Not kidding
YOUNG Melbourne midfielder Clayton Oliver was hounded from pillar to post for “diving” after an altercation with West Coast’s Will Schofield during Saturday night’s thrilling win over West Coast. But the Demon has been vindicated, with the AFL match review panelel suspending Schofield for striking.
THE AFL tribunal will tonight sit for the first time in more than a year as Richmond’s Bachar Houli pleads his case against a striking charge.
West Coast also must decide whether it will challenge the one-match ban given to Will Schofield for striking Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver.
Houli, 29, swung his arm back and hit Jed Lamb in the head in the first quarter of Sunday’s MCG clash. The Carlton forward was helped from the ground by trainers and took no further part in the game.
The panel found the action was intentional conduct with high impact to the head, which under match review panel guidelines does not allow for an early guilty plea.
Tonight will be the first time the tribunal has sat on a matter since Round 13 last year.
Houli yesterday affirmed his remorse and said he had contacted his Carlton counterpart immediately after Sunday’s match. “What happened [on Sunday] was purely out of my nature and absolutely unintentional and something I would never do on the field or off the field ever in my career,” Houli said.
“The first thing I did was send him a text and he replied pretty quick.
“I just said, ‘ How are you feeling?’ [which] was the most important thing [and that] what happened was purely unintentional and, ‘I hope you’re OK, let me know if I can help in any way.’ “And I really mean that.” A Carlton medical report was also considered in the panel’s finding. Houli has no record. Schofield’s elbow to the chin of Oliver was deemed to be intentional conduct with low impact to the head after a Demons medical report and video evidence was considered.
Suggestions Oliver had staged in the incident were not validated by the panel, which did not even assess the midfielder’s actions yesterday.
Kangaroo Ben Cunnington’s punch on Bulldog Toby McLean was classified as a two-match ban — down to one with an early guilty plea — after it was classed as “intentional conduct with low impact to the head/neck/throat area”.
If he accepts the ban he will miss North Melbourne’s trip to Gold Coast this weekend.
Melbourne co-captain Jack Viney was cleared for his contact on Eagles skipper Shannon Hurn, with the panel determining that Viney “jumped into the air with both arms outstretched in a bid to win possession and made high contact to Hurn” but “was contesting the ball”.
The panel also issued seven fines. Sydney’s Luke Parker was fined $1000 for striking Bomber Mark Baguley, while Brisbane’s Nick Robertson was offered the same penalty for striking Giant Nathan Wilson.
Dane Rampe and Joe Daniher were both slapped with $1000 fines after wrestling each other.
Bulldogs stand-in skipper Easton Wood has been fined $1500 for striking North Melbourne’s Taylor Garner, while Dockers Hayden Ballantyne and Michael Walters were both offered $1000 fines for striking Zach Tuohy and Patrick Dangerfield, respectively.