AFL rules out appealing Brayden Maynard tribunal verdict after clash with Angus Brayshaw

AFL football boss Laura Kane has been quizzed on whether match review officer Michael Christian threatened to resign during the Brayden Maynard saga.

Brayden Maynard was cleared by the tribunal. Picture: Getty Images

AFL football boss Laura Kane remains “really happy” with the match review system and its officer Michael Christian after interceding to help send Brayden Maynard’s high bump to the tribunal.

Maynard was cleared of rough conduct for his hit on Angus Brayshaw in a marathon tribunal hearing on Tuesday night and while the AFL wasn’t happy with the result, Kane said there were no grounds to lodge an appeal on Wednesday.

“To put it plain and simple, if we thought there were grounds to appeal we would have,” she said.

Kane took the unprecedented step to put her title alongside Christian’s when releasing the original ban of at least three matches to Maynard.

That suspension would have ended the Collingwood defender’s finals campaign.

She didn’t dispute reports that Christian had threatened to resign when the decision was made to penalise Maynard and instead said she wouldn’t comment “on the employment status of any of my team”.

Both Kane and Christian pored over the incident on Friday before releasing a joint statement at 7pm sending the case to the tribunal, more than two hours later than any other MRO verdict that weekend.

Brayden Maynard is free to play in the remainder of the finals series. Picture: Michael Klein

“In terms of what occurred Friday, Chrisso is passionate,” Kane said.

“He is passionate about football and about his role and he holds it at the utmost importance. We worked through this incident and as you saw on Friday, we issued a joint statement.

“I am really happy with the model we have and I was in regular contact with Michael over the weekend.

“At the end of the day I am responsible for football at the AFL and jointly with Michael Christian felt that this matter needed to be referred to the tribunal and that is what we did on Friday.”

Kane said Maynard’s bump would be closely scrutinised in the off-season amid debate that further rule changes needed to be made to protect players from concussion.

But she would not be drawn into whether rule changes were imminent to stamp out “football acts’” that injure opposition players.

“This incident was unique, we will review all rules and regulations as we do every year at the end of both of our seasons, AFL and AFLW,” she said.

“I won’t comment on one particular rule of the game and I reiterate that this situation was unique.”

Kane said the AFL has made over 30 changes to the game in the past two decades in a bid to protect players’ heads.

Melbourne has been furious with the incident, which jeopardised Brayshaw’s future in the game, and Kane said she had been in touch with both the Demons and Collingwood this week.