Geelong’s Steve Johnson’s two-match AFL ban has been upheld at the tribunal and the Cats star will have extra demerit points hanging over his head for the rest of the season.
In the night’s other tribunal decision Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley was found guilty of pinching North Melbourne star Brent Harvey.
Johnson will miss crucial games against the Dockers and Hawthorn, and will carry 79.04 points, rather than 9.28 had he pleaded guilty.
The midfielder-forward instead unsuccessfully argued his high bump on Brisbane’s Pearce Hanley during the Cats’ shock fade-out loss to the Lions at the Gabba on Sunday was unavoidable.
Coach Chris Scott had earlier admitted earlier on Tuesday it was a big risk by the club to challenge the rough conduct charge, even though the suspension would have been two games either way.
“It’s a huge risk, to take that many carryover points into the late part of the season,” Scott told reporters.
“But we feel really strongly about it that we have an obligation to defend our player.”
It’s the second time this season the Cats have gone to the tribunal over a bump and lost, after James Kelly copped a two-match ban for an incident with Essendon’s Brendon Goddard in round seven.
Johnson argued that his initial aim was to tackle Hanley, but after teammate Joel Corey reached him first and laid a tackle he changed his mind and braced for contact instead.
His advocate Peter Murdoch QC argued Johnson couldn’t have reasonably foreseen that Corey would tackle Hanley before he got there.
But Johnson himself admitted under cross-examination there was nothing unexpected in what happened.
In Tuesday night’s second case, Crowley denied pinching Harvey but the Kangaroos veteran maintained the Dockers tagger had done so repeatedly.
Harvey twice told umpires during the game about the pinching and repeated the accusation to an AFL investigator on Monday, before giving evidence to the tribunal.
Crowley’s advocate Seamus Rafferty put it to Harvey that the reason there was no footage of any pinching was that it didn’t happen even once.
“You’re right. It didn’t happen once. It happened about 300 times,” Harvey replied.
Earlier on Tuesday, West Coast’s Andrew Embley (one match), Melbourne’s Jake Spencer (three games) and St Kilda’s Tom Simpkin (two) all accepted suspensions for various offences.