MRO round 1: James Sicily free to play after successful tribunal challenge

Hawthorn skipper has learnt his fate over a kick on Bomber Andrew McGrath after the Hawks decided to challenge his one-game ban at the tribunal.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 16: James Sicily of the Hawks and his teammates look dejected after losing the round one AFL match between Essendon Bombers and Hawthorn Hawks at Melbourne Cricket Ground, on March 16, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Hawthorn captain James Sicily is free to play against Melbourne after having his kicking charge downgraded at the AFL Tribunal.

Sicily had been originally handed a one-match suspension by the Match Review Officer after an incident against Essendon’s Andrew McGrath was deemed intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact.

But the Hawks were able to successfully argue that Sicily’s kick was on the low scale of impact which meant he escaped suspension and was instead handed a $2500 fine.

After an 18-minute deliberation, Tribunal Chairman Jeff Gleeson said video evidence showed clearly the “actual impact was negligible”.

“It was well short of a full-blooded kick and there was no response from McGrath that would suggest he suffered any pain or even discomfort,” Gleeson said.

James Sicily will play in round 2. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

“The medical report shows he suffered no injury. There was of course some risk of an injury to McGrath. We assess that risk as relatively low.

“The force of the kick was never going to do any serious damage to McGrath.”

Earlier the Hawks suffered a setback to their case when Gleeson didn’t allow McGrath to give evidence or have the transcript of an interview he did on SEN be submitted to the tribunal.

On Monday McGrath described Sicily’s kick as “pretty innocuous”.

“I didn’t even really realise that he put his foot into the back of me, which sort of suggests how severe the kick was — not very at all.,” he said.

It had been suggested after the MRO handed down its charge that the Hawks defender was a victim of a “James Sicily tax” given his long record of offences.

Fortunately, the tribunal agreed on this occasion with Sicily free to play against the Demons in a crucial clash on Saturday night at the MCG.

REDMAN, SICILY MAKE CALLS ON CHALLENGING, HARMES COPS BAN

– Jon Ralph

New Western Bulldogs midfielder James Harmes has been handed a one-week ban for headbutting former teammate as James Sicily officially contested his kicking suspension on Monday.

Sicily will hope to downgrade the force of his kicking charge to low impact and was helped on Monday when the player he kicked – Essendon’s Andy McGrath – said the kick had little force.

The Hawks could be helped by a precedent set in 2022 when Richmond’s Trent Cotchin was handed only a $2000 fine for kicking out at Adelaide’s Taylor Walker in an incident assessed as intentional but low impact.

Essendon’s Mason Redman could have attempted to argue his push to the jaw of Hawthorn’s Jai Newcombe was careless and an open-handed shove despite the incident being assessed as an intentional strike.

But after carefully assessing the footage Essendon believed an appeal was unlikely to succeed given he did make high contact to Newcombe’s head.

Harmes’ running battle with ex-teammate May saw him eventually headbutt the premiership defender on Sunday afternoon in a skirmish gone wrong.

James Harmes with former teammate Steven May and old coach Simon Goodwin after Bulldog’s clash with Melbourne on Sunday. Harmes and May had several fiery clashes on the field. Picture: Michael Klein

May had earlier tackled Harmes to the ground and then given him a secondary shove to ensure he knew he had been tackled.

As the pair scuffled on the MCG Harmes pushed his head towards May and the Demons defender clearly grabbed his face and remonstrated to the umpire to show he believed he had been headbutted.

Given Gold Coast small forward Malcolm Rosas was suspended for a similar headbutt on Saturday night, so Harmes was handed a one-week ban for an intentional low impact strike.

Unless he contests the charge he will miss the clash with Gold Coast at Ballarat this weekend but clear the way for the Dogs to play Caleb Daniel in the starting side or recall Jackson Macrae.

While Sicily will hope to get off the AFL can also argue that the kick had the capacity to cause serious injury to Essendon’s McGrath.

But McGrath on Monday told SEN Radio he hardly noticed the kick.

“It was pretty innocuous. I think a few of us got into him (Sicily) a little bit after (Matt) Guelfi kicked the first goal on him, it was just one of those heat of the moment things,” McGrath said.

“I didn’t even really realise that he put his foot into the back of me, which sort of suggests how severe the kick was. Not very at all.

“But I guess they’re stamping that out of the game and we’ll see where that lands.

“After every incident our club doctor calls us to see if there are any medical ramifications or any soreness, my report to him was that there’s nothing, I’ve got no bruise, no nothing. Hopefully that stands up in the appeal if there is one.”