New evidence delays appeal over Ebony Marinoff’s three-game ban as Giants skipper hits back in support of Brid Stack
Giants skipper Alicia Eva has strongly refuted suggestions Irish recruit Brid Stack’s lack of experience contributed to her broken neck. Here’s why.
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GWS captain Alicia Eva has strongly refuted suggestions that Irish recruit Brid Stack’s inexperience at AFLW level contributed to her broken neck against Adelaide in a practice match.
Stack was injured in the final minute of last Sunday’s practice match against the Crows after she collided with Ebony Marinoff as they went for a ground-ball contest following a ball-up in the GWS forward-50.
Marinoff has been slugged with the longest ever suspension in AFLW history - three games - for the incident.
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WATCH THE INCIDENT IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE
Scans revealed Stack, 34, has a stable fracture of the C7 vertebra and no injury to the surrounding nerve from the incident in her first ever game of Australian Rules after coming to the Giants following a successful career in Gaelic football.
There has been suggestions that Stack’s lack of experience playing Australian Rules contributed to the shocking injury.
But Giants skipper Eva took aim at them.
“We are getting around her and she is our priority at the moment,” Eva said.
“I was right there and that’s what I really want to reiterate, the No. 1 priority for us is Brid Stack and, with a lot of the commentary that is floating around, we can’t lose sight of that.
“It’s going to be a challenging few months ahead for Stacky and she is as upbeat as anyone and wears the neck brace like a champion but it was a pretty scary moment for her and our girls on Sunday.
“Up until that point she was one of our best players on the ground and was involved in a lot of different contests so I think it is something that we just want to make sure that people don’t lose sight of, that we are talking about a professional athlete (here).
“And any question of culpability of us as a club and me as a player, I’m really satisfied that Brid wasn’t playing or acting in a way that made her culpable in any way for the outcome and we need to make sure we support her and don’t lose sight of that.”
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Marinoff has appealed the verdict, with her hearing adjourned until next week to review fresh video evidence of another incident Adelaide believes may have contributed to Stack’s neck fracture.
Marinoff came across the footage and she brought it to her counsel’s attention just 15 minutes before the hearing on Thursday.
The video showed two Crows bumping Stack over the boundary, toward the hoarding fence, as the Irish recruit was kicking, at the 16-minute mark of the first quarter of the trial game.
Eva said the Giants were focusing on supporting Stack, who is now sporting a neck brace, in her recovery.
“Truth be told she has had a really tough week, she has suffered a really significant injury,” she said.
“There were two outcomes that could have played out, the best outcome has happened but it is still a really significant injury so she is like our other Irish players like Cora (Staunton) who are very stubborn and bold and she (Stack) is already talking about potentially trying to get back but we know that is a long road ahead for her.
“She has a young family with her here and it was a really difficult time for her on Sunday and her family in Ireland.”
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New evidence delays Marinoff’s ban fight
- Matt Turner
Ebony Marinoff’s appeal hearing has been adjourned until next week to review fresh video evidence of an incident Adelaide believes may have contributed to GWS player Brid Stack’s neck fracture.
Marinoff, who on Tuesday night copped the AFLW’s longest ever ban – a three-game suspension – for engaging in forceful front-on contact on Stack, came across the footage and she brought it to her counsel’s attention just 15 minutes before the hearing on Thursday.
The video showed two Crows bumping Stack over the boundary, toward the hoarding fence, as the Irish recruit was kicking, at the 16-minute mark of the first quarter of Sunday’s trial game between Adelaide and GWS at Norwood Oval.
But the hearing’s chairman David Jones said the additional evidence could not be taken into account “on the run” and the AFL’s counsel needed time to investigate it.
The hearing has been adjourned until next Thursday (January 28).
Stack was taken from the ground on an ambulance with a broken C7 vertebra after colliding with Marinoff in the Giants’ forward 50 in the final minute of the game.
The Crows star’s suspension caused uproar as many on social media leapt to her defence and the club called it “grossly disproportionate for the action”.
