SWANS defender Craig Bolton says he has never practised or been instructed to use the supposedly dangerous "tunnelling" tactic of bringing down an opponent in a marking contest, despite accusations by St Kilda that star forward Nick Riewoldt was targeted by Sydney's defence at the weekend.
"No, definitely not," said Bolton when asked if the Sydney defenders had worked on pushing into their opponents as they marked, something Saints chief executive Archie Fraser claims endangered Riewoldt. "Sometimes you back into a contest and it happens [an opponent will flip over] but if the insinuation is that you are trying to do that or hurt him, then no way."
St Kilda have asked the AFL to investigate the alleged tactic, highlighting several contests involving Bolton and fellow defender Lewis Roberts-Thomson in which Riewoldt went to ground.
Fraser told the Herald yesterday that the tactic, in which a player leaping for the ball is pushed on the lower body, making him spin in mid-air, was banned in basketball and had the capacity to cause serious injury to the AFL's high-flying forwards.
But Bolton was adamant there was nothing premeditated about any contests in which Riewoldt fell awkwardly on Saturday night. "The first thing I really knew about it [St Kilda's complaint] was by reading about it, so it's a bit hard to really say what the problem is," he said. "But if it happened more than once, then it was a coincidence."
Swans coach Paul Roos was equally nonplussed by the accusation. "I played a lot of basketball as a kid and, to be quite honest, I've never heard of tunnelling," he said. "I would like some clarification from the St Kilda footy club because if they are saying that anyone would go out to deliberately hurt someone, then that's a big call."
Roos is close friends with St Kilda coach Ross Lyon, a former Swans assistant, and worked for Fraser selling office equipment during his playing days with Fitzroy. "I don't know if Archie is dirty on me because I didn't sell enough photocopiers, but at some stage I'll have a word to Ross about it," Roos said.
Roos and Bolton yesterday reviewed the incidents during their regular post-match analyses. Roos said that on one occasion, the ball had been kicked over Riewoldt's head, Bolton judged the flight better, spun in the air attempting to go backwards and put a hand on the St Kilda forward to steady himself.
"Craig pushes [Riewoldt] in the hip but it's only to keep his balance, not to push over Nick," he said.
Bolton conceded that rules stopping defenders chopping an opponent's arms and putting hands in his back had made it challenging for himself and fellow defender Leo Barry not to infringe in marking contests.
"In spoiling contests, it is frustrating, no doubt," he said. "I play on a lot of big guys and you have to scratch and claw your way through a bit the last few years. How you cope with that really depends on your specific opponent and the way they play."
Roos said he was hopeful any review would not put more pressure on his relatively short key defenders. "Hopefully, St Kilda are just looking for some sort of clarification about the rule. We might have to get the same thing and we can all move on."
¡ Fremantle's Dean Solomon was suspended for two matches after losing his bid to be cleared of a rough conduct charge at the AFL tribunal last night.
Solomon made contact with his shoulder to the head of Collingwood defender Shane Wakelin during Saturday's match at the MCG.
Solomon will miss Saturday's match against Hawthorn at Subiaco and the following weekend's derby against West Coast. Earlier, Carlton's Adam Hartlett accepted a two-match ban after submitting an early guilty plea to striking Richmond's Cam Howat.
