AFL round 11: Dayne Zorko and Jaeger O’Meara’s appeals fail at the tribunal

Dayne Zorko’s appeal for making contact with the eye region didn’t go well. Meanwhile, a midfield star was the 18th player ton be suspended for a dangerous tackle.

Dayne Zorko’s bad boy reputation continues to grow with his one-match ban for roughing the face of an opponent upheld at the AFL Tribunal.

It is the second time the Brisbane midfielder has been suspended for making contact to a rival’s face in the past five years.

Zorko has a long tribunal rap sheet which includes eight striking charges, a staging fine and four other misconduct charges.

The former captain will now miss the Lions’ post-bye clash with Hawthorn.

Brisbane tried to argue that the charge of making contact with the eye region of Adelaide’s Luke Peddler couldn’t be sustained because Zorko never touched his opponent’s eye by the definition in the AFL rules.

While conceding Zorko’s actions were “unusual”, the Lions’ counsel, Adrian Anderson, said the slow motion video footage plus the medical report from Adelaide, in which Peddler said he didn’t feel any contact to the eye, was enough to have the charge thrown out.

However, after 55 minutes of deliberation tribunal chairman Renee Enbom KC and panellists Jason Johnson and Scott Stevens upheld the one-match ban.

Dayne Zorko tangles with Luke Pedlar.

Referring to the video footage, Enbom said: “It captures Mr Zorko’s finger bent and in a scratching type position. The footage also captures the bent finger high or above Mr Peddler’s eye socket.

“The finger then moves down and in our view into the vicinity of the eye socket, accordingly we are satisfied that contact was made to the eye region.”

In 2018 Zorko was handed a $2000 fine for making unnecessary contact to the eyes of Carlton’s Marc Murphy.

Zorko has often been at the centre of controversy as he plays close to the line, the latest incident last year when he was involved in a war of words with Melbourne players.

His sledge to Melbourne swingman Harrison Petty left the Demons defender in tears. Brisbane was adamant Zorko had been subjected to deeply personal sledges as part of that altercation.

He was also involved in a bizarre rivalry with Gold Coast’s Touk Miller after refusing to shake his hands after a game in which he was heavily tagged by the Suns player.

For all of his infractions he has only been suspended for three weeks in total across his career but he has regularly featured with 15 total MRO charges.

His most recent misconduct charge involved pushing opponent Kane Farrell when he was on the boundary line, with the Port Adelaide player crashing heavily into a Lions trainer

In 2019 he was cleared of spitting at North Melbourne’s Jasper Pittard but offered a misconduct fine for clawing at the leg of North Melbourne’s Jy Simpkin.

Simpkin was offered a misconduct fine after kicking out at Zorko during the altercation.

DOCKER BECOMES 18TH DANGEROUS TACKLE BAN

Jaeger O’Meara picked the wrong night to try and have his sling tackle charge thrown out.

Twenty four hours after two dangerous tackle suspensions were overturned by the AFL Tribunal, the Fremantle midfielder rolled the dice but came up short, becoming the 18th player to be suspended for the offence this season.

After Carlton’s Adam Cerra and Adelaide’s Rory Laird became the first two cases this year to have the MRO sling tackle suspension overturned on Tuesday night, there was optimism in the Dockers camp of a change of tact from the league’s judiciary.

However, in a case which didn’t finish until 10pm after a 43-minute deliberation O’Meara’s attempt to have the classification of his tackle on Melbourne’s Charlie Spargo downgraded from medium to low failed.

Tribunal chair Renee Enbom said the potential to cause injury meant the impact stayed in the medium range.

Jaeger O'Meara has been handed a one-match suspension for this tackle on Charlie Spargo.

Saturday MRO findings: https://t.co/UOcyqamZNgpic.twitter.com/IVLgLFxag3

— AFL (@AFL) May 28, 2023

“Whilst Spargo is not injured in the incident, we consider that there was real potential to cause injury,” Enbom said.

Embom said there were three aspects of the tackle which concerned the panel which included former Bomber Jason Johnson and Crow Scott Stevens.

This included Spargo’s left arm being restrained through the tackle and when he was brought to ground while they also determined O’Meara used a rotation movement and forceful driving action.

“Those three features together created sufficient potential for injury to warrant the medium grading,” Enbom said.

The Dockers showed examples of recent dangerous tackles where the grading had been classified low including one by Collingwood star Jordan De Goey in a pre-season game.

O’Meara gave evidence for 25 minutes during which he said his right arm was around Spargo’s hip because he didn’t want to have both arms pinned and risk giving away a free kick.

He said Spargo was already spinning trying to evade the tackle and most of the motion came from him.

With the Dockers having the bye this weekend, O’Meara will now miss the Rd 13 clash against Richmond.

Originally published as AFL round 11: Dayne Zorko and Jaeger O’Meara’s appeals fail at the tribunal