AFLW finals: Belle Dawes free to play in Brisbane Lions’ preliminary final after successful tribunal challenge

Belle Dawes will be free to line up for the Brisbane Lions in their preliminary final after being cleared in a marathon AFLW tribunal hearing on Wednesday.

Belle Dawes is free to play in Brisbane’s preliminary final after successfully appealing her one-match ban for charging.

Following an incredible three-and-a-half-hour tribunal hearing on Wednesday morning, Dawes was found to have done the best in the circumstances available to her to avoid dangerous contact.

Dawes was reported for an incident involving Hawthorn’s Ainslie Kemp during the Lions’ qualifying final win last Sunday.

After the ball got over the back of the contest, Dawes was running towards the drop before her chest made contact with Kemp in an attempt to avoid a collision.

The contact did not warrant a free kick at the time, but the match review officer found there was enough evidence to lay a charging offence, graded as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.

Isabel Dawes is free to play for the Lions in their preliminary final. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images.

However, Brisbane counsel Anna Cappellano successfully convinced the tribunal on Wednesday morning that Dawes’s actions displayed a clear attempt to prevent a dangerous collision. The main submission was that the impact did not constitute charging, and also that she was not careless in her actions.

Dawes gave evidence to the tribunal that emphasised her role as a contested-ball winner for the Lions. She stated that an unusual bounce of the ball meant attempting to tackle Kemp was no longer an option and in a split second she decided to take steps to avoid contact.

“My next decision was to get out of the way. I didn’t want to hurt her … I could see a head clash happening,” Dawes said.

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“I tried to stop my momentum, I don’t like knee-on-knee contact. I was trying to get my head and shoulders away from her face. I didn’t want to get concussed either.

“You could say Craig (Starcevich) wouldn’t even be happy because I didn’t complete the tackle. I didn’t realise she was down until play stopped a little bit later.”

The AFL argued that Kemp was the player who clearly had eyes for the ball, had no momentum and was in a vulnerable position. Footage was also shown that displayed Dawes leaving the ground in the moments before contact. As a result, AFL counsel Sam Bird suggested Dawes did not meet the duty of care required for a reasonable player.

The tribunal panel, led by chair Renee Enbom KC, spent more than two hours deliberating the appeal. They spent the time reviewing the footage and found Dawes’s verbal evidence to be compelling and in line with what they saw.

“Dawes found herself in an awkward and unexpected position after the ball bobbled in the way it did and Kemp had lowered herself,” Ms Enbom said.

“(Dawes) sensibly took steps to avoid a head clash, did not turn her shoulder and did her best in the circumstances to minimise the impact.

“We’re not satisfied from the vision that she jumped into Ms Kemp. We consider it likely that as they collided, she was lifted up off the ground.

“We are not satisfied that Dawes committed the reportable offence of charging.”

Dawes will now be available for Brisbane’s preliminary final next weekend, against the winner of Saturday’s Adelaide-Fremantle semi-final, as the Lions look to go back-to-back following their 2023 premiership triumph.