Melbourne’s star recruit Steven May offered one-match suspension for late bump on Jarrod Berry
Steven May chose to bump and it was hitting his opponent high and late that has put his Melbourne debut on ice, says AFL match review officer Michael Christian. But the Dees could fight the charge.
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Melbourne is weighing up whether to take Steven May’s case to the AFL tribunal after their star recruit was offered a ban for his late bump on Lion Jarrod Berry.
The former Gold Coast captain – who was traded to Melbourne at the end of last season – was hit with a one-match ban for rough conduct on Berry during Saturday’s JLT clash, with the bump graded as careless, medium impact and to the head.
Melbourne was on Monday night considering whether to appeal at the tribunal on Tuesday night.
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Match review officer Michael Christian said May had made contact above Berry’s shoulders, automatically making it high contact.
“The first assessment is whether Steven made an election to bump, and we believed that he took steps and did exactly that – elected to bump,” he said.
“Then it’s a question of whether there was high contact. And bearing in mind that any contact above the shoulders is regarded as high within the guidelines, then we assessed that it was high contact to the neck and the jaw.”
The look of the incident and the fact that Berry took no further part in the game – plus a Lions medical report – had deemed the bump to be of medium impact.
May will miss the Demons’ Round 1 clash with Port Adelaide, meaning he will not pull on the red and blue until at least Round 2 against Geelong.
After Saturday’s match Goodwin said he believed the former Sun would be cleared to tackle Port Adelaide in Round 1.
“I had a bit of a look at that. (It) seemed minimal contact to me; he was just standing there ready to block,” Goodwin said after the match.
May isn’t the only AFL player staring down the barrel of a suspension, with Fremantle small forward Brandon Matera also offered a one-game ban.
He was charged with striking Eagles forward Jake Waterman, the incident deemed to be of low impact but intentional.
Six other charges were laid, with players able to accept fines from those incidents.
Hawk Liam Shiels is among those, the midfielder able to accept a $2000 fine for his punch on Tiger Jack Graham.
“It comes down to a question of impact, and I think we were really consistent last year and the big change in 2019 is that free kicks will be paid,” Christian said.
Liam Shiels and Jack Graham were involved in an incident in the third quarter. #JLTSeries pic.twitter.com/ZEwcfzsbOu
— AFL (@AFL) March 9, 2019
“It was pleasing to see a free kick paid against Liam in that particular case.
“The guidelines haven’t been changed with respect to striking, so it was intentional conduct, to the body, but the impact was low. His opponent didn’t go from the ground. He was inconvenienced, but he was able to get up and continue playing.”
The incident differed to that of Clayton Oliver, who was also fined $1500 under the new fixed financial sanction allowance for striking.
Oliver’s punch on Lion Jarryd Lions did not meet the impact threshold for a greater sanction but he was fined under the new category allowed as the league looks to stamp out punching.
Demon Aaron vandenBerg (two charges) and Port Adelaide youngster Todd Marshall are the other players who have been fined over incidents in their JLT Series clashes.
Originally published as Melbourne’s star recruit Steven May offered one-match suspension for late bump on Jarrod Berry