Peter Wright suspended for four matches by the AFL tribunal, Max King fails to have ban overturned

Peter Wright will be on the sidelines for a while following his high hit that concussed Swan Harry Cunningham. Plus Max King learns his fate after attempting to fight a one-match suspension.

Peter Wright. Picture: Getty Images

Essendon spearhead Peter Wright will miss four matches after the AFL Tribunal found his bump on Swan Harry Cunningham was delivered with severe force.

Wright pleaded guilty to the rough conduct charge and was pushing for a three-week ban but the Tribunal agreed with the AFL’s submission that in keeping with evolving community standards the incident should be classified as a four-match suspension.

After a 25-minute deliberation, Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said the vision showed Wright travelling at high speed when he crashed into Cunningham.

“The extent of the force fell into the severe category by a considerable margin,” Gleeson said.

“The degree of carelessness wasn’t extreme, we acknowledge that but it wasn’t at the lower range of carelessness.

Peter Wright makes contact with Harry Cunningham’s head. Picture: Getty Images

“He leapt into the contest and didn’t attempt to mark or spoil … while it appears he braces for contact, he also concedes he had other alternatives.”

Gleeson said he credited Wright with not fighting the charge, a concession which was appreciated by the Tribunal even though it didn’t help him get a week shaved off his penalty.

While the football world has debated whether Wright had anything to answer over the past three days, the Bombers and their full-forward decided to take the hit and plead guilty to all aspects of the rough conduct charge.

At the heart of the matter was Wright’s decision to jump in the air and then turn at the point of the collision with Cunningham.

The Bombers provided a physiotherapist’s report which said the spearhead suffered a significant shoulder injury in March last year which meant it was not unreasonable for him to be protective of his shoulder.

In doing that the contact with Cunningham is front-on, body-to-body contact rather than shoulder-to-head contact.

The Bombers did accept that a reasonably prudent player would’ve done more to minimise impact but argued Wright was actually seeking to lessen, albeit not completely avoid, contact.

By pleading guilty it was also argued that Wright was adopting evolving community standards “perhaps in a way where his conduct … maybe even two years ago, would have been much more defensible.”

Wright will miss four matches. Picture: Getty Images

A medical report from Sydney said Cunningham was expected to be sidelined for one or two matches because of concussion.

Wright will now miss games against St Kilda, Port Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs.

The fall-out is potentially even greater for AFL legend Wayne Carey who declared in the lead-up to the hearing that he would stop watching football if Wright was suspended.

“I’m prepared to say, if Peter Wright gets suspended for whatever weeks he gets, I will not watch a game of AFL footy. I’m done. I’m jumping ship.,” Carey said on his The Truth Hurts podcast.

“I would actually say to anyone out there, if we want this game to look like anything like it should look — you’re allowed to attack that footy, he’s allowed to protect himself.

“They got to the footy simultaneously. He turned his body to protect himself. If he doesn’t turn his body, they’re both hurt. This is what our game’s about. You’re allowed to attack the footy like he did.”

Carey’s view was shared by former Collingwood president and Footy Classified host Eddie McGuire who said Wright had “right of way”.

“The player who is going back with the ball is the person who owes the duty of care,’’ he said on his podcast with Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel.

“Peter Wright had right of way. Not having a go at Cunningham, he was absolutely brave … I thought Wright actually tried to get out of the way.”

KING FAILS TO OVERTURN BAN

The old blame-a-mate defence has failed for St Kilda’s Max King with the AFL Tribunal upholding his one-match suspension.

A long and passionate defence case presented for the Saints by former AFL footy boss Adrian Anderson centred around King’s bump on Collingwood’s Finlay Macrae being “accidental, not careless”.

King’s teammate Brad Hill was the one fingered for holding onto the tackle longer than expected which threw everything out of whack and resulted in his full-forward’s shoulder hitting the side of Macrae’s head.

“If Brad Hill hadn’t held onto Macrae after he disposed of the ball, it would’ve been shoulder-to-shoulder contact,” King said.

“Instead of putting all my weight through the line, I turned, it connected towards the back of my shoulder, which made it almost glancing contact. It could have been a lot worse had I continued on the previous path.”

Anderson also pushed for the impact grading on the incident to be changed from medium to low.

Max King will join Peter Wright on the sidelines for this weekend. Picture: Getty Images

But after a 25-minute deliberation, Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said King could have “reasonably foreseen” Hill’s tackle lingering on Macrae which then left him open to head-high contact.

“King chose to bump in a volatile environment where there were numerous moving parts,” Gleeson said.

“It was reasonably foreseeable that Macrae’s head would not remain precisely where it was a moment earlier. He only needed to move down slightly for it to be the point of contact instead of the shoulder.

“It was reasonably foreseeable that this could occur.

“Guidelines provide any high bump which constitutes rough conduct that has the potential to cause injury will usually be graded at a minimum ‘medium’ impact, even though the extent of the actual physical impact may be low.

“This bump had the potential to cause injury,”

King will miss Saturday’s game against Essendon with his suspension equalling out the fact the Bombers lost their main key forward, Peter Wright, to a four-game suspension an hour earlier at the tribunal.