Adelaide’s counsel, QC Sam Abbott, said on Thursday there was a reasonable possibility the first-quarter incident led to Stack’s fracture so Marinoff’s bump could not be deemed severe, as the tribunal had found.
Abbott said “in some ways” it was the “more probable source of the injury”.
The footage, which was played but not analysed, did not show Stack making contact with the fence because she was obscured by the bench.
If Marinoff does not get her three-game ban overturned or reduced, the dual premiership player and two-time All-Australian will miss a third of the season, which starts on January 28.
‘Count my blessings’: Giant opens up on shock injury
- Liz Walsh
Greater Western Sydney recruit, Brid Stack, who had her neck fractured in an on-field collision playing her first game of AFLW on Sunday, has thanked medical staff in Adelaide as well as her teammates and supporters as she looks forward to a full recovery from the devastating injury.
“Devastated but count my blessings,” Stack, who is an 11-time All-Ireland Gaelic footballer, posted on social media.
“Looking forward to rehab once cleared to do so.
“For now, hup the drugs.”
The Giants relocated to Adelaide ahead of the AFLW season starting next week to avoid border restrictions facing residents of New South Wales.
Their star recruit posted a photograph of herself with two thumbs up, on an Adelaide beach, wearing the neck brace that she will be in for the next six weeks as she recovers from her injury.
Stack collided with Crows midfielder Ebony Marinoff in the final minute of a practice match between the two sides at Norwood Oval on Sunday.
The collision happened when both players were going for a groundball.
Marinoff has been banned by the AFL Tribunal for three matches - the harshest penalty ever handed down in AFLW history - after they found her guilty of forceful front-on contact for the bump that fractured Stack’s C7 vertebrae.
Devastated but counting my blessings. Looking forward to rehab once cleared to do so. For now, hup the drugs 🙌 Thanks for all the lovely messages, to all involved with @GWSGIANTS, to the exemplary healthcare staff in Adelaide & to a little man whose hugs make everything better🧡 pic.twitter.com/E5AFQm2mbw
— BrÃd Stack (@BridStackie) January 20, 2021
The Crows and Marinoff have appealed the decision on the grounds that the verdict was unreasonable and the sanction “grossly disproportionate”.
The appeal will be held on Thursday evening.
Stack, who relocated to Australia in December with her husband and toddler son for the chance to play AFLW, thanked her supporters.
“Thanks for all the lovely messages, to all involved with GWS Giants, to the exemplary healthcare staff in Adelaide and to a little man whose hugs make everything better,” she posted to her Twitter account.
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Crows claim Marinoff ban ‘grossly’ excessive
- Liz Walsh
Adelaide will appeal the three-game ban handed to its star midfielder Ebony Marinoff for a collision that left Greater Western Sydney recruit Brid Stack with a fractured neck.
On Tuesday, Marinoff was hit with the longest suspension in AFLW history after the AFL Tribunal found her guilty of forceful front-on contact for the bump that fractured Stack’s C7 vertebrae.
The Crows will appeal the tribunal on the grounds that the decision was unreasonable and the sanction “grossly disproportionate”.
On Tuesday, Marinoff pleaded not guilty to the charge arguing that she had no viable alternative in the contest. The tribunal disagreed.
The three-match ban is the equivalent of a third of the AFLW season, but is the statutory minimum for such a charge in the AFL.
The AFL’s appeals board will likely sit on Thursday night to hear Adelaide’s appeal.
In a strongly worded statement, Crows’ head of women’s football, Phil Harper, said the club was contesting the tribunal on the grounds that the decision was unreasonable and that the sanction imposed was excessive.
He said the appeal was in the best interests of the club.
“We are appealing this decision because we all feel that the suspension is grossly disproportionate for the action,” Harper said.
“We need to support our player in this instance, as we feel Ebony acted in an appropriate manner given the circumstances of this incident.”
Crows AFLW senior coach Matthew Clarke described the bump – which occurred in the final minute of a practice match between the two clubs on Sunday – as a “football incident”.
He said the Crows were compelled to appeal and support their 23-year-old, two-time All-Australian midfielder.
