AFL Tribunal news: Willie Rioli has two-match ban reduced to one

Port Adelaide argued to free Willie Rioli from his two-match ban so he could play the Showdown. Despite the tribunal not seeing it their way, the Power did still get something out of their appeal.

Willie Rioli will miss one week.

Port Adelaide plotted another Free Willie sequel at the AFL tribunal – and while the hearing comfortably outlasted the 1993 blockbuster there was no Hollywood ending for an apologetic Willie Rioli.

The premiership player’s two-match ban for slapping Collingwood’s Nathan Murphy was halved – forcing him out of Saturday night’s Showdown against Adelaide, but allowing the game-changer to now return for the round 21 trip to face Geelong at GMHBA Stadium.

After a whale of a hearing that lasted more than two and a half hours – in which the jury farcically took longer than an hour to deliberate – Rioli’s striking charge was reclassified as low impact rather than medium.

While Rioli pleaded guilty, he argued that the charge should be downgraded from intentional conduct to careless conduct and from medium impact to low impact.

Willie Rioli’s strike on Nathan Murphy. Picture: Fox Footy

That would have seen the 28-year-old escape with a fine.

Tribunal chairperson Renee Enbom KC (who stepped in for usual chairman Jeff Gleeson KC), Jordan Bannister and Stewart Loewe agreed with Rioli that his strike was low impact — but the jury upheld the conduct grading as intentional.

Collingwood’s medical report stated that Murphy was not required to leave the field for treatment and that was crucial to the jury downgrading the impact to low.

Club doctor Sam Harkin said Murphy required no ongoing treatment and was fine to continue playing on Saturday night.

The jury said the potential to cause injury was low and Murphy was stunned — but not even bruised from the incident.

It marked the second time in six games that Rioli had successfully slapped down a striking charge at the tribunal.

Rioli also shaved one match off a suspension in May when the tribunal downgraded his severe impact grading to high impact following an incident that left Essendon’s Jordan Ridley concussed.

Magpies coach Craig McRae reached out to Rioli this week to check in on him after another bout of racist football fans trolled Rioli on social media on Saturday night.

Rioli apologised for making contact with Murphy’s head. In a written statement submitted as evidence the goalkicker conceded he should have been more careful.

Rioli will be available in round 21. Picture: Getty Images

“I tried to push him off, he pushed me back, which forced me off balance with his right hand, just before I pushed off with my left hand,” Rioli’s statement said.

“My intention was to push him in the chest. But his arms were outstretched and holding me, and my open hand first made contact with his upper arm and shoulder area.

“(It) then made contact behind his ear, which I wasn’t aware of until I saw the vision.

“The contact was not hard at all. It was a push – the same as the push and shove between my opponent and me.”

“I didn’t want to do anything that would get me in trouble. I’m sorry I made contact with his head, I didn’t mean to. I should have been more careful.”

But the AFL disputed that Rioli struck Murphy with an open hand. The league said contact was flush, as opposed to a glancing blow, and could have seriously injured Murphy’s jaw.

The AFL also claimed Murphy was thrown backwards and lay on the ground for 10 seconds.

But the Power claimed a two-match penalty for a slap that had not caused injury failed the pub test.

It also moved to distance Rioli’s strike from the one punch can kill campaign with the club adamant it was an open-hand slap.

Originally published as AFL Tribunal news: Willie Rioli has two-match ban reduced to one