Big Brisbane blow as ban – for now – rules Lion Belle Dawes out of crunch final as 68-game streak on thin ice

Brisbane will challenge a contentious suspension handed to midfielder Belle Dawes — one of the Lions’ best players — as she faces the prospect of missing her team’s crunh preliminary final and being unavailable for the first time in her six-season AFLW career.

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The AFL on Monday night released its Match Review findings from the first week of the AFLW finals, with Dawes handed a one-match ban for charging Hawthorn’s Ainslie Kemp during the second quarter of Sunday’s qualifying final.

Dawes’ incident was graded as careless conduct, high contact and medium impact, equating to a suspension of one game.

The Lions on Monday night confirmed to foxfooty.com.au they would challenge Dawes’ suspension at the AFL Tribunal, with the league to confirm a hearing time on Tuesday.

With the ball in dispute on the wing, Kemp narrowly arrived first to the contest. As the Hawk crouched and Dawes approached from the opposite angle, a slightly-airborne Dawes collided with Kemp — albeit with her chest, not her arms — sending the latter to the ground.

Hawks coach Daniel Webster, who worked closely with Dawes during his time as a Lions AFLW assistant, said Kemp was taken from Ikon Park for further assessment after the incident, but stressed his player was cleared to return after passing a SCAT5 test.

“She (Kemp) is feeling fine, but had to go through the process and the doc did a good job. She took the 15 minutes but was fine to play,” Webster told reporters post-match.

Asked if Dawes would face any MRO trouble, Webster said: “It’s hard to see with the camera angle, but it didn’t look much in it. Belle Dawes is a fair player and I just thought she was going at the footy.

“She left the ground, but … it didn’t look much to me.”

Former Hawthorn star and ex-Carlton AFLW coach Daniel Harford suggested Dawes did her best in the awkward, split-second circumstances.

“Looking at it again, the ball was still in dispute, so both players attacked that contest with the verve and aggressiveness that they wanted to do so,” Harford told Fox Footy at half-time of Sunday’s match.

“In the end, I think Belle has worked out Ainslie Kemp was going to get there first, so she said: ‘I’m going to hit you, I just don’t know how to hit you yet, so I’m just going to do that (arms out) with my chest, as opposed to this (bumper bar action)’ – which is a much better result for everyone.”

Brisbane’s hard-fought six-point victory over the Hawks on Sunday saw it progress straight through to a home preliminary final clash where it will face the winner of the upcoming Adelaide-Fremantle semi-final. But a ban would rule Dawes out of the sudden-death match.

A dual premiership Lion, Dawes has had a career-best season in 2024 to date, averaging 18.8 disposals, 11.4 contested possessions, 6.7 tackles, 4.3 clearances and 3.9 score involvements.

Should Dawes’ suspension stand, it’ll be the first game she has missed since making her debut in Round 1, 2020. She has played 68 consecutive games for the Lions.

Two other charges were laid by the Match Review Officer, with Hawk Emily Bates offered a $600 fine for rough conduct against Lion Cathy Svarc, while Kangaroo Vicky Wall can accept a $400 fine for rough conduct against Adelaide’s Sarah Goodwin.