Demons respond to Christian Petracca vision as 'dangerous act' sparks AFL uproar
Fritsch's mid-air hit on Geelong's Tom Stewart proved a major talking point post-game, with the out-of-sorts Melbourne star seen tunnelling into the back of his opponent when he jumped to take a mark. Stewart came down hard on the turf as the contact from Fritsch took out his legs and resulted in an instant free kick for the Cats.
Veteran commentator Gerard Whateley labelled it a 'dangerous' act from Fritsch but suggested it was only worthy of a fine. However, he was concerned that it was a growing trend that had crept into the game, following a similar tunnelling incident involving Essendon's Mason Redman that saw him slapped with a $1000 fine, two weeks ago.
'He'll be writing a cheque for that, but we are edging towards a dangerous moment with tunnelling the way it has been in the early stages of this season," Whateley said on Friday night. "The players (and) the league ought to have a real think about this, and think about when this goes horribly wrong, what it's going to end up looking like before it happens.'
Speaking about the incident on Saturday afternoon's coverage, Fox Footy's Jay Clark and Jack Riewoldt also took aim at Fritsch, with the former describing it as the type of act that could leave an opponent 'in a wheelchair'. 'It is the most vulnerable position to be in, when you have your legs taken from under you. And you could tell from the reaction of the player, Tom Stewart was filthy, he was filthy about this,' Riewoldt said on Saturday.
'For me, two to three weeks for that - that is so dangerous, and this is the chance for the AFL to get onto something early, before it festers into someone knocking themselves out from coming down on their neck." While Clark added: 'You can end up in a wheelchair, let's be honest. There's a serious neck injury potential there.'
"You can end up in a wheelchair!" The Super Saturday panel discuss Bayley Fritsch's tunneling action from Friday night.📺 Watch #AFLSunsCrows on ch.504 or on @kayosports https://t.co/H3sZjslMPr✍️ BLOG https://t.co/k9lOqhOrJA🔢 MATCH CENTRE https://t.co/GKXSjKyRYW pic.twitter.com/RXGhZ8GrsN
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) April 5, 2025
Former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley took a different view though, suggesting the free kick was suffice and that Fritsch's act was an unintentional moment that can happen in a split second in a footy contest. 'This is a tremendously difficult game to play. It is in the margins, there's increments ... I don't know if that (act) is deliberate,' he said. '(Fritsch) may have seen him late, so to penalise a player in a circumstance like that could be really difficult to hold up, given that there's so many decisions that are being made. We're making it pretty hard for the players.'
One of the other major talking points from Melbourne's fourth-straight defeat to start the season was Petracca's extraordinary post-game reaction, with the Demons star almost literally tearing his hair out after the final siren. Petracca's frustrations came after the Demons had more inside-50s than the Cats but used the ball horrendously and finished with just six goals for the match.
🗣️ "You can see the despair from Christian Petracca. "That image right there says a lot about where Melbourne is right now, and where it wants to be."#AFLCatsDees pic.twitter.com/uz35gycYx6
— 7AFL (@7AFL) April 4, 2025
Petracca's disenchantment with the Demons was well documented last season, making Friday night's scenes all the more interesting. But Melbourne's coach said it just highlighted how competitive the premiership star was and how desperate he is for the Demons to turn their season around.
"He's a winner. He's determined. He's proud," Goodwin said when asked about Petracca, who kicked two goals in an encouraging individual performance. "He's like everyone, he wants to really start to get some positive results and he's a proud leader of our footy club. All our leaders are like that, so of course he's going to be disappointed."
Melbourne's performance was an improvement on their previous dismal defeats to North Melbourne and Gold Coast, but it's still their worst start since they lost the first nine matches of the 2012 season. "I thought we saw a spirit tonight. A real determination," Goodwin added. "The message is: stay calm, but get urgent. We've got to work to do, get urgent with that work but stay calm and know things can turn pretty quickly."
with AAP
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