By Vince Rugari
Isaac Heeney’s Brownlow Medal hopes are over after the Sydney star’s one-match suspension for a hit on St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster was upheld by the AFL tribunal’s appeals board.
The decision means Heeney will not play in Saturday’s clash against North Melbourne at the SCG and he is now ineligible to win the Brownlow, having been widely tipped to be one of the main contenders.
Isaac Heeney and the Swans have learned his fate at the AFL tribunal.Credit: AFL Photos
The suspended star described the decision as “pretty shattering” in a video released by the Swans on Thursday night.
“Obviously extremely disappointed with that result,” Heeney said.
Heeney has been replaced in Sydney’s squad for this weekend by returning skipper Callum Mills, with former Swans co-captain Luke Parker – who is eligible to play again after seeing out his six-match VFL suspension – named as an emergency.
The Swans launched the appeal to try to have Heeney’s charge downgraded on three grounds: that an error of law was made, that “the decision was so unreasonable that no tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it,” and that the classification of the offence as intentional instead of careless was manifestly excessive or inadequate.
Heeney attended the hearing but did not give evidence, sitting and watching as increasingly complex submissions were made by both parties over the course of 100 minutes.
The essence of Sydney’s argument revolved around the way the AFL tribunal interpreted clause 4.3(b) of the AFL tribunal guidelines, and in particular the part which says that if a player commits the offence of striking while trying to gain separation from another player as they are contesting the ball, that the strike will “usually” be graded as intentional.
Sydney’s counsel, Duncan Miller, said the tribunal should have recognised that Heeney could not have reasonably expected Webster to stumble behind him, which meant that Heeney’s attempted “swat” to gain separation hit the Saints defender in the face instead of the hands as intended. He also argued that the tribunal erroneously ruled that it was an intentional act without considering it was careless, despite finding Heeney didn’t intend to strike Webster high.
AFL counsel Andrew Woods said the Swans were merely dissatisfied with the existence of the clause, and didn’t make any valid legal points about why the case should have been overturned, and that the tribunal had reached the correct decision. “I’ll just simply remind the board that this clause is ... intended to protect the safety of players in a game where there’s a risk of injury, particularly the risk of concussion,” he said.
Miller responded by saying the clause had been “written in crayon”.
“That would wreak complete violence on the rest of the rules and on the rest of the guidelines, because it would mean that a lawful action, which might carelessly or accidentally result in a strike, will somehow be automatically deemed to be intentional, and one doesn’t need to go into state of mind. That can’t be the proper construction of that clause,” he said.
However, after just 25 minutes of deliberation, Sydney’s case was dismissed on all grounds.
“To our mind, having regard to all the material that was before the tribunal, and looking carefully at the reasons expressed by the tribunal at the end of the hearing, we do not consider that the tribunal acted unreasonably or unjustly or unfairly,” said appeals board chair Will Houghton.
Heeney will be free to return for Sydney’s round 19 trip to the Gabba to face the Brisbane Lions.
“I just wanted to ... give a heartfelt thank you. Obviously the show of support here from the top down, being [CEO] Tom Harley, ‘Horse’ [coach John Longmire], [football manager] Leon [Cameron] and our lawyer Duncan, thank you very much,” he said in the video.
“I also wanted to jump on and just say thank you very much to all the support from the fans, the members and the wider community, it’s been truly incredible.
“Just wanted to also say I can guarantee one thing, and that’s when I’m back, I’ll make sure I do this club proud, the supporters proud, my family proud. It starts this weekend, obviously won’t be on the footy field but I’ll be there to support the boys and the coaching staff and the staff at the club here and then obviously I want to flow on from that and make sure this year’s a special one.
“I’ll be back out there soon.”
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