AFL 2024: All the latest news as Peter Wright and Max King head to the tribunal

The Bombers will be fighting to reduce a potential ban to Peter Wright at the tribunal, but Nick Hind could have found himself in hot water as well due to Essendon’s new-found ‘edge’.

Nick Hind could have found himself in even more hot water than teammate Peter Wright if a swing in the last quarter had landed. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

The Bombers are hopeful Peter Wright will not be a tribunal victim of the commentary around the club’s new-found physical “edge” as they attempt to secure a three-week ban for their full forward.

Wright will attend the tribunal on Tuesday night after his high hit on Sydney’s Harry Cunningham and the league could still ask for only a four-week ban.

It would give the Dons a chance to argue that Wright was only protecting himself in the marking contest, while also arguing that if guilty he only serves a four-week ban for the incident.

While Wright concussed Cunningham he had less clear alternatives to avoid all contact than Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper when he received a four-week ban for bumping Adelaide’s Mark Keane.

It means there is a chance the tribunal hands him only a three-week ban, having thrown out Tom Lynch’s suspension for hitting Western Bulldog Alex Keath in a marking contest last year.

Essendon’s “edge” was pilloried by Sydney forward Tom Papley on Saturday night, with the star accusing the club of late shots off the ball.

Sydney conceded Essendon was harder at the ball in the first half but also believed Essendon’s players took aim at the man instead of the ball at times.

In the last minutes of the game Nick Hind’s swinging elbow only narrowly missed Sydney star Chad Warner’s head and could have had catastrophic consequences had it landed.

Nick Hind could have found himself in even more hot water than teammate Peter Wright if a swing in the last quarter had landed. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

The Dons have made clear their use of the “edge” terminology is around an added degree of hardness in contests and displaying more pressure to be harder to play against.

While Papley lit the fuse, Essendon coach Brad Scott said the club was only attempting to put pressure on their star midfielders instead of turning the game into an “athletics” race.

But with the Wright hit and a pair of incidents that could have been much worse, the Dons will have to quickly reassess their levels of aggression.

Meanwhile St Kilda will face a significant task to downgrade King’s suspension to low impact _ and a fine _ given the AFL’s match review guidelines.

The St Kilda star collected Macrae high in the incident with only two minutes remaining in the club’s fighting victory over Collingwood.

The AFL’s rules state that any bump with the potential to cause serious injury “will usually be graded at a minimum as Medium Impact, even though the extent of the actual physical impact may be low”.

So while Macrae jumped and quickly played on, the AFL tribunal will have to be convinced the hit did not have the capacity to cause serious injury in any way.

KING TO JOIN WRIGHT AT TRIBUNAL AS SAINTS CHALLENGE BAN

St Kilda will challenge a one-match ban to key forward Max King. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

Max King will join Peter Wright at the tribunal on Tuesday night after St Kilda decided to challenge his one-week ban for a high hit on Collingwood’s Fin Macrae.

The St Kilda star collected Macrae high in the incident with only two minutes remaining in the club’s fighting victory over Collingwood, and is in dominant early-season form.

St Kilda will attempt to downgrade a medium-impact hit to low impact and secure a fine for King, rather than the current suspension.

And yet they will have to prove that the incident did not have the capacity to cause serious injury, which was the clause used by the AFL to elevate the impact to medium.

If St Kilda is unsuccessful, it will lose $10,000 – all of which is included in the club’s soft cap – but given a number of successful challenges to the tribunal last year, it is worth the risk.

St Kilda will challenge Max King’s ban at the tribunal. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

It comes with the AFL asking for at least a four-week suspension for Peter Wright’s late bump on Harry Cunningham as the league continues its crackdown on head-high contact.

Wright’s late collision in a marking contest with Cunningham drew a furious reaction from the Swans, as star Tom Papley said he was “obviously going to have a nice holiday”.

On Sunday afternoon, the league sent it directly to the tribunal for a severe impact charge that will draw a four-plus-week penalty if he is found guilty.

Papley admitted Cunningham had some memory loss from the incident, with his concussion consigning Wright to a certain severe impact assessment on the bump.

While he was only marginally late to the ball, he did not genuinely contest the ball and breached his duty of care to his opponent.

But under the AFL’s new rules. the league had the discretion to assess the hit as careless, high contact and severe impact and hand Wright a three-week ban.

Instead, the league chose the more serious option of elevating it to the tribunal, so he can expect to miss games against St Kilda, Port Adelaide (Adelaide Oval) and the Western Bulldogs – and possibly more.

Sydney believed Essendon’s players had gone out hunting them and would believe three weeks was insufficient given the damage to Cunningham.

He was in a bad way post match and will not be rushed in the concussion protocol problems given those memory issues that saw him recall little from the incident.

Papley told 3AW the Dons had pretended to be tough as a “facade” and cited Sam Draper’s late hit on Jake Lloyd.

But given Draper did not hit Lloyd high in the marking contest, he was handed a $2500 fine after also giving away a free kick and 50m penalty.

Peter Wright walks off after Saturday night’s loss. Picture: Matt King/AFL Photos

The match review panel would have also assessed Isaac Heeney’s swinging arm which collected Essendon’s Nick Hind high.

The Brownlow Medal contender’s hand caught Hind high and he immediately recoiled in pain and surprise.

But with the AFL’s definition of a strike as a blow delivered with force, the incident was not even listed as part of their media release.

Essendon will get Mason Redman (suspension) and Darcy Parish (hamstring) back against St Kilda, with Brad Scott unrepentant about his players taking the field with an Essendon “edge”.

“Sydney have dominated their last few weeks and got a lot of players who are very very slick, very good with ball in hand and if we just sat back and watched them do that, it was going to be a long difficult night so we needed to combat that with some physicality at the contest,” he said.

“So we could either make it into an athletics contest or we could compete in the contest and get the ball going our way.”