AFL 2019 | GWS star Toby Greene appeal rejected and he will miss preliminary final
GWS Giants star Toby Greene will be watching the Giants’ preliminary final against the Magpies from the stands.
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The GWS Giants have been unable get star Toby Greene’s one-match ban overturned with the star to join a heap of talent on the sidelines for the preliminary final.
The Giants will take on the Magpies at the MCG without the likes of Lachie Whitfield, Stephen Coniglio and Callan Ward in the side.
After almost two hours in front of the appeals panel, the one-match ban was upheld.
After the decision was handed down, the Giants left very quickly with Toby Greene offering only a few words.
“I’m bitterly disappointed. We thought we had a strong case. I’m looking forward to Saturday and supporting my teammates,” he said.
Giants CEO Dave Matthews also answered just one question, revealing the side wouldn’t be taking the case further.
“No we won’t (take it to court). As disappointed as we are we won’t do anything further. We’ve put forward two very good arguments twice this week,” Matthews said.
“We obviously felt the evidence was all in Toby’s favour. We’re stunned as a lot of people would be by the decision tonight.
“In the end that’s where we’ll leave it. We’ve got Saturday to focus on and we’ll now move on.”
It continues the ugly history of teams looking to overturn Tribunal decision with just two of 17 being overturned.
Ordinary 2 weeks for MRO & tribunal. Toby Greene was dumb putting himself in that position, but you CANNOT suspend a player with no concrete evidence. Especially when the opposition player is clear that contact was not made 🤦ðŸ»â€â™‚ï¸ god help anyone on the edge this weekend
— Adam Curley (@AdamCurleyMedia) September 19, 2019
Neale and Fagan said it was nose, not eyes....I'm not convinced the evidence is enough to rub him out. Greene on Bontempelli last week was far worse, AFL wasn't strong enough to suspend him, now do because they didn't like the look. AFL being reactive as usual.
— Paddy Sweeney (@SweeneyPaddy9) September 19, 2019
shown the incident live on TV, Greene said, "I was aware of that at the time, there was probably a bit of heat in the game. It is what it is. We'll see what they say, I didn't think there was too much in it."
— Vince Rugari (@VinceRugari) September 19, 2019
hard to parse that with claim he was trying to lock the ball in, IMO. https://t.co/57gTAk8qhL
How is Lachie Neale feeling? Respected man, disregarded. The week victim evidence officially died. @7NewsMelbourne @7AFL
— Mark Stevens (@Stevo7AFL) September 19, 2019
Giants coach Leon Cameron spoke on Fox Footy’s AFL360 that it was disappointing but the side would move to “plan B”.
“No doubt he’s going to be ostracised a little bit because of the way he goes about his footy but there's always going to be commentary about players who create a bit of interest and Toby’s one of them, but I’m not going to buy in to that (that it was a witch hunt),” Cameron said.
“We’ve got to judge players on the merits and clearly Toby did the wrong thing last week and put his hand up against the Bulldogs. We were disappointed as a footy club and he was disappointed as a person because he didn’t want to be seen in that light. We thought it was a different case this week but it didn’t go our way, we move towards Saturday and we look forward to playing the Pies.”
HOW IT UNFOLDED
Greene’s appeal took almost two hours as the Giants defence team spent a reported 63 minutes to lay out the argument.
The Herald Sun have reported Greene’s team have hit back at claims the star looked around to try check if the umpire was looking.
The Giants argued Greene was appealing for a free kick with umpire Ray Chamberlain “intently gazing”.
“In that case you’d have to be mad to do something intently illegal,” the Giants argued.
Did Greene look around first to see if he could get away with something "outside of the umpire's gaze?"
— Sam Landsberger 🗯 (@SamLandsberger) September 19, 2019
Not according to GWS, which says Greene knew Razor ray was "intently gazing" and "in that case you’d have to be mad to do something intently illegal". https://t.co/ybbed3FSRO
They also used a radio interview from Lions coach Chris Fagan who backed up Neale’s testimony that he felt it more on his nose than his eyes.
The legal team wrapped up the case with a pointed barb at the AFL match review officer and the Tribunal panel.
“There is an avalanche of evidence that is completely contradictory to the assertion that Toby Greene made illegal contact to the eye region of Lachie Neale,” Gillies said.
“We don’t know what the MRO was doing, we don’t know what the (tribunal) jury was doing, this was patently a hopeless prosecution against an innocent player. The appeal should be upheld.”
As it passed the 90 minute mark of the appeal, the Giants named Greene on their provisional team list for the weekend. Lachie Keeffe will now replace Greene.
Please note: Toby Greene has provisionally been named in the team as his Appeal is still underway at the time of publication.
— GWS GIANTS (@GWSGIANTS) September 19, 2019
On the other side, AFL legal counsel Nick Pane labelled parts of Neale’s evidence as “vague” and said the umpire’s view is obscured:
“Having not accepted Greene’s version of events … the issue of why his hand appeared across Neale’s face with that raking movement was such that it was open for the Tribunal to find that his actions were intentional,” he said.
It took a further 15 minutes for the appeals board to uphold the decision to hand Greene a one-week ban, which will see him miss the preliminary final.
The Toby Greene saga has been over two weeks after the GWS firebrand dodged a ban with a $7500 fine for serious misconduct against Western Bulldogs star Marcus Bontempelli — a charge that also centred on Greene making contact with an opponent’s face.
On Tuesday night Greene was ruled out of the side’s preliminary final against Collingwood after failing to have his one-match ban for making unreasonable or unnecessary contact to the eye region of Brisbane Lions midfielder Lachie Neale overturned.
Greene pleaded not guilty to the charge and had also looked to get the charge downgraded from intentional to careless.
“I thought all the evidence we presented was fantastic. I thought the case was spot on,” Giants’ coach Leon Cameron said earlier in the week when the initial decision was handed down.
“That’s why when we woke up this morning we were disappointed.
“But we’re also realistic about it as well and we’re confident when we go to the appeals we’ll present the same case and we’ll see where that leads to.”
GWS are in grave danger of contesting Saturday’s preliminary final against Collingwood without arguably their two most influential players, as Lachie Whitfield has already been ruled out.
Whitfield was sensationally ruled out of the preliminary final with appendicitis, which will sideline the star for a week at the worst possible point of the season.
Greene’s enormous importance to the Giants was emphasised during the semi-final victory at the Gabba, where he gathered 30 disposals and booted two goals.
While Greene’s growing rap sheet is a concern for the Giants, not having him available to face the Pies would be an even bigger worry.
Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, the Giants have won just three games in their history at the AFL’s showpiece venue.
The side had lost 16 of the 19 games they have played at the MCG, but have defeated the Magpies in round two of 2018.
But the side are sweating on the outcome of the Greene appeal with the case
— with AAP