Brisbane are expected to head to the AFL appeals board after they failed in their bid to quash Lachie Neale’s suspension and have him available for Saturday’s historic grand final.
In a marathon hearing on Tuesday that went for almost five hours, Brisbane based their arguments around inconclusive vision while Neale said he “body checked” Hawthorn’s Jack Ginnivan, denying it was a strike.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Lachie Neale faces one-match ban for striking
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The Lions were also hoping Neale’s good record would come into play, but — after deliberating for more than 100 minutes on the matter — the tribunal could not be budged and maintained the one-match ban.
The 33-year-old champion was cited for a gut punch on Ginnivan during their epic preliminary final, in an incident that was graded intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact.
The incident occurred with just under five minutes remaining in the first quarter after a physical altercation between Brisbane forward Eric Hipwood and Ginnivan.
The two traded blows after Hipwood laid a big tackle on Ginnivan, who was running off moments later when Neale ran up from behind and made contact with him.
Neale told the tribunal on Tuesday he thought Ginnivan took “a bit of a dive” after they made contact.
“For me I was close to the incident between Jack and Eric Hipwood where it seemed like Jack was on top of Eric and gave him a couple of jumper punches and got up and started to move along,” Neale said.
“I didn’t feel like that looked great so I went to show my disappointment I suppose in that action and ran past Jack and moved towards him to body check, bump him.
“I felt that my shoulder made contact with his body and shoulder first and my arm wraps around Jack but didn’t feel like I was striking him at all, it was more of a bump or body check and I just felt like I didn’t like what had happened to Eric so that is why my movement went to Jack after that incident.”
Neale also revealed that he had spoken to Ginnivan ahead of the tribunal hearing (on Tuesday) and Ginnivan had confirmed that the Neale’s contact was “more of a body check” rather than a swinging arm.
“I spoke to Jack this morning on the phone, just via a phone call,” Neale said.
“He said he felt like it was more of a bump, a body check than a strike, essentially. So the force of my body contacting his is what he said he felt made him go to ground.”
The AFL, of course, did not agree, and the league’s lawyer Andrew Woods said “this is a very clear strike”.
And tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson also said Ginnivan would not have doubled over if it wasn’t a strike.
But Neale’s team insisted it was not.
“I do want to just say that we do submit that Mr Ginnivan does accentuate the impact and you see he’s got his hands out in a sort of diving motion here,” Neale’s counsel Adrian Anderson said.
“We submit that the vision is not as clear as it often is in these cases but you do have the evidence of Mr Neale and what Mr Ginnivan said to Mr Neale.
“There is not one frame of this vision where you see a fist in Ginnivan’s torso.
“We submit that is not a strike with the left arm on close inspection of the evidence and close attention to Mr Neale’s explanation. It is a body check.
“If you are against this not being a strike, we submit that at the very most the contact from the left arm is negligible or at such a level that it is appropriate in this case to classify it as low impact.”
Anderson also hoped Neale’s good record would count for something, saying it “absolutely demands attention and respect”.
“It is exceptional and unusual and his background over his many years in the game is worthy of admiration and commendable,” he said.
The tribunal, however, did not want to take into account exceptional and compelling circumstances that could have seen the charge downgraded a fine. Gleeson said it wasn’t warranted in this case despite the fact a grand final was on the line.
On Channel 7’s The Agenda Setters, gun reporter Tom Morris said: “This could be the biggest tribunal case we’ve ever seen.”
The Lions are now expected to appeal, but if that fails, it will be the first time Neale has been suspended in 320 games of football.
On Saturday, history will be made no matter the outcome, with the Lions aiming for their third consecutive premiership and Fremantle hoping to secure their first flag since joining the competition in 1995.
– With Mitch Cleary
