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Greater Western Sydney’s gun forward Jeremy Cameron remains eligible for the prestigious Rising Star Award after beating a striking charge at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night.
However the news wasn’t so good for West Coast who host Sydney in Sunday’s top-of-the-table round-16 clash.
Luke Shuey, who had been offered a two-match suspension with an early guilty plea, chose to contest a charge of striking North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas to the groin during Saturday’s match in Hobart.
Shuey was risking a three-game ban by challenging the case and was found guilty, although his suspension was reduced to two matches because the tribunal found the blow was to the body of Thomas and not the groin.
West Coast key forward Quinten Lynch failed to beat a charge of tripping North’s Shaun Atley and his one-match ban was upheld.
Thomas had been standing over Shuey after the Eagles’ player was awarded a free kick.
Player advocate David Grace said Thomas had feigned a groin injury in an attempt to milk a free kick and had made an amazing recovery by running off at full pace in another piece of play just 10 seconds later.
Grace showed another incident from the game which he claimed showed Thomas feigning injury a second time.
“That’s form on the part of Thomas that you can take into account,” Grace said.
Shuey said he simply tried to push Thomas away and get the ball out to teammate Daniel Kerr.
“I certainly made contact with his quad and my shoulder into his stomach,” Shuey said.
The tribunal’s verdict on Shuey’s case was delayed by video-link dramas and was delivered by phone.
In his phone evidence from Perth, Lynch denied an intentional trip and said he was opening his stance so he could run to the ball.
“It may look very clumsy to some people but that’s me – not the smoothest mover,” the 192cm 103kg Lynch said.
Cameron was charged with striking Hawthorn’s Clinton Young during a marking contest on the wing in Sunday’s round-15 game at the MCG.
The 19-year-old had been facing a one-match ban which would have ruled him out of calculations for the Rising Star Award which has been claimed by Brownlow Medallists Nathan Buckley, Ben Cousins and Adam Goodes and other stars such as Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell, Richmond’s Brett Deledio and Geelong skipper Joel Selwood.
Young had tapped the ball over the boundary line after running back with the flight of the ball and Cameron arrived late and lunged at Young, with his left wrist making contact with Young’s head as the Hawthorn player slumped to the ground.
However, Young wasn’t badly hurt and was okay to take his kick.
“My arm was limp. My hand was open the whole time,” Cameron told the tribunal.
“I didn’t realise my arm was going to hit him in the head. It happened so quickly.”
A relieved Cameron said the Rising Star Award wasn’t his main focus in challenging the ban.
“Not really – I’m just really happy with the outcome,” Cameron said.
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