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Not backing down: Giants officially appeal Greene ban

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11th August, 2021
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GWS will take one last shot in their bid to have Toby Greene available for their clash with Richmond, but Docker Andrew Brayshaw will miss Sunday’s derby.

Greene was initially offered a two-match suspension by match review officer Michael Christian for his elbow to Geelong champion Patrick Dangerfield’s throat, in an apparent fend-off gone wrong.

The incident was assessed as careless conduct, high impact and high contact.

GWS successfully had the impact level downgraded to medium at the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night, but they were unable to convince the jury Greene’s action was “instinctive, natural and reasonable”.

It resulted in Greene receiving a one-match ban, and the Giants confirmed on Wednesday that they would contest that decision at the AFL appeals board.

Eighth-placed GWS are just two points clear of a chasing pack of four clubs – Essendon, Richmond, St Kilda and Fremantle – with two home-and-away rounds left to play.

Opinions are divided as to whether Greene deserves to be banned for the dangerous fend-off, and Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said it was a challenging situation.

“Like it is a football act and I probably tend to agree a little bit with GWS,” Hardwick said.

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“But if they (the tribunal) go based on outcome, unfortunately that’s the nature of the result half the time. 

“The raising of the elbow, it always is dangerous. But once again, if you have got the ball, if you probably look at a lot of incidents in the game, there’s a lot of those. 

“The action itself probably happens 20 times a game but the fact of the matter is they base their results on the outcome, which is incredibly challenging.”

Brayshaw was charged with intentionally making “unnecessary or unreasonable contact” to the eye region of Brisbane’s Jarrod Berry.

The tribunal rejected the 21-year-old’s evidence that his contact to Berry’s face in a tackle was careless rather than intentional.

Fremantle’s executive general manager of football Peter Bell said there were no grounds of appeal that led to a realistic chance of success under the AFL’s criteria, which includes error
of law, classification of offence was manifestly excessive or inadequate, or the sanction imposed was manifestly excessive or inadequate.

Brayshaw will now miss Fremantle’s derby clash with West Coast at Optus Stadium on Sunday.

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“I am very disappointed with the outcome of last night’s tribunal hearing,” Brayshaw said.

“As I mentioned during the hearing, making contact with an opponent’s face in that manner is never something I would intentionally do.

“However, I have to accept the tribunal’s decision and all I can do now is support our players and coaches for this week’s game and I look forward to returning for the remainder of the season.”

© AAP

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