AFL Finals 2023: All the latest GWS and Sydney news as Toby Bedford ban overturned

Toby Bedford is free to play against the Saints on Saturday after the AFL appeals board overturned his suspension. See the GWS forward’s reaction and text message to Adam Kingsley.

Toby Bedford isn’t going to forget the lead-up to his first final for a long time with the GWS Giants forward winning his battle to play at the AFL Appeals Board.

Ten days after he was hit with a one-match penalty by the match review panel for a bump on Carlton’s Zac Fisher, Bedford had the suspension quashed and will line-up in Saturday afternoon’s elimination final against St Kilda.

After losing his first appeal at the AFL Tribunal on Monday, the Giants rolled the dice at the AFL Appeals Board and after another two-and-a-half hour marathon hearing got the result they were after.

The Giants had argued that the tribunal’s decision to deem the high contact on Fisher as “forceful” was so unreasonable that no tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it.

Toby Bedford, right, is free to play on Saturday. Picture: Phil Hillyard

After 90 minutes of deliberation, Appeals Board chairman, King’s Counsel Murray Kellam, said the tribunal had been faced with a “most difficult case” in the circumstances.

“We accept that it was open to the tribunal to find that there was contact by the body of the appellant with player Fisher’s head however in our view, neither the evidence nor the reasons expressed by the tribunal in respect to such evidence is sufficient to establish that such contact was “forceful” as required by the AFL regulations,” Kellam said.

“Accordingly we set aside the decision of the tribunal and the player is free to play.”

Bedford, who has played 16 games this year after switching to the Giants from Melbourne, posted on Instagram the message he sent to his coach Adam Kingsley immediately after the verdict came down:

“Hey coach. Just want to let you know I’m available for selection now!!! Please think about playing me at match committee xxx”

The video evidence: #AFL

pic.twitter.com/K3xLqut2Rzhttps://t.co/HVz7bwpuWe

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) September 7, 2023

The Giants had argued successfully that the tribunal didn’t give adequate regard to Fisher’s evidence on Monday or that of a biomechanist who said it wasn’t possible to form an opinion about the forcefulness of the impact from the video.

Ben Ihle, representing the Giants, said: “It is impossible based on the video to determine the level of force (of high contact).”

He added Fisher’s evidence was handled in an “illogical” way by the tribunal.

Ihle later concluded: “The reasons given by the tribunal demonstrate it was unreasonable in its approach and conclusion on forcefulness. The decision and reasons showed no logical path of reasoning, nor any evidence for it to find in a way that it did. That decision should be reversed.”

Originally the incident was graded by the Match Review Officer as being careless, medium impact and high contact. Fisher required a concussion assessment at three-quarter time, which he passed.

Originally published as AFL Finals 2023: All the latest GWS and Sydney news as Toby Bedford ban overturned