A bit of a rant about player safety!

First. let me preface this by saying that the opinions expressed in this article are my own, and do not represent the views of anyone or any organisation that I be affiliated with.

Now, lets get right into this shall we? I am more than confident that you will all know the incident that I am referring to....right? If not, here are a few pictures to highlight what happened.

The incident occurred late in the 2nd period just after the Melbourne Ice Forward Jason Baclig had scored his second goal of the night.

The Brave were pressuring the Melbourne Ice goalie, Jaden Pine-Murphey and looked to have the lions share of the momentum...until this happened.

This is hockey, not wrestling on ice....and what happened to Geordie Wudrick was more like a Rock Bottom by none other than Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson!

The ensuing social media frenzy was something that I have not seen during my time following the AIHL, granted I have only been following it for just over 12 months now. Even in following the NHL, I cant think of too many incidents like this!

My greatest concern is that nothing came from this ugly incident! Yes, the offender of this incident was later sent off...but it was not for this! It was related to a fight that was almost undoubtedly caused by the above. I haven't heard anything in relation to suspension either!

This kind of brutality cannot be allowed to occur in this league if we want to grow the sport in our country! There needs to be something like a Player Safety Board to review things like this and recommend or apply some form of sanction against the instigator and any other parties that are drawn into it.

As a result of this, Geordie Wudrick has suffered a concussion, and his return to the ice is not known as yet.

Let me finish by saying that I am all for a good hockey fight...they serve a purpose in hockey. They tend to either fire a team up, or quell the urge to do something like this! Fighting in this league is punished with a game suspension at the least....but a Rock Bottom to your opponent is shrugged off.....really?

There have been a handful of incidents like this, and this is just the latest example of it. Yes, I am a Brave fan, and yes this incident has angered me! But I am not just speaking about this occurrence! This behavior needs to stop, across the board!

Something really should be done about this...we cannot allow actions like these to be synonymous with the Australian Ice Hockey League!

The guys that spend their time playing in this league, putting on one hell of a show for all of us, deserve respect and protection! This is their passion, not their job. Many of them have regular jobs like you and I and the injuries sustained on the ice can often lead to major impacts on the players lives.

Stand and let your voice be heard! This is UNACCEPTABLE! No matter who, no matter which team you support. This cannot be allowed to continue!

Right....I'm done....

Grizzly out!

We are CBR! We want it more!