Swans to fight Heeney ban as Brownlow winner calls for change

Swans star Isaac Heeney’s chances of winning the Brownlow Medal hang in the balance after match review officer Michael Christian delivered a one-match ban by grading his contact with St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster as intentional, low-impact and high-contact in Sunday’s two-point loss.

The Swans will now head to the AFL tribunal to appeal Heeney’s suspension. If the ban stands, the midfielder will be ineligible to win the game’s most prestigious individual award.

Last year, Heeney would have been unlikely to have been suspended, and thus still eligible to win the Brownlow. But the Swans star is now subject to new rules that came into play this year which dictate that when a player intends to forcefully push or fend an opponent off the ball, the incident shall be graded as intentional rather than careless.

Brownlow medallist and former Sydney star Gerard Healy says it has become illogical for the AFL to make players who are suspended automatically ineligible to win the game’s most prestigious individual award.

The 1988 Brownlow Medal winner told this masthead the rigid eligibility criteria was not only past its use-by date but was also inconsistently applied.

Swans star Isaac Heeney is now ineligible for the Brownlow MedalCredit: Janie Barrett

“It is illogical for a player to remain eligible for the Brownlow if he is found guilty of striking three times this year and a bloke who miscalculates a tackle can’t win it,” Healy said. “Change has to happen and the only debate should be what the change is.”

Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters has been charged by the match review officer three times this season for striking and rough conduct. He has been fined twice and had a one-week suspension for striking the Giants’ Tom Green overturned on appeal at the tribunal. He remains eligible to win the medal.

Of the 43 players charged this season for striking, 37 have received fines with three suspended and three having bans overturned on appeal.

There are 27 players who have been suspended in 2024 with the large majority of the 144 charges ending in fines. Healy also said players who had been suspended should not be deemed ineligible for the Rising Star Award either with West Coast’s Harley Reid and the Bulldogs’ Sam Darcy unable to win the award in 2024 after being suspended.

Former North Melbourne ruckman Corey McKernan and Western Bulldogs forward Chris Grant are the only players to poll enough votes to win the Brownlow but miss out by being deemed ineligible through suspension.

McKernan would have tied with Michael Voss and James Hird in 1996 but for a one-week suspension, while in 1997 Grant polled more votes than eventual winner, St Kilda’s Robert Harvey. Harvey won the medal outright the following season.

Patrick Cripps won the Brownlow in 2022 after being cleared of rough conduct in a controversial tribunal decision after the Blues successfully argued the process had been flawed, with the rules changing at the end of that year.

Former Brownlow winner Gerard Healy believes the eligibility should change for the medal.Credit: Fairfax

Heeney’s outstanding form in the first half of the season had made him one of the favourites to win his first Brownlow, alongside Collingwood’s Nick Daicos and Carlton’s Cripps, but there will now be an asterisk next to his name for the remainder of the season.

Heeney was jostling with Webster for space in the third quarter when he swiped Webster’s nose with his right arm, leaving his opponent bloodied, although the defender still finished the game.

In the post-match press conference, St Kilda coach Ross Lyon didn’t believe that Heeney’s act had been intentional, while Swans coach John Longmire said that he hadn’t seen the incident.

“He [Heeney] certainly didn’t mean to clock Webster, but accidentally clips him in the head and goes down and takes an uncontested mark,” Lyon said.

As it stands, the midfielder will miss Saturday’s game against North Melbourne at the SCG.

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