AFL superstar Chris Judd faces being saddled with the unsavoury tag of eye-gouger unless he takes a bizarre kung-fu fighting defence to the tribunal to beat a three-match suspension.
The match review panel charged Carlton captain Judd, one of this year’s Brownlow Medal favourites, with misconduct for making unnecessary and unreasonable contact to the face of Brisbane’s Michael Rischitelli.
Television replays showed Judd’s finger appeared to make contact with Rischitelli’s eye during their weekend elimination final at the Gabba.
But Judd’s defence was that he was trying to apply a martial arts pressure point hold behind Rischitelli’s ear.
The Carlton midfielder denied any suggestion he was trying to eye-gouge.
“I was pushing my thumb into the pressure point behind his ear,” Judd said.
“It’s a pretty stupid thing to do. I don’t know if the pressure point was really hurting him, but it was a dumb thing to do.”
Judd risks a three-match ban if he takes the case to the tribunal and loses and can accept a two-game suspension if he pleads guilty.
But that would appear at odds with his denials of wrongdoing, meaning he is likely to test his martial arts defence in front of the three-man tribunal panel on Tuesday night.
Carlton officials are yet to decide.
Regardless of whether he is suspended, Judd remains eligible for this year’s and next year’s Brownlow Medal for the AFL’s best and fairest player because the incident did not occur in the home-and-away season.
The AFL confirmed on Monday any penalties imposed from finals do not affect eligibility.
Judd is third favourite with Sportsbet to win a second Brownlow Medal in 2009 after another stellar season.
Judd beat an eye-gouging charge in 2007 when he was cited for an incident involving Hawthorn’s Campbell Brown.
Brown supported Judd’s claims of innocence at the tribunal but several months later admitted he had lied to help Judd.
The Hawthorn player was later fined $15,000 for giving inaccurate evidence.
Essendon pair Mark McVeigh and Nathan Lovett-Murray were handed two-match bans after Friday night’s elimination final loss to Adelaide.
The match review panel suspended McVeigh for striking Bernie Vince and Lovett-Murray was penalised for rough conduct, also against Vince.
Adelaide midfielder Vince’s match-day report for wrestling was thrown out.
The panel took no action against St Kilda onballer Brendon Goddard for his big bump on Collingwood opponent Dale Thomas during Sunday’s qualifying final at the MCG.
Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell was also cleared for his shepherd on Andrew McQualter, as was Geelong’s Joel Selwood for two high hits on Western Bulldogs defender Lindsay Gilbee in their qualifying final.
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