Clayton Oliver cops fine for striking, Tom Hawkins overturns suspension at AFL tribunal
Melbourne onballer Clayton Oliver is free to face Adelaide in Round 10 after the AFL Match Review Officer found his strike on Power ruckman Peter Ladhams did not warrant suspension.
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Melbourne midfielder Clayton Oliver is free to face Adelaide in four days’ time after escaping with a fine for his errant elbow on Power ruckman Peter Ladhams.
The 23-year-old was reported for striking during the second quarter of the Round 9 match at the Gabba on Thursday night, after his raised arm caught the side of Ladhams’ face.
The Power big man played out the rest of the match.
The MRO assessed the incident as careless conduct with low impact and high contact and as a result Oliver was sanctioned $1500 as a first offence, which he can have downgraded to $1000 with an early plea.
Clayton Oliver has been reported. #AFLDeesPower pic.twitter.com/UEUeQczEYP
— AFL (@AFL) July 30, 2020
HAWKINS’ TRIBUNAL CHALLENGE SUCCESSFUL
Geelong forward Tom Hawkins is free to take on West Coast on Saturday after dodging a bullet at the AFL Tribunal.
Hawkins escaped with a $1000 fine for striking Fremantle’s Luke Ryan with an errant elbow on Monday night after Geelong successfully had the high contact part of the charge downgraded to body contact.
The tribunal ruled that contact was primarily made to Ryan’s collarbone and that “any contact above the shoulders was negligible”.
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Fremantle’s medical report for Ryan noted that the Dockers’ defender required no medical treatment either in the immediate aftermath of the incident or at a later time.
However, the AFL argued that the report did state “initial contact was made with the collarbone and secondary contact slide up to the neck”.
Under tribunal guidelines, “high contact is not limited to contact to the head and includes contact above the shoulders”.
Jeff Gleeson QC, for the AFL, claimed “the neck is above the shoulders, at least on most of us”.
But the three-man tribunal of Shane Wakelin, Paul Williams and Jason Johnson did not find there was “sufficient force” made above the shoulders to constitute high contact.
The downgraded charge meant Hawkins was found guilty of intentionally striking Ryan to the body with low impact, which resulted in the $1000 fine.
The let-off is a big win for Hawkins and the Cats as they prepare to play four games in 14 days starting with the Eagles in Perth on Saturday night in the AFL’s fixture cram.
Hawkins is the No.1 ranked key forward in the AFL this season and has kicked 14 goals from eight games.
The 32-year-old also leads the competition for total score involvements, averaging 6.6 a game.
The latest fine means Hawkins has now accumulated $9000 in fines since 2016 for striking, rough conduct and melee offences.
He has also been suspended for a total of six matches across five separate incidents during that period.
Teammate Mitch Duncan conceded on Tuesday that Hawkins had “white line fever”.
“He’s probably the most gentle giant coming around,” Duncan said.
“Sometimes it is a bit of a shock.
“But yeah, he’s working on it, it’s just one of those things. He’s got white line fever. He’s a competitor, and sometimes he plays on the edge and it just happens sometimes.”
Cat Jake Kolodjashnij was offered a $1000 penalty for a dangerous tackle on Docker Michael Walters, which was assessed as careless conduct, low impact and high contact.
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EAGLE FREE TO PLAY
West Coast is breathing a sigh of relief after managing to overturn the one-match ban handed to star midfielder Elliot Yeo.
Yeo was charged with striking Collingwood’s Rupert Wills in the Eagles crushing win over the Pies on the weekend and handed the ban by the AFL’s Match Review Officer.
The AFL Tribunal took over half an hour to overturn the MRO decision after the Eagles argued Yeo’s hit was not impactful enough to warrant a suspension.
Yeo expressed relief that he would be able to suit up this weekend and said the case was a reminder that the head was sacrosanct.
“Happy to be able to play this week and be out there with the boys and put our best foot forward against Geelong
“You want to try and see those things out of the game, you don’t really want to see people get hit in the head.
“I’m just really glad that the process and really appreciative of how everything went and obviously they could see that the strike was toward the chest and not the head at all.”
LION FACES TWO-WEEK MCSTAY ON SIDELINES
The AFL says it will continue to come down hard on players who dish out head high bumps after banning Brisbane’s Daniel McStay for two matches last night.
The important forward will miss matches against Essendon and Richmond unless he this morning opts to challenge the verdict from match review officer Michael Christian.
McStay crashed into Jetta, making heavy contact with his hip to the Demon’s head on Sunday night.
While Jetta was uninjured and played on in the game, Christian upgraded the impact of the blow to high using the potential to cause serious injury provision.
It means the penalty was increased from one to two matches.
Similarly Essendon’s Kyle Langford was banned for one match for bumping Crow Shane McAdam on Sunday.
West Coast Eagle Elliot Yeo was suspended for one match for striking Collingwood’s Rupert Wills high on Sunday.
Yeo will miss Saturday’s clash against Geelong as a result.
North Melbourne great David King said the league was not coming down hard enough on these dangerous headhigh bumps, believing Jetta narrowly avoided a disastrous injury in the incident.
But Christian said recent suspensions on Bomber Dylan Shiel and St Kilda utility Ben Long along with the McStay ban were a strong statement
“We view injuries to the heard very, very seriously and in this particular case, in our view Daniel McStay made a clear election to bump from a front-on position,” Christian said.
“We feel that it was appropriate to use the potential to cause serious injury provisions to upgrade the level of impact in that particular incident. We graded it as high.
“So, under the guidelines, yes we do (feel like we are trying to protect players’ heads).”
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan questioned whether Jetta contributed to the incident by leading with his head into McStay.
But Christian said the onus was on the bumper.
“I think we need to focus on not the person winning the ball, it’s the careless action from Daniel,” he said.
“In our view, he had an alternative to bump, and he made forceful high contact from front-on and it was deemed a careless action.”
BURGOYNE AVOIDS BAN
— Lauren Wood
Hawthorn veteran Shaun Burgoyne has escaped with a fine for a dangerous tackle for the second time this season after his careless action on Swan James Rowbottom.
The league’s interpretation on dangerous tackles was changed after Burgoyne’s Round 2 action on Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield, tightening the rule to see similar actions penalised with suspension.
Rowbottom managed to get both arms free from the tackle.
But match review officer Michael Christian deemed Burgoyne’s act from Saturday’s loss to Sydney as low impact and thus worth a $1500 fine with an early guilty plea.
“Based on the available evidence, the incident was assessed as careless conduct, low impact and high contact,” he said in a statement.
Carlton skipper Patrick Cripps was also cited for wrestling in the Blues’ narrow win over North Melbourne on Saturday and was hit with a $750 penalty given it was his second offence.
Kangaroo Jed Anderson was also charged, but as his first wrestling transgression his fine was deemed worthy of just $500.
Port Adelaide young gun Zak Butters was hit with a $1000 fine for rough conduct on St Kilda ruck Paddy Ryder, with the incident graded as careless conduct, low impact and high contact.
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