AFL Tribunal rules on hard hits by Saint Ben Long, Bomber Dylan Shiel
The AFL tribunal has issued its ruling on Essendon’s appeal against Dylan Shiel’s two-match ban for his crushing hit on Roo Curtis Taylor as it slaps Saint Ben Long with a hefty suspension for crunching Docker Sean Darcy.
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Essendon used Trent Cotchin’s famous 2017 preliminary final bump on Dylan Shiel in an attempt to help the Bombers star downgrade his rough conduct charge at the tribunal on Tuesday night.
It didn’t work with Shiel to miss two games for his high bump on North Melbourne’s Curtis Taylor last Saturday night.
The jury rejected Essendon’s bid to reduce the impact from high to medium, meaning Shiel will miss Friday night’s clash with the Western Bulldogs and the following week’s match against Adelaide.
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There was late drama with former GWS Giants coach Mark Williams called by Essendon as a character witness for Shiel after the jury had reached its decision.
Williams, whose daughter is in a long-term relationship with Shiel, said the Bombers midfielder has “never ever had any malice in his football.”
The Bombers pointed to Shiel’s previous clean record to argue for “exceptional and compelling circumstances” to be considered when deciding Shiel’s punishment.
This was rejected by the jury, who ruled the two-week ban would stand.
As part of its evidence, the Bombers brought up Cotchin’s bump on Shiel – then playing with the GWS Giants – in which the Tigers skipper was cleared before leading Richmond to the premiership.
Essendon’s representative, Adrian Anderson, said that was “exactly the type of incident where he (Shiel) had been concussed, and he had to be coached to protect himself better in that type of scenario.”
Shiel said that controversial incident, in which he was on the receiving end, changed the way he has gone about contesting the ball ever since.
“It changed the way I needed to approach contesting the ball in a 50-50 contest,” Shiel said during the hearing.
“I received a lot of coaching in my remaining time at the Giants from Lenny Hayes and Leon Cameron in how to best approach that contest, and not leaving my head exposed to contact from the opposing player.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on improving my technique, in protecting myself from an incident like that not happening again.”
The AFL’s representative, Jeffrey Gleeson QC, who argued against the evidence being relevant, said they were “not in the business of having mini-trials about other issues.”
On the Taylor incident, Shiel said his instinct was to protect himself and not leave himself vulnerable.
Gleeson said it was “the blow to the head” that was in question and also argued the speed and distance at which Shiel came from must be taken into account.
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SAINT SLAPPED WITH LONG BAN
The AFL has sent a strong message that the bump is dead as its tribunal on Tuesday night slapped St Kilda’s Ben Long with a three-game suspension despite accepting there was “no malice” in his actions.
Desperate to minimise headhigh contact and concussions ahead of looming legal battles with former players, the league’s tribunal found that Long had “elected to bump” and was liable for his actions.
Long’s hip collected Fremantle ruckman Sean Darcy’s head as the pair scrambled for a loose ball in their match on Saturday, with Darcy suffering a “clear” concussion and neck and jaw pain.
The length of the suspension was agreed upon by the AFL and St Kilda before the hearing, with Long pleading guilty to the rough conduct charge.
A three-man tribunal panel of David Neitz, Shane Wakelin and Stephen Jurica deliberated for 22 minutes before endorsing the recommendation put to them.
St Kilda football boss Simon Lethlean said the club had considered trying to argue the case down to a two-week suspension but was acutely aware of the impacts of repeat concussions on players.
St Kilda forward Paddy McCartin has not played an AFL game since Round 16, 2018 due to symptoms from multiple concussions.
“We’re a club that understands the severity and significance of concussion,” Lethlean told Fox Footy’s AFL360 after the hearing.
“We’ve dealt with that ourselves. Ben was disappointed with the situation that occurred and didn’t want to be missing games, but at the same time we felt that as a club it was on the lower end of careless and the lower end of severe and we wanted to make sure that we got the lower end of the three weeks as compared to three-plus.
“I don’t think his action itself was over the top in malice. He didn’t go past the ball, he wasn’t looking to take the player out and his eyes never left the ball.”
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The tribunal found that Long “elected to bump rather than take possession of the ball” but accepted that he was “attempting to protect the ball and the movement of the ball and therefore there was no malice involved in the bump”.
Representing Long, Jack Rush QC argued that Darcy had “gone to his knees and propelled into the contest in a way” and that when Long had entered the contest all players around it were “on their feet”.
Jeff Gleeson QC, representing the AFL, submitted to the tribunal that “three weeks is neither too high nor too low” a penalty and that the league was confident Long recognised “the gravity of the incident”.
“We don’t know how long Darcy’s out for but we do know that he suffered significant force to his head, we do know that he suffered concussion and it has to be said there was potential for even worse consequences because when a bump of that force is applied to the head there can be fractures or breaks,” Gleeson said.
Long’s previous history of suspensions in the Northern Territory Football League, VFL and TAC Cup were not raised during the hearing.
Originally published as AFL Tribunal rules on hard hits by Saint Ben Long, Bomber Dylan Shiel