Hawthorn is fronting the AFL Tribunal in the first appeal of the new season, seeking to overturn Jai Newcombe’s one-match rough conduct charge. Live from 5pm AEDT!
Newcombe was cited for a dangerous tackle on Western Bulldogs star Ed Richards in last Friday night’s Community Series fixture. He would miss Saturday’s clash with GWS if suspended.
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Follow David Zita’s coverage of tonight’s hearing in the live blog below!
The Hawks argued the incident was not careless – and thus should not warrant a penalty at all – and if the Tribunal disagreed, argued it was low impact (worth a fine) and not medium impact.
The AFL’s Amara Hughes argued Newcombe should have released Richards’ right arm or attempted to hold him up.
“It (his left arm) wasn’t meaningfully available to him. It had possession of the ball,” she said.
“If he had released the ball it would have resulted in a free kick against him.”
She also argued it was an inherently dangerous tackle because Richards’ head hit the ground, meaning there was the potential to cause a more serious injury.
The Hawks via Myles Tehan argued the tackle was reasonable in the circumstances, and that Richards could have chosen to let go of the ball and protect himself.
“An expectation that a player can simply hold onto the ball, elect not to protect themselves and win a free kick – and expose a player to suspension or punishment under the AFL Tribunal system – is in our submission not a reasonable consequence of a tackle of this type,” Tehan said.
Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson responded: “I’d be a bit surprised if a pattern developed with players making a conscious decision to potentially get a free kick by not releasing the ball and therefore not releasing their arm to brace for impact.
He suggested the tackled player typically does not release the ball because they haven’t got time to.
The AFL argued even if Richards has dropped the ball, the arm he would’ve used to protect himself was the one that was pinned.
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Hawthorn’s new co-captain Newcombe grasped Richards in a tackle and pinned his free arm, before bringing him to the turf.
Michael Christian adjudged Newcombe’s act to be careless conduct with medium impact and high contact, resulting in the one-game charge.
Richards’ head hit the ground in the tackle, though he wasn’t concussed in the incident. Therefore, Hawthorn’s legal team will be plotting to downgrade the ‘impact’ label from medium to low, which would result in a fine for Newcombe instead.
As it stands, Newcombe is unavailable for the Hawks’ Opening Round clash with the Giants, with the visitors already without Will Day and Cameron Mackenzie.
“One arm pinned, Richards in a vulnerable position, head slaps into the ground. It looked garden variety one-week suspension when it landed,” AFL 360’s Gerard Whateley said on Monday night.
Co-host Garry Lyon said: “It ticks a lot of boxes in terms of he had one arm and it went to ground. I thought the fact that he hadn’t been knocked out, I naively thought it might’ve saved him.
“They’ll have their job cut out to try and turn it around.”
Lyon believed Newcombe wouldn’t have committed the offence if we were six weeks into the season, putting the act down to simply a rusty mindset.
“First game out, Gerard, I don’t reckon he does this in the sixth game.
“You’ve got to get yourself back into that mindset of ‘OK, what happens (if I tackle like this). We ask so much of these players … I don’t think he does that in Round 5 or 6.”
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