He's not an eye-gouger, he's a Berry naughty boy
BRISBANE will refer to a Jeremy Cameron skirmish with Marlion Pickett from three months ago to help clear Jarrod Berry to play in Friday night’s preliminary final against Geelong.
The Lions have decided to appeal Berry’s one-game suspension for making unreasonable contact with Clayton Oliver’s face in Friday night’s semi-final upset.
The Lions will attempt to downgrade the conduct from intentional to careless at the tribunal hearing by arguing that Berry, 24, was not looking at Oliver and that the contact was accidental and fleeting.
Brisbane will raise a similar tangle between Geelong superstar Cameron and Richmond’s Pickett in round 15 when Cameron made contact with his fingers to Pickett’s eye region.
Cameron and Berry were both lying on the ground under pressure from their opponents in similar fashion when the pair reached up with their hands to help get Pickett and Oliver off them.
Cameron was fined $1000 for wrestling Pickett but was not cited on the more serious charge of eye-gouging or, like Berry, making unreasonable contact to the eye region. The Cameron precedent will give Berry and the Lions hope his incident can also be downgraded (to a fine) and clear the hard nut for Friday night’s clash against the Cats after a superb second half against Oliver at the MCG.
Brownlow Medal favourite and Berry’s teammate Lachie Neale said it was “the best half of footy I’ve seen Jarrod Berry play”. “He was phenomenal, he basically won us the game with his performance on Clayton and getting the ball himself, it was one of the better performances I’ve seen from a Lions’ player,” Neale said.
The AFL was concerned by the raking motion of Berry’s hand when it comes into contact with Oliver’s face as the two wrestled on the MCG turf. Oliver also had his forearm pressed across the face of Berry when the Lion reached up with his hand to the Demons’ face. Oliver pointed to his eye as soon as he got to his feet and remonstrated with Berry.
The league takes a dim view of any contact to the eyes and would be happy to make an example of the issue given the seriousness of any eye-gouging attempts from any player.
The Lions have already begun preparations for the hearing and are confident it will not derail their preparations for the cutthroat preliminary final at the MCG.
Brisbane will be boosted by the return of spearhead Joe Daniher, who withdrew from the clash against Melbourne to be with his wife for the birth of their daughter.
The MCG will hold no fears for the Lions, who on Friday night won their first game (in 12 attempts) at the venue since 2014. The last time Brisbane played Geelong at the MCG was in 2004 when the Lions toppled Geelong by nine points in the preliminary final.