocek.”

Frampton said he “would never in a million years want to hurt another player” and, once realising that Mihocek had a potentially serious injury, felt “horrific”.

“I don’t know what else I could’ve done. I approached cautiously with his care front of mind, I didn’t want to hit him in the head, I didn’t want to go front on,” Frampton said.

“It was a pretty stressful couple of days for me but now that I’ve heard he’s trending in the right direction, it’s sort of taken a bit of the load off.”

Mihocek, 33, temporarily lost feeling in some of his limbs after being knocked out when the top of his head was accidentally driven into the ground.

The MCG crowd of 88,019 people fell silent as the game was held up for eight minutes while Melbourne’s medics tended to Mihocek.

He was carefully loaded onto a motorised stretcher and taken from the ground before being transported to The Alfred.

It was Mihocek’s first game against his former side. Players from both teams went over to wish the forward well before he was taken from the ground.

He underwent surgery on Monday evening and Melbourne confirmed the power forward had since been out of his hospital bed and was walking.

Collingwood spoke with the AFL, the Demons, Mihocek and his family to explain the grounds for their challenge.

Melbourne’s medical report listed Mihocek’s return-to-play timeline as “indefinite”.

Senior Magpie leaders and players have also been in contact with Mihocek, and were pleased that their former teammate was doing well after surgery.

On Tuesday evening, Footy Classified host and former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said Frampton’s three-match ban should be overturned, arguing it was just an accident.

“He fell down first of all, he’s in there, he’s pushing off and pushing forward,” McGuire said watching the replay of the tackle.

“You can’t go forward on a player now, to protect the player, you can’t stand there, it’s just an accident.”

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