Tom Lynch sent straight to tribunal, facing at least a five-game ban for Jordon Butts

Tom Lynch will be handed a severe punishment for his MCG haymaker on Crow Jordan Butts, with the Richmond star sent straight to the tribunal.

Richmond star Tom Lynch faces at least five weeks on the sidelines for his MCG haymaker after the league sent the Tigers veteran straight to the tribunal.

Lynch will have to defend himself at the tribunal on Tuesday night, with the league likely to ask for a five-week penalty.

Football bosses Laura Kane and Geoff Walsh will work with legal boss Stephen Meade to assess the league’s case in prosecuting Lynch.

The hit on Adelaide’s Jordan Butts did not make full contact but, if it had, he could have been suspended for as many as 10 weeks.

Barry Hall was suspended for seven matches for his 2017 strike on Brent Staker, while Andrew Gaff received an eight-week ban for his hit on Andrew Brayshaw in 2018.

Lynch can thank his lucky stars his strike glanced off Butts’ head.

Lynch lash 16 x 9

Under recent changes, MRO boss Michael Christian also had the option of offering Lynch four weeks with that same grading – intentional and severe impact.

Christian has offered three-game bans to players for careless, severe-impact incidents, sparing them the need to go to the AFL tribunal.

But he has never before used that same mechanism for an intentional, severe-impact case.

And Conor Nash’s four-match ban for a careless strike on Geelong’s Gryan Miers earlier this year meant the AFL had to elevate it past four weeks.

So Lynch looks certain to miss games against Geelong, Essendon, West Coast and Collingwood, and potentially former club Gold Coast.

Forward Mykelti Lefau suffered a calf injury against Adelaide and defender Noah Balta will miss the Essendon and Eagles games under his curfew, so Lynch’s absence will hurt the young Tigers side.

Tom Lynch could be facing a big ban. Picture: Mark Stewart

Lynch apologised to his teammates and while he has a reputation as a constant offender, he told the Herald Sun earlier this year he had only two weeks of suspension in his career.

He was suspended for one match for a high bump on Carlton’s Tom De Koning in round one.

“I have only been suspended for two weeks in my whole career,” Lynch said.

“So I feel like people think it’s been a lot more. Besides that one in round 1 I missed a week once back at the Gold Coast, so I am aggressive and I launch at the footy.

“Obviously you can’t do what I did to De Koning. I tried to bump him and I got him high. And when you bump and you get them, you are gone. With that one I looked back and I probably needed him to get up. And he got up straight away, which definitely helped. But I understand the reason I copped the week.”

He told Seven after the incident he had apologised to his teammates for his actions.

“I didn’t want to cause harm or anything like that. I was just trying to get free or whatever and frustration came out,” Lynch said.

“Clearly … I gave away too many free kicks and it is not good enough as a leader. I thought we were playing pretty well in that second quarter and I pretty much stopped the momentum.

“(I was) more frustrated with how (Butts) was defending me, I thought. Clearly it was within the rules because there were no free kicks awarded to me. I went outside the rules so I’ve got to be better.”