AFL fans rage over Ben Keays development in Crows victory after Toby Bedford drama

Ben Keays has produced one of his best ever games for Adelaide as the Crows edged Essendon in a Friday night AFL thriller, but he might find himself in trouble for the a 'dangerous' tackle on Jye Caldwell. Keays was unstoppable against Essendon having kicked a career-high five goals at Marvel Stadium in the 7.13 (115) to 17.11 (113) win.

The Crows managed to turn around a 15-point deficit with seven minutes remaining and kicked the final three goals in Friday night's captivating shootout to end a seven-game losing run against the Bombers. And while Adelaide fans were thrilled with the result, Keays could be facing a suspension amid the AFL's harsh stance on dangerous tackles.

In the fourth quarter, Keays tackled Caldwell as he dragged him to the ground and the Essendon star's head hit the ground. While Caldwell had one arm free, he wasn't able to stop the collision and was subbed out of the game.

The tackle was reminiscent of Toby Bedford's incident last week, which saw him initially hit with a three-game suspension. However, Bedford appealed the suspension and escaped the ban. There was uproar around Bedford's initial suspension with AFL legends such as Jonathan Brown slamming the state of the game if his incident was deemed to be worthy of three games on the sideline.

And fans have quickly jumped on the incident and have called for Keays to avoid any ban for his Brownlow Medal hopes. “It’s going to be one that’s talked about, I’m sure. It’s probably best we leave it at that,” Crows coach Matthew Nicks said of the tackle.

And when asked on Channel 7 about the incident, Keays admitted he didn't think there was much in it. “I thought it was just a standard tackle," he said. “He got winded. I thought he hit his head but luckily he was just winded. Umpire paid a free kick, it is what it is I guess. We just continued to play hard, really.”

The Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph argued because Keays didn't pin both of the arms in the tackle he could be fine. “He (Caldwell) is in a vulnerable position, but he clearly only has one arm pinned there,” Ralph said on Fox Sports commentary.

“Is it excessive force? I would think the AFL has spent the whole week telling us that if you pin both arms you’re in trouble, but if you allow a player to brace for a fall, you’re much less likely to be suspended. So I would think on that, I think he’s fine.”

Reporter Mitch Cleary pointed out that under the guidelines, both arms don't need to be pinned for it to be deemed a 'dangerous tackle'. Fans were also quick to defend Keays after his best ever game for the Crows.

Jonathan Brown blasts state of the AFL

Only last week, Brown took exception to the bans initially handed to Charlie Cameron and Bedford. He took aim at the state of the game as he called out the AFL.

"What has happened to our great game? And I’m alluding to the decisions by the AFL and the MRO to suspend Toby Bedford and Charlie Cameron – we’ll start with the Toby Bedford one of GWS," Brown said on Fox Footy's On The Couch.

"It’s just astonishing – I know where we’re going as a game, and we’re trying to protect the head, and we’ve done an amazing job in the last five to ten years of protecting the players out there. But what in the hell, is Toby Bedford meant to do? We are allowed to tackle in our game, all he did was pursue Tim Taranto and tackle him in what has been a legal way for the best part of 100 years.

"It’s getting into troubling territory for me, and that’s really concerning – I think we’re now starting to eat into the fabric of the game. Yes, I feel bad for Tim Taranto, we don’t want players to get injured, but we are starting to eat into the fabric of the game Bucks."

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Last week, Chris Fagan said ahead of Cameron's appeal there was plenty of confusion with the game around what will be deemed a dangerous tackle and what won't. “I would just say that you can see by the reaction over the last 48, 72 hours that there’s a lot of confusion within playing ranks and within coaching ranks. Coaches, we don’t know how to coach it,” he said.

“It’s difficult because we all sit there and watch the game … you watch a bloke, if he doesn’t go hard at the tackle or whatever, we’re critical of them. Tackle making and tackle breaking are incredibly important parts of our game and they happen in an absolute split second.

“And then we sit back with the benefit of slow motion replays and break it all down and turn it into something bigger than it actually is in my opinion. There’s a lot of pressure on players and I don’t want my blokes going out there second guessing tackles.”