Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has described this week's tackle controversy as a "shock wave" for the competition, and has defiantly declared he won't be telling his players to change their technique for the time being.
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And Richmond coach Adem Yze is looking to get help from NRL side Melbourne Storm in a bid to avoid his players falling victim to the AFL's tackle crackdown.
The three-match bans handed down to Brisbane star Charlie Cameron and GWS tagger Toby Bedford have enraged fans, players and coaches around the country.
The pair failed to overturn their respective bans at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night, and they will front up to the AFL appeals board on Thursday evening in a last-ditch effort to escape suspension.
"You can see by the reaction over the last 48-72 hours that there's a lot of confusion within playing ranks and coaching ranks," Fagan told reporters on Thursday morning.
"Coaches, we don't know how to coach necessarily the tackling now.
"Things like the sling tackle and driving guys into the ground, we clearly know that's out.
"We know you can't bump (high) - if you hit them in the head that's a problem.
"But what happened on the weekend was a little bit more of a shock wave and we've got to see where it all ends up."
First-year Tigers coach Yze said it will be hard to change the habits of players in such a short amount of time, and he's thinking outside the box to find a quick fix.
"We might have to look at getting NRL coaches in here to help us with our technique," Yze said.
"They're going through the same thing - they're protecting your head and so we'll obviously get our heads together with maybe some Melbourne Storm people.
"We've got a boxing coach that has done some martial arts and he was having a discussion with me this morning around some of that technique and whether 'can we not drive and fall with them, can we drop our knees?'
"So we've got to look at all those avenues because we've got habits that we've had as kids, it was always around pinning the arms and then taking them to ground."
Fagan conceded he may be forced to coach his players differently in the future if tackles like Cameron's and Bedford's continue to be punished.
But for now, he wants his players to continue to tackle like they've been taught.
"I don't want my players corralling and not putting the right amount of pressure on the opposition with the ball," Fagan said.
"For the time being, we won't be changing anything. We can't.
"It's difficult, because if you watch a bloke and he doesn't go hard at the tackle, or if he gets a tackle broken, 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.
"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.
"There's a lot of pressure on players, and I don't want my blokes going out there second guessing tackles."
Australian Associated Press
