GWS star Toby Greene offered one-match ban and could miss preliminary final with Collingwood

A week after the AFL fined Toby Greene over a series of serious misconduct charges, the Giants star looks set for another date with the league tribunal after being offered a one-match ban.

Toby Greene has been offered a one-game ban. PiC: Getty Images

Toby Greene has been offered a one-week suspension by the match review panel for his bottom-of-the-pack facial contact against Lachie Neale.

Greater Western Sydney has been officially told that Greene has been suspended for a strike that had enough force to be assessed as intentional and low impact.

The league is yet to reveal its full ruling on the Saturday night Lions-GWS clash but felt Greene again crossed the line after referring him to the tribunal last week for serious misconduct.

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Toby Greene has been offered a suspension. Pic: Getty Images

Greene threw himself onto the pack with Neale on the ground and seemed to grapple with Neale.

Whether he threw a short right jab or made unnecessary contact with his face was not obvious from footage.

But the slow-mo footage when zoomed in showed that he had crossed the line, using enough force to be charged.

Instead of being referred for serious misconduct he has this time been offered a one-week suspension using the MRO’s table of offences.

He can expect to go to the tribunal to challenge that ruling so he can play in the preliminary final against Collingwood.

It shapes as a blockbuster Monday night at the tribunal with Tom Hawkins set to appear on Monday night for his strike on West Coast’s Will Schofield.

The Cats have until Monday at 11am to take that one-week suspension to the tribunal but are certain to do so.

The Giants took a physical approach with Lachie Neale. Pic: AAP

GWS board director Jimmy Bartel said that Greene’s reputation clearly counted against him.

“I can see why there’s a lot of angst, anger - he peeves off opposition supporters and people in general because his record says he gets himself involved in this sort of stuff … there’s no denying that,” Bartel said.

“He gets under the skin, he agitates he frustrates, he does it all but he’s a bloody talented player.

“There’s always a focus on him. After what happened last week… the focus (was) directly on him.”

Bartel said Greene’s fine for serious misconduct last week won’t be taken into account.

“Our systems changed – the AFL, MRO, the reporting system – loading doesn’t come into it,” Bartel told 3AW.

“Whatever he did last week doesn’t matter and people will look at this going, ‘why would he do it? He should be rubbed out’.

“That will be the tone of the conversation.”

"I was hugely relieved to get just a fine. I was just glad I was able to contribute tonight."

Toby Greene talks about GWS' massive win and the incident with Lachie Neale#AFLFinals pic.twitter.com/kpCnsE9txW

— 7AFL (@7AFL) September 14, 2019

Greene told Channel 7 after the game he believed he would escape censure.

“I was aware of that at the time. There was probably a bit of heat in the game,” he said.

“It is what it is, we’ll see what they say. I didn’t think there was too much in it.”

Greene was referred to the tribunal for a trio of offences last week against Marcus Bontempelli including unnecessary contact to the face.

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But by the time he faced the tribunal it seemed that aspect of misconduct had been dropped, with the league not asking Greene about that issue.

He accepted a $7500 fine for conduct that included a forearm to Bontempelli’s head and pullling his hair and ramming his head into the ground.

Tribunal watchers were mystified about that case, with Michael Christian seemingly referring him so he would testify about the unnecessary contact.

Originally published as GWS star Toby Greene offered one-match ban and could miss preliminary final with Collingwood