Dogs likely to fight ban

AFLW GRAND FINAL

WESTERN Bulldogs skipper Katie Brennan is faced with the shattering prospect of missing the AFLW grand final, but the Dogs will pull out all stops to ensure that doesn’t happen.

The club will decide today whether or not it goes to the tribunal to fight a rough conduct charge levelled at Brennan but it can be safely assumed they will. Brennan was charged over a sling tackle she was awarded a free kick.

But AFL match review officer Michael Christian offered Brennan a one-game ban with an early guilty plea, which would see her miss Saturday’s decider against the Brisbane Lions at Ikon Park.

An admittedly nervous Brennan spoke to reporters at Whitten Oval before Christian handed down his verdict on Monday afternoon.

“It would be absolutely devastating ... but what’s done is done,” Brennan said of the prospect of missing her side’s first-ever grand final.

“On review, it was a really heated contest and there were an enormous amount of tackles out there. It was our game plan to apply a lot of pressure ... it’s what we pride ourselves on as forwards.

“It was an accident and I apologised to Harriet.”

Christian, who fully expects the club to take their case to the tribunal tonight, took a different view.

He assessed the fourthquarter incident at Whitten Oval as careless conduct with low impact to the head.

The offence would have drawn a reprimand on its own but it was Brennan’s second classifiable offence of the season, which increased the penalty.

Brennan received a reprimand for a dangerous tackle on Fremantle’s Stephanie Cain in round one.

She risks a two-match ban if she is unsuccessful at the tribunal. Fremantle’s Ashlee Atkins was the only other player to be offered a ban from the final round of the season. She can accept a one-match suspension for rough conduct on Carlton’s Shae Audley.