Richmond’s Rhyan Mansell will miss the Tigers’ subsequent three matches, after his controversial suspension for pushing St Kilda’s Liam O’Connell into an oncoming Tom Lynch, leading to a concussion, was upheld by the AFL Tribunal.
Mansell’s much-discussed suspension got here after Match Evaluation Officer Michael Christian deemed the incident careless conduct with excessive contact and extreme influence, triggering a hefty three-game ban that the Tigers shortly sought to problem.
Pending a possible problem through the AFL Appeals Board, Mansell will miss matches in opposition to Brisbane, Fremantle and Gold Coast.
The Tigers argued that Mansell’s push on O’Connell was of lesser severity than that from West Coast’s Reuben Ginbey on Tigers No.1 draft decide Sam Lalor within the pre-season, which noticed him maintain a damaged jaw.
When questioned by the Tribunal, Mansell described the incident as ‘small ahead craft’ through which he was attempting to get separation from O’Connell to compete for the ball.
He mentioned that it was solely after he had pushed the younger Saint that he noticed the oncoming Lynch and Anthony Caminiti, disputing the AFL’s counter-argument that he may have push O’Connell ‘in one other course’.
“No affordable participant goes to take the view it’s unreasonable for a ahead who’s being held to try to get sepatation from the opponent holding him,” Richmond counsel Sam Tovey summed up.
In response, AFL counsel Sally Flynn argued Mansell failed in his responsibility of take care of O’Connell, saying the incident was ‘properly under the usual of what an affordable participant would think about prudent within the circumstances’.
Flynn listed 5 the explanation why the suspension was warranted – that the Tiger wasn’t contesting the ball, that Mansell made the selection to push O’Connell, that it was an unnecessarily forceful push, that it was directed into oncoming visitors, and that Mansell ought to have seen Lynch and Caminiti approaching.
“Gamers want to pay attention to the place of different gamers when they’re selecting to push an opponent into an space, significantly the place the ball is about to fall,” Flynn mentioned.
“An affordable participant would concentrate on these gamers in these circumstances.”
Flynn additionally made the excellence between Ginbey’s push and Mansell’s, saying the Eagle had eyes on the ball and couldn’t have recognized Lalor would make contact with one other participant working again with the flight.
In keeping with Fox Footy Tribunal professional David Zita, Mansell was shocked by the decision.
“Mansell shakes his head in disbelief,” Zita wrote on X.
In explaining the decision, the Tribunal disputed Mansell’s declare that he didn’t see Lynch and Caminiti coming.
“We don’t settle for Mansell’s proof that he didn’t see that two gamers have been working in to aim to mark the ball. Imaginative and prescient shouldn’t be in line with this proof,” chairman Jeff Gleeson mentioned.
“If, as Mansell mentioned, he didn’t know that different gamers have been working ahead to contest the mark, it’s extremely unlikely that he would have pushed O’Connell away from himself and into the trail of what can be on his proof an uncontested mark.
“Mansell’s actions are solely in line with him figuring out or assuming that different gamers have been working in to contest the mark.
“Even when Mansell didn’t see or see sufficiently clearly that different gamers have been working to contest the mark, he would, or ought to have, assumed that the ball hung within the air for lengthy sufficient for the affordable participant to count on that gamers who had arrange at concerning the 30 meter mark would run in and attempt to contest the ball.”
Gleeson added that whether or not he had seen them coming or not, he acted carelessly in pushing O’Connell anyway, and may have recognized there was a chance the act would put him in peril.
The Tribunal additionally disputed Mansell’s declare that the push was of minimal power, describing it as ‘forceful’.
“It’s clear that the push is forceful and affecting the velocity at which and the angle at which O’Connell suffered influence,” Gleeson mentioned.
“The power of the push is a big issue right here. It went properly past what an affordable participant would think about prudent within the circumstances, significantly the circumstances that the push was within the course of the trail of the ball.
“Mansell breached his responsibility of care by pushing O’Connell with such power, with the trail of the ball instantly within the course of oncoming gamers.”
The Tribunal additionally agreed with the AFL’s declare that the Ginbey incident on Lalor was completely different sufficient to not be ‘sufficiently comparable’.
“Lalor was not working with the flight of the ball, and Ginbey had not turned away from the flight of the ball,” Gleeson mentioned.
“We want not specific an opinion as as to if Ginbey’s conduct additionally amounted to tough conduct. It’s ample within the current circumstances to say Mansell’s conduct did.”
