ST KILDA is reviewing the potentially dangerous tactics it believes were employed by Sydney on Saturday night against its spearhead captain Nick Riewoldt.
The Saints' chief executive Archie Fraser confirmed last night that his club was considering lodging an official complaint with the AFL and its umpires boss Jeff Gieschen.
In a dispute that would pitch Ross Lyon up against his close friend and mentor Paul Roos, the Saints have become increasingly frustrated at the increasing tendency to stop Riewoldt by employing "tunnelling" tactics — a method that appeared to be adopted several times on Saturday night by Swans defender Craig Bolton.
"We were concerned about it on the night," confirmed Fraser. "I watched the game live and afterwards I asked our coaches to have a very close look at it but they were already aware of it and already looking at it.
"We've got to think carefully about the way we approach this but we want to make people aware of it because we don't want to see it become a feature of the game.
"It's used in basketball and if it had been a rugby league game it would have been a penalty and on at least one occasion Nick landed on his head. It seemed to happen about three times with one player and then LRT (Lewis Roberts-Thomson) employed a similar tactic later with less effect. We need to stop it and nip it in the bud if it's happening deliberately."
Rule changes over recent years have increasingly restricted defenders in their attempts to hamper key forwards and the Saints believe Riewoldt was first targeted by tunnelling last season.
The method sees defenders stop key forwards in their attempts to mark by upsetting their centre of gravity by making contact by chesting the lower half of the forward's body.
Riewoldt appeared increasingly frustrated by Bolton's tactics on Saturday night and the St Kilda coaching panel equally concerned.
It is understood the Saints had not ruled out approaching the AFL on Thursday with a series of incidents from the close, defensive encounter in which only 12 goals were scored in total and the game slammed by leading commentators.
The Saints contingent plans to put forward the duty of care argument to the AFL pointing out that tunnelling could cripple a footballer.
"They need to look at this because if it's used effectively on 'Roo' (Riewoldt) then it's going to keep happening and have an adverse effect on all our leading forwards like Pavlich and Brown and Lloydy," said Fraser. "We don't want it to become something our best players need to worry about or put up with."
