MRO: Hawk Daniel Howe to face tribunal, Eagle Shannon Hurn avoids sanction

DANIEL Howe has been offered a ban for one incident during Hawthorn’s win over Carlton, but will face the tribunal over another in a dirty day for the Hawk, but it’s better news for a star Eagle. EVERY MRO DECISION

HAWK Daniel Howe could have his season ended by the tribunal tomorrow night after he tripped Carlton’s Zac Fisher, ending the young Blues’ season.

Fisher, 20, suffered a cracked fibula in the incident which happened in the first quarter of Sunday’s 72-point Hawthorn win at Etihad Stadium and will not play again this year. OBSERVATION: DOG IN HOSPITAL AFTER HURN HIT HOWE HIT: HAWK PUNCHES STAR BLUE SCROLL DOWN TO RE-CAP ALL TODAY’S FOOTY NEWS IN THE BLOG BELOW Howe — who was referred directly to the tribunal for the careless and severe impact act by match review officer Michael Christian — was also hit with a two-match ban for striking Carlton star Patrick Cripps. If found guilty of the charge, Howe would be slapped with a minimum three-match penalty. Any suspension handed down by the tribunal tonight would be in addition to the two-week ban, should he choose to accept it this morning. Christian said the motion of Howe’s leg in the incident and Fisher’s diagnosis had been detrimental. “We thought the action from Howe was an instinctive action, not intentional, but certainly careless,” he said. “There was a swinging leg motion that obviously had some impact on Zac Fisher. “Then the question of impact … clearly Carlton releasing news that Zac Fisher had broken his leg we believed in that particular case it did fit into the severe grading.” Only five matches remain in the home and away season as the Hawks fight for a top-eight spot. If suspended tonight, Howe would become the first player since Hawks skipper Jarryd Roughead was hit with a one-match ban for tripping Demon Dom Tyson. Seventeen players have been fined for tripping since that incident. Howe’s striking — graded as intentional conduct with medium impact to the head — was strengthened due to the look of a punch which Christian was adamant had no part in the game. He also took the chance of causing serious injury into account in assessing the impact of the strike. “Cripps went down momentarily, got up and then played out the rest of the game, so ordinarily it would have been a low impact (grading),” he said. “As a consequence of the potential to cause a more serious injury, we upgraded it to medium. “It’s obviously something that we don’t want to see in the game. It’s largely been removed from the game, but it does happen. We really need to be strong around it and make sure an appropriate penalty is handed down.” West Coast captain Shannon Hurn escaped sanction following an ugly collision with Bulldog Mitch Honeychurch that left Honeychurch stretchered from the field and hospitalised for observation. Christian deemed that Hurn had remained stationary and thus had no charge to answer. “He was stationary, the ball bobbled past him, and Mitch Honeychurch was coming towards him,” he said. “He moved his body to protect himself and believed in the situation that he was entitled to turn to protect himself and brace for what was inevitable contact. “The key aspect here — particularly when you talk about the forceful front-on provisions — is that he was in a stationary position before the incident and after the incident.” The difference for Hawk Ricky Henderson — who was hit with a $2000 for front-on contact on Carlton’s Levi Casboult — is that he had been in motion when he made the careless, low impact contact to the head. Brisbane defender Tom Cutler was also hit with a two-match ban for rough conduct on Crow Lachlan Murphy, with Christian assessing the incident as careless, high impact and to the head. Geelong star Tom Hawkins was cleared for his open-handed push on Demon Bailey Fritsch, while Docker Brandon Matera also escaped sanction with his contact with Bomber Zach Merrett after Christian determined that Matera “did not elect to bump and his actions were not a decision to bump or make forceful contact from front-on”. Watch every match of every round of the 2018 Toyota AFL Premiership Season. SIGN UP NOW >

Originally published as MRO: Hawk Daniel Howe to face tribunal, Eagle Shannon Hurn avoids sanction