The latest MRO news from round 20 of the AFL on Steven May, Brody Mihocek
The AFL Appeal Board has handed down a verdict after Melbourne decided to challenge Steven May’s three-game ban. Ed Bourke has the details.
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Melbourne has failed in its bid to overturn Steven May’s suspension at the AFL appeals board on Monday night.
The veteran defender will serve the remainder of his three-match ban for a high-speed collision with Francis Evans after the appeals board ruled in favour of the AFL tribunal’s decision to suspend him.
The Demons, whose defence was led by former St Kilda board member Jack Rush KC, argued to overturn the decision on the grounds of procedural unfairness as they claimed May had not been given sufficient opportunity to defend himself against the tribunal’s allegations.
This was rejected by the appeals board, which also struck down the Demons’ argument that “no reasonable tribunal” would have suspended May for the round 19 incident.
The three-person appeals board of chairman Will Houghton KC, Wayne Henwood and Stephen Jurica took only 15 minutes to deliberate before upholding the three-game ban.
Mr Houghton said May had been given plenty of opportunity to explain his perspective of the incident and his decision-making process as he attacked the ball with Evans coming the other way.
“Having watched the video a number of times … having read the transcript of the evidence below, and the report of (biomechanist) Dr Cotton, we have to conclude that we are satisfied that May understood the case that was being put against him, and he had every opportunity to put forward his own case,” the appeals board chair said.
“We point to the fact that (May) was represented by an able and experienced junior counsel (Adrian Anderson), his evidence in chief took some time, and he was cross-examined by senior counsel from the AFL.
“It’s difficult to see whether player May was in fact disadvantaged or put to any detriment by specific matters that might or might not have been put to him.
“We conclude there was no lack of procedural fairness and there was no unreasonableness in the decision that the tribunal below came to.”
Melbourne had argued May or any other reasonable player could not have been expected to anticipate the ball would bounce backwards towards Evans as it did.
The Saints-supporting Mr Rush even referred to the infamous bounce away from Stephen Milne in the drawn 2010 grand final to demonstrate the “fickle” nature of the “oblong ball”.
“No reasonable tribunal could have expected player May to appreciate at this juncture that the ball would carry a trajectory completely different to the trajectory it had carried up until that point,” Mr Rush said.
“They are not decisions that are made in a boardroom, with the luxury of time. They are decisions that are made quickly, here in microseconds.”
But Mr Houghton said the appeals board was satisfied the tribunal had been reasonable in deciding that May should have slowed down or changed direction before he collided with Evans, who was left with a concussion, a broken nose and a missing tooth.
Melbourne did not argue that a text message from Evans to May expressing surprise that May had not arrived at the ball first should have been given more weight in the tribunal hearing.
May, who would have missed Sunday’s devastating six-point loss to St Kilda due to concussion regardless of the ban, will also be sidelined for the Demons’ next two games against West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.
MIHOCEK DODGES BAN OVER VLASTUIN PUSH
— Jon Ralph
Brody Mihocek has dodged a suspension from the match review panel despite pushing Richmond defender Nick Vlastuin into oncoming traffic in the Pies’ defeat of the Tigers.
Vlastuin’s ability to emerge unscathed saw the Pies forward handed only a $1500 fine despite Richmond forward Rhyan Mansell’s three-week ban earlier this year.
Mansell was suspended and the tribunal upheld his ban after it was judged he could reasonably foresee that the action in pushing St Kilda’s Liam O’Connell into traffic could cause injury.
O’Connell was concussed after he collided with Richmond’s Tom Lynch and St Kilda’s Anthony Caminiti after the ball went over the heads of the Saints defender and Mansell.
The Tigers were outraged by the decision after several incidents earlier in the season went unpunished, including Reuben Ginbey’s push on No.1 overall pick Sam Lalor which concussed the young Tiger in the pre-season.
But there are differences between Mihocek and Mansell which saw the Pies veteran only fined and able to play against reigning premiers Brisbane.
As Vlastuin and Mihocek jostled for position Vlastuin initiated contact and pushed his opponent to get him under the drop zone.
Mihocek then pushed back hard with more force and then having shunted the Tigers star out of the way, looked back at the ball to try to win the footy in the air.
By that stage he was out of position and was never likely to win the ball.
Vlastuin collided with Nathan Broad and Jamie Elliott and while he received the free kick he bounced straight back up to take the free kick
So while MRO boss Michael Christian judged that Mihocek could have forseen the oncoming players and that his action would have caused injury, it was assessed as only low impact.
Melbourne’s Jake Bowey also dodged suspension despite his run-down tackle which saw St Kilda’s Jack Higgins propelled into the Marvel Stadium turf.
Bowey hit the contest with speed and Higgins pitched forward and made contact with the turf.
But Bowey did not pin his right arm and even loosened his grip with his left arm as Higgins went to ground.
Under AFL tribunal precedent the AFL has overturned suspensions when players release an arm so it is a key point for Christian to assess as he considers whether an incident is reportable.
So Bowey was not even cited for the incident.
Originally published as The latest MRO news from round 20 of the AFL on Steven May, Brody Mihocek
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