GWS are bitterly disappointed Toby Greene’s contentious one-match ban wasn’t overturned on appeal, but leading player manager Paul Connors is just plain furious.
Greene won’t play in Saturday’s preliminary final against Collingwood at the MCG after the AFL appeals board upheld the penalty at a hearing at AFL House on Thursday night.
The Giants swiftly ruled out legal action, leaving Greene to serve a suspension for making unreasonable or unnecessary contact to the eye region of Brisbane’s Lachie Neale.
Connors sat next to his client throughout the two-hour hearing and might have given an insight into how the club was feeling behind closed doors when he spoke on Melbourne radio soon after.
“He’s gutted, it’s a preliminary final we’re talking about, this is big and if this was a Collingwood player, there would be uproar,” Connors told Sportsday.
“In over 20 years of management, I’ve never seen a worse decision.
“You can have your opinions on Toby, but on the facts of the facts, this is a disgrace.
“If this was any other player, especially if he was at Collingwood, I don’t think we’d be hearing the last of it.”
Greene has now been suspended for seven games across his 144-game career and racked up more than $26,000 in fines.
Connors feels strongly that Greene was victimised on reputation and not the evidence available in the Neale incident.
The star forward was fined $7500 for a similar incident with the Western Bulldogs Marcus Bontempelli the week before.
Giants chief executive Dave Matthews was more measured in his response outside the hearing room when he ruled out taking the case to court, but was also clearly fuming at the decision.
“As disappointed as we are we won’t do anything further,” Matthews said.
“We’ve put forward two very good arguments twice this week.
“We obviously felt that the evidence was all in Toby’s favour and we’re probably stunned, as a lot of people would be, by this decision.
“But in the end that’s where we’ll leave it.
“We’ve got Saturday to focus on and well move on.”
Greene was replaced by Lachie Keeffe in the line-up shortly after the decision was announced.