AFL star Steven May learns his fate for divisive Carlton act

Steven May has learned his fate from the AFL Tribunal for his contentious act that left Carlton’s Francis Evans bloodied and bruised.

Steven May has learned his fate for his hit on Carlton forward Francis Evans that fiercely divided the AFL fraternity and led to a hugely drawn out deliberation.

May’s act left 23-year-old Evans bloodied with a broken nose and a displaced tooth, graded by the Match Review Officer as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.

Referred directly to the Tribunal, the AFL was seeking a three-match ban for the incident and after taking well over an hour to make a call, the charge was upheld and that is the suspension he received.

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The Demons entered a not guilty plea to the rough conduct charge and wanted the case thrown out, listing nine reasons for that stance, including May’s height, the unexpected bounce of the ball and the fact he didn’t jump from the ground.

They argued May’s contact was not unreasonable as he accelerated towards a footy that was in dispute and the defender believed he would take possession first.

Francis Evans was left in a bad way after the Steven May hit. Photos: Fox Sports/Getty Images

The AFL argued 33-year-old May had breached his duty of care, however, and they got their way, with May to serve three matches on the sideline.

Fox Footy’s David Zita, who was at the hearing, reported May telling the Tribunal: “It was sort of skimming across the surface, so I definitely thought it was my ball, given how the previous couple of bounces went.

“I was surprised Evans got to the ball first and did not try to bump him, maintaining the original line.

“I attempted to slow down, but it was too late.

“I just can’t believe I didn’t take possession. I thought I did everything right, so I’m just a bit shocked.”

May was keen to see a replay. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

Evans at least had a smile on his face in the rooms after Carlton’s win. Picture: Michael Klein

The Demons were expected to strongly lean on the case of Fremantle captain Alex Pearce, who initially copped a three-game ban for his collision that concussed Port Adelaide’s Darcy Byrne-Jones back in May.

In that incident, the defender had his suspension overturned in what was widely considered a crucial test case for players contesting the ball in collisions which cause concussion.

The verdict means May season is all but over, now missing games against St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs, returning for the round 23 clash with the Hawks.

There were a huge range of opinions over May’s incident, which came in the third quarter of the Blues’ eight-point win.

Port Adelaide veteran Travis Boak conceded the outcome for his former teammate Evans was a terrible look, but wondered what else May could have done.

“In my view it‘s a footy act, in terms of he looked like he had a play on the ball,” he said on AFL 360.

“He went for the ball and the last minute his decision is ‘oh no, I can’t get the ball’ and sort of braced and that’s where the impact came from.

“I don’t think there’s much he can do here, he had a play for the ball until the very last second and has to make a split decision almost to protect himself.

“Unfortunately ‘Frankie’ gets hit in the head and the outcome looks really bad, there’s a lot of blood and concussion and we don’t want to see that.

“But it’s a decision made at the last second so I’m not sure what else he could’ve done.”

Evans is surrounded by teammates after the collision. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

West Coast premiership player Will Schofield told AFL Tonight: “Maybe we see a one-week penalty because of the outcome, but I don’t think this is an act we need out of the game.

“I thought he did everything right until he didn’t and those sorts of accidental outcomes, I don’t think we should be penalising.”

Pies great Nathan Buckley took a different stance, telling Fox Footy: “I don’t know whether our game is capable of allowing that anymore.”

Many fans took the same side as Boak, but there was still a cross section of opinions on social media.

One wrote on X: “Should be nothing, stop encouraging the continued destruction of the game.”

Another tweeted: “That is 1000% a footy action, contesting the football at all times. It’s not even a bump.”

A third offered: “There is no duty of care towards the player and May contacts the head.”

A fourth wrote: “S**t that’s terrible, should be 5 weeks.”

In the lead-up to the hearing, journalist Jon Ralph told Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle his intel regarding Melbourne’s likely defence.

“They (the Demons) are convinced that Steven May will get off and they think that the Alex Pearce case is the key,” he said.

“Melbourne believes the fact that it was a marking contest for Alex Pearce, rather than a groundball, actually helps them. Because with Pearce, the ball was in the air, it wasn’t moving (bouncing unpredictably) there.

Another angle of the May incident. Photo: Fox Sports

“With May, on a slippery night, the ball bounced and bounced, and they felt it was absolutely going to bounce towards May.

“So, in that case, Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson, when he dismissed the Pearce case, said ‘it has never been the Tribunal’s position that a concussion inevitably results in a careless finding’.

“Adrian Anderson, the Melbourne advocate, will go to work on that statement. Pearce’s testimony was absolutely compelling, so Steven May … he will tell the truth.

“(Melbourne’s) position is that it would actually add confusion and indeed chaos if he was actually suspended, because we would be totally confused about where we’re at, when we got a bit of clarity with Alex Pearce a few weeks back.”

In the end, the AFL got its way and May will be out for three weeks.

– with Fox Sports

Originally published as AFL star Steven May learns his fate for divisive Carlton act