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March 06, 2007
Stokes gets hit for 4
Matthew Stokes will miss the start of the AFL Season
Young Cat suspended for four matches
Paul Gough, Sportal for afl.com.auExciting Geelong youngster Matthew Stokes became the first victim of the AFL’s crackdown on front-on, head-high contact after he was suspended for four matches by the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night.
Stokes could have accepted a three-match ban from the AFL’s match review panel but chose to take his case to the tribunal, arguing that his actions in bumping Port's Domenic Cassisi from the front during last Saturday night's NAB Cup match in Darwin was negligent rather than reckless.
However, the three-man jury comprised of former players Emmett Dunne, David Pittman and Wayne Schimmelbusch agreed with the match review panel's original finding of a level-three offence worth 400 points and imposed the four-game ban.
It means Stokes, who played nine games in his debut season last year and who has been one of the Cats’ best players in their run to the NAB Cup