Stack opponent receives record AFLW suspension
THE player whose tackle left Bríd Stack with a fractured neck is considering appealing her record suspension. Ebony Marinoff was hit with a three-game ban yesterday after an AFLW disciplinary tribunal found that the Adelaide Crows player was guilty of committing ‘forceful front-on contact’. The suspension, which equates to a third of the regular season, is the longest ban handed down in the women’s game and is expected to prompt an appeal from her club. ‘The club is really disappointed with this outcome and we’ll be considering our options going forward,’ said Crows head of women’s football Phil Harper. Footage of the incident, which occurred in the final minute of last weekend’s pre-season clash between the Crows and Stack’s Sydney-based GWS Giants, was circulated along with the decision and while the collision looked relatively innocuous, the contact left the 11-time Cork All-Ireland winner with a cracked vertebrae in her neck. Meanwhile, injury-cursed Billy McCarthy has been recalled to the Tipperary senior hurling panel.
McCarthy has suffered three serious knee injuries over the past two seasons and is among four newcomers to Liam Sheedy’s extended 37man panel, with Alan Tynan, Eoghan Connolly and James Quigley. Kilkenny veteran Colin Fennelly has stepped away from the squad for a year. Fennelly was dropped for the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Waterford.
Thomas Kenny, Enda Morrissey, Luke Scanlon, and Bill Sheehan are all understood to have been excluded from Brian Cody’s Cats panel for the new season. As had been anticipated, it was confirmed last night that Shane Bennett has returned to the Waterford hurling panel. Dublin ladies football manager Mick Bohan was ratified for another season last night.