GIANT WHACK

Five-match ban for elbow that floored Lion

GREATER Western Sydney forward Jeremy Cameron was last night hit with a five-game ban for the elbow strike that knocked out young Brisbane Lion Harris Andrews and left him with bleeding on the brain.

In a debilitating hit to the Giants’ finals hopes, the tribunal found Cameron’s actions had been deliberate.

“I feel really sorry for what’s happened,” Cameron said in his evidence at AFL headquarters last night.

Geelong Advertiser columnist Cam Mooney said Cameron needed to refine his technique.

GIANTS forward Jeremy Cameron was last night hit with a massive five-game ban for the brutal elbow strike that KO’d young Lion Harris Andrews and left him with bleeding on the brain.

In a debilitating hit to Greater Western Sydney’s finals hopes, the tribunal found Cameron’s actions had been deliberate.

Cameron pleaded not guilty to intentionally striking Andrews, arguing that the act that concussed his young opponent had instead been careless.

But the tribunal dismissed the argument and found Cameron guilty of the more significant charge. The AFL then argued for a six-week ban while the Giants team said four games was appropriate.

In sickening scenes at the Gabba on Saturday, Andrews was knocked out and forced to spend a night in hospital where an 8mm brain haemorrhage was confirmed.

Andrews had run back with the flight of the ball and had punched it away when he was collected by Cameron, also in mid-air, charging out from goals. “I feel really sorry for what’s happened,” the Giants forward said in his evidence at AFL headquarters last night.

“It was never in my intention to hurt Harris the way I did. I was doing what I did what I do on a number of occasions throughout the game.

“I’m deeply sorry with how it all played out.”

The tribunal was provided with text messages exchanged between the pair on Sunday.

“I feel sick at the thought of how everything panned out,” Cameron wrote in one. It’s all a bit of a blur. I’m really sorry it happened and you couldn’t play out the game. I hope there is no serious damage. You’re going to be a champion mate.”

Andrews responded positively and that he was “feeling a bit better”.

The 21-year-old — who also suffered significant chest wall pain — will be reassessed by a neurosurgeon in two weeks’ time before any call on a return to football is made.

Cameron attempted to argue that his elbow had been raised in an attempt to spoil but that at the last minute he had braced for contact and turned his “head and neck and body” to protect himself in anticipation of a collision.

The Giants will be without Cameron until Round 20.

Cameron has now been reported 11 times, serving four weeks in 2016 for a hit on Lion Rhys Mathieson. He sits second in the race for the Coleman Medal, five goals behind North Melbourne’s Ben Brown (40 goals).

The Giants are 10th on the ladder, two points behind the eighth-placed Kangaroos.