The AFL is putting the accident on trial in the Jackson Archer case. Can it win?

In the first moments the reaction was fear, as human bodies made for a highway car wreck in the middle of a football field.

With groans still ringing in the ears an assessment of the damage brought at least some good news. Jackson Archer, the fearless young North Melbourne defender, reached down to his right knee and was almost surprised to discover it had remained intact, along with the rest of the bones and ligaments in his leg. 

But a glance behind him revealed the true cost of the head-on. Luke Cleary, still in the infancy of his Western Bulldogs career, was face down and unconscious having collided face-first with Archer’s legs.

The concern for Cleary was great enough to send his coach Luke Beveridge sprinting from the coaches’ box down to the sidelines, where a number of Bulldogs fans berated Archer for his role in the incident. It was at this point, as Cleary left the field with the customary thumbs up of the fallen, that discussions turned to midweek.

The MRO would have to look at the incident and assess Archer’s culpability for Cleary’s injury, for it is its job. Within minutes of the contest a defence was being prepared for North’s son of a gun, should it be required.

By Sunday evening, it was clear it would — Archer had been handed a three-game suspension. Barely one full round into the 2025 season the game, regrettably, had gone.

Both coaches declared it an “unfortunate accident”, with Beveridge doubling down on his defence of the opposition player on Monday night. Nick Riewoldt in his media role went so far as to say he would be “really fearful for the game itself” if Archer was to be suspended.

“You can’t legislate accidents out of the game,” Riewoldt said on Triple M.

Except that is exactly what the AFL has been trying to do for many years now.

The notion that a player’s intent is a factor when it comes to the MRO and tribunal’s assessments of these incidents should have long since passed. Nobody in their right mind would suggest Archer tried to knock Cleary out in that moment, but in the AFL’s eyes that is hardly the point.

Archer’s indiscretion was described by the MRO as “careless conduct”. At the tribunal on Tuesday afternoon, the AFL will argue the pace with which Archer approached the contest put Cleary at risk of the exact head injury he suffered.

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And you can see their point. Archer is motoring towards Cleary, is always second favourite for the ball and makes contact of some sort an inevitability.

But it is also not Archer’s fault that Cleary falls forward at the last moment, partially in a weary attempt to pick up the ball and partially because of the pressure of Jacob Konstanty behind him.

Suggestions Cleary is to blame for the whole thing are a stretch, not least because he doesn’t seem to have any idea Archer is screaming towards him as he puts his head over the ball. He does not slide into the legs of Archer intentionally, he just falls forward at precisely the wrong moment.

But in a gruesome fusion of accidents, only one is on trial.

North Melbourne will justifiably claim Archer could not have known Cleary’s body position would suddenly be lowered dramatically. It will point to rules prohibiting contact below the knees as a means of reversing the culpability.

Most importantly, it will pose to the tribunal the most pivotal question of all — “what else was Jackon Archer supposed to do?”

All of that, combined with the outraged common consensus and existential fears for the sanctity of the game beyond Tuesday evening’s decision, still might not see Archer cleared.

There were things Jackson Archer could have done to avoid knocking Cleary out. He could have pulled out of the contest a fraction earlier, or gone in with more caution, or held back altogether to let his teammates handle Cleary.

Those options would have gone against every instinct he has, probably would have been highlighted by his coaches in a scathing post-game review, and brought shame upon the Archer name, carved from granite into the annals of Australian football history as it is.

The AFL will ask the tribunal to weigh all of that against the threat of concussion, in the knowledge that a court date is fast approaching and every knockout blow is a far more significant threat to the game’s future than a week’s worth of bad publicity. And it might win.

Even if the judgement comes down on Archer and North Melbourne’s side, the AFL will be undeterred in its vetting of future incidents. Accidents happen in football, but it’s beholden on the league to try to prevent them and let the tribunal sort out the rest.

For all of the frustration of the fans and potential disappointment of Archer, the AFL’s greatest priority is the health of Cleary. And it can not be criticised for that.