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The AFL is set to reap almost $26,000 from 20 players from Richmond and Collingwood after Saturday’s spiteful melees at the MCG.
Ten Tigers and 10 Magpies were on Monday reported for engaging in a melee, but the match review panel’s ruling cleared Collingwood of any other headaches a fortnight out from the finals, as key players Alan Didak and Travis Cloke were cleared of any wrongdoing in separate incidents from the melee.
Didak was cleared of a bump on Richmond’s Mark Coughlan, while Cloke escaped sanction after Richmond’s Luke McGuane initially claimed the Magpies forward bit him on the finger during a stoush.
But the season appears over for Richmond’s Jake King, who incurred a three-game suspension for striking Didak during the second quarter, which sparked the first of two heated melees.
King’s off-the-ball strike earned him two games out and his carry-over points bumped the sanction to three games, which means the tagger can only reduce his penalty to two games with an early guilty plea.
Given the Tigers will miss the finals, the only way King can play again this season is by winning a challenge at the tribunal on Tuesday night.
King’s strike led to a melee between the sides and although that broke up quickly, an all-in erupted when the Magpies gang-tackled the Richmond player.
Magpies midfielder Dane Swan was the hardest hit of the 20 players booked for their part in the melees, as he copped a $4,000 fine because it was the third time he had been cited on the charge.
Swan can reduce the penalty to $3,000 with a guilty plea, but regardless remains eligible to win the Brownlow Medal.
The other 19 players cited were fined $1,600 and can reduce the penalties to $1,200 with guilty pleas.
King was among the Richmond players booked, along with McGuane, Tom Hislop, Robin Nahas, Brett Deledio, Angus Graham, Richard Tambling, Will Thursfield, Mark Coughlan and Daniel Jackson.
The other Collingwood players reported were captain Nick Maxwell, Shane O’Bree, Dayne Beams, Chris Dawes, Heath Shaw, Harry O’Brien, Leigh Brown, Alan Toovey and Tarkyn Lockyer.
The melee also prompted some verbals between the sides, as Maxwell took aim at the Tigers on Sunday, when he suggested they were more interested in wrestling than focusing on the football.
“That’s the way they decided to go, but I thought it was pretty average considering we couldn’t fight back and considering they weren’t prepared, a few of their blokes, to put their head over the ball when it counted,” Maxwell said on the Seven Network.
Sidelined Richmond star Matthew Richardson hit back on Monday, when he said there was no need for Maxwell to make the comments, especially given the Magpies won the game by 93 points.
“Gutless? I don’t think so,” Richardson told radio station Vega.
“I just think it was one of those games where a few wrestles developed. I don’t know what was gutless about it.
“I think when you’re winning and you’re winning well I don’t think you need to come out and make comments like that after a game, so I’m not sure why Nick bothered really.”
Didak’s second-quarter bump on Coughlan was scrutinised because he ran in while the Tiger had his head over the ball, but the panel ruled the Collingwood star made contact to his opponent’s back.
The panel investigated the Cloke-McGuane incident, which took place just before half-time, after McGuane initially told the umpire Cloke had bitten him.
But the panel did not take any further action after interviewing McGuane and finding the video evidence inconclusive.
Hislop was also hit with a two-game suspension, for striking O’Bree in the last quarter, but can reduce the penalty to one game with an early guilty plea.
The Tigers play Hawthorn and West Coast in their remaining games.
If the 20 players charged with engaging in a melee all plead guilty, their fines will total $25,800.
The only other report laid from round 20 was against Geelong forward Steve Johnson, who was charged with a minor striking report against Sydney’s Craig Bolton in the last quarter of Saturday night’s game at ANZ Stadium.
Johnson can plead guilty and accept a reprimand, which clears him to play the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.
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