Collingwood ruckman Mason Cox has come out in defence of his teammate Jack Ginnivan after a controversial non-free kick decision against the small forward, questioning the AFL's commitment to eradicating head high contact.
Collingwood may have gone home with the four points in a close encounter against Essendon in Round 19, but questions about the treatment of their young gun have still been raised.
Late in the first term of the Sunday afternoon contest, Ginnivan was seemingly caught high by Essendon's Mason Redman, but wasn't awarded a free kick for the contact.
The incident came in the aftermath of the AFL's decision last week to clarify rules around high contact, stating that players who ducked, dropped their knees or shrugged into a tackle would not be rewarded by the umpire.
Ginnivan, in just his second year in the game, has become quite an infamous figure for opposition players and fans alike for his actions when being tackled. When the AFL released their rule clarification, the young Pie was one of the examples cited.
In the aftermath of the non-call against the 19-year-old, commentary has centred on whether or not Ginnivan is now being officiated differently to fellow players, with Cox weighing in on Twitter to claim that the high tackle rule was being "blatantly ignored".
Wild to think high tackles were put in the game to protect players health and now are being blatantly ignored for a 19 year old. How can we think โthe AFL cares about concussions and head high contactโ after this. pic.twitter.com/YERSbstC8o
— Mason Cox (@masonsixtencox) July 25, 2022
Cox isn't the only Collingwood figure to come out in support of Ginnivan, with club president Jeff Browne revealing on 3AW that the club would seek clarification around the officiating.
"We need to clarify this with the umpires, no question about that," Browne said.
"I don't know whether it's personal but it's obviously a directive and in that particular case it was incorrectly applied.
"We need to speak up about that."
Post-match, Collingwood coach Craig McRae remained level headed about the incident, conceding that while he thought that incident in particular should have been deemed a free kick, he believed it was a mistake, not a directive.
"I don't think there was any leaning into it.
"I'm clear with it (the rule). The umpires have come to our training.
"We won't make blame, or excuses around things. Umpires get some right, some wrong."