“Ebony plays the game in the manner we want all players to play and in my opinion, she made every effort to minimise the impact of what was an unavoidable footy collision,” Clarke said.
“With regard to the penalty, as coaches and administrators we have a duty of care to our players.
“Ebony and all other AFLW players train incredibly hard for nine months for the opportunity to play just nine games.
“We feel it is unjust and disproportionate to have one third of those games taken away by what I believe to be an unavoidable incident.
“We believe it’s important to not only support our players, but to question an outcome which we see as placing an unreasonable expectation on all players to avoid contact in circumstances where the ball is in dispute.”
If the appeal is unsuccessful, Marinoff doesn’t risk adding more games to her suspension, however there will be a financial cost to the club.
Harper said the club hoped Stack had a speedy recovery.
“We feel for the Giants and Brid in particular and wish her all the best for what is hopefully a speedy recovery,” he said.
Opinion: Why Crows must appeal unjust Marinoff ban
- Liz Walsh
The Crows have rightly appealed the ban handed to their star midfielder Ebony Marinoff on the grounds it is grossly disproportionate.
Now, it’s up to the AFL appeals board to reduce the harshest penalty the tribunal has ever handed out in the women’s game.
On Tuesday night, Marinoff was handed a three-match suspension – the harshest penalty ever handed out to an AFLW player – by the tribunal when it found the two-time premiership winner guilty of forceful front-on conduct for a collision that occurred in a practice game at Norwood Oval on Sunday, January 17.
For context, Adelaide was playing Greater Western Sydney in a pre-season friendly.
All day, it had been a hard, fast, contested game, ultimately won by the Crows by 20 points.
But the game was abandoned as it ticked over into its final minute after a GWS player was hurt in a contest.
As the fourth quarter hit its 19th – and final – minute, there was a stoppage inside the Giants’ forward-50.
Crows ruck Montana McKinnon won the ball-up and tipped it down towards Marinoff who was waiting at the side of the pack to win the clearance.
Marinoff ran onto the ball once it had fallen to ground.
At the same time, Giants new recruit Brid Stack – a 34-year-old retired legend of Irish Gaelic football – came at the ball. Her head was down.
From here, it all happened in a split second: Marinoff and Stack collided, with Stack falling to the ground in agony while Marinoff stood back, with her hands in the air.
The medical diagnosis exists too: the C7 vertebrae in Stack’s neck was fractured.
She avoided surgery and will make a full recovery, but her recovery will require at least six weeks in a neck brace.
She will in all likelihood miss the 2021 season.
For this incident, the tribunal banned Marinoff – a player who is the league’s leading tackler across four seasons and has a previously clean slate – for a record three games.
Sometimes accidents/unfortunate injuries happen. This was not an intentional, malicious action. That’s a third of the season. #appeal https://t.co/JqqAIcV9KW
— Graham Cornes (@Cornesy12) January 19, 2021
When you look back over the vision of that moment on Sunday, surely Marinoff – a 30-game, 2017 Rising Star/turned two-time All-Australian AFLW footballer – could not have known that when she ran towards that ground ball contest, she was coming up against a player who had never played a single competitive game of AFLW before.
There is talk among the AFLW community that footballers trained in AFL might have approached a similar ground ball contest in a different way, perhaps more side-on.
Regardless, the injury was devastating.
Marinoff’s ban is three games. In a nine-round AFLW season, that’s a third of the season.
Translate that ban to the AFL competition and it would see a male player banned for about eight games.
So therefore, the question is: Does Marinoff’s ban fit the crime?
It’s well-known that when the AFL tribunal considers penalty, it takes injury into account and a neck fracture is a serious injury. No one will deny this.
But, similarly, no one will deny that accidents happen in contact sports.
Marinoff’s three-game suspension was recommended by AFL counsel simply because the three-game ban is the statutory minimum set by AFL guidelines.
But given that minimum is set for the men’s competition, and yet was directly applied to the AFLW competition, perhaps what is needed here is a rewriting of those AFL guidelines so that there is a new statutory minimum set for the women’s competition.
Would a male player have been banned for eight matches for this exact same incident?
If so, please show me the precedent.
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