Essendon forward Peter Wright and St Kilda spearhead Max King will learn their fates at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday evening, following separate incidents from the weekend.
Wright was sent straight to the Tribunal after colliding with Sydney defender Harry Cunningham last Saturday night, with the Swans veteran subsequently concussed and facing an indefinite timeline for return.
Meantime, King was offered a one-game sanction by the Match Review Officer after bumping Collingwood’s Fin Macrae high last Thursday.
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Essendon paying price for ‘hard edge’ | 03:21
The MRO determined Wright’s conduct was careless, with severe impact and high contact.
The tall Bomber is facing a possible suspension of at least three weeks, with his hearing to take place first-up at 5:15pm AEDT.
St Kilda great Leigh Montagna was opposed to a harsh sanction for the key-position goalkicker, citing his opinion that contact between Wright and Cunningham was “inevitable”.
“I think (four weeks is) too harsh for a player I saw instinctively brace at the very last second when contact was inevitable,” he argued on Fox Footy’s First Crack.
“The fear is now, if this is going to be four weeks, let’s not be surprised if players start pulling out of contests. Because that would be the smarter option and be called soft than it is to miss a month of football and really hurt a team’s chances of trying to win games.
“It just doesn’t sit easy with me when you watch it in slow-motion to say ‘he had other options’. We know how fast the game is. They’re coming at each other a million miles an hour and it’s instinctive.
“You don’t know in that situation until contact is inevitable what you’re going to do.”
On the other hand, King’s one-game ban came after Michael Christian deemed the Saint’s conduct was careless, with medium impact and high contact.
It is expected the Saints will argue the level of impact down to low, considering Macrae appeared to emerge unscathed from the incident.
King’s hearing will follow Wright’s and will commence at either 6:30pm AEDT or whenever Wright’s concludes.
Follow David Zita’s live coverage of tonight’s hearings via the blog below from 5:15pm AEDT.
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