Saturday 2.30pm, Metricon Stadium Burge’s suspension fear

Lion reveals torment of thinking career might end

A SUSPENSION or potential premiership win.

They are the contrasting scenarios that played out in Jason Burge’s mind as to how his career could end going into Tuesday night’s marathon hearing before an independent QAFL appeals committee.

The 32-year-old Palm Beach Currumbin midfielder is unsure if he will play next season, making the verdict by the committee to uphold the tribunal’s original not guilty decision even more significant.

“I’m absolutely over the moon,” said Burge, who beat a rough conduct charge only for AFLQ to challenge the ruling.

“It has been a rough week and a half but I’m stoked. I’m not 100 per cent sure with what I’m doing (next season).

“I’m not saying this is my last but it was in the back of my mind that it could have been my last game and I didn’t want to go out like that.”

Burge was initially given a three-game suspension by the Match Review Panel after being charged with rough conduct for a hit on Surfers Paradise’s Sam Jewell in a semifinal at Salk Oval on August 31.

The MRP assessed Burge’s conduct to be careless with high contact and high impact.

At the tribunal hearing, PBC successfully argued Jewell had been pushed by Lions ruckman Jonathan Croad just before gathering possession of the ball, putting him off balance and sending at high speed into Burge, who held his ground.

AFLQ appealed against the decision to clear Burge but they failed to convince the hearing on Tuesday night there was any merit in handing out a suspension. Burge played most of his senior career at Southport before arriving at PBC in 2017 and featuring in their successive premiership wins going into 2019.

He said the past 10 days had taken a toll on him emotionally but he now felt revitalised following the final decision.

“It means the world (to be able to play),” said Burge, who will line up for the Lions in the grand final against Surfers Paradise at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

“What we have gone through as a club over the last three years … to get in a position to get three in a row in the seniors – and for the colts and reserves to be in the grand final on the same day – it’s massive.

“We have worked so hard to put the club in this position to win three in a row for the seniors and hopefully collect all three premierships on the day.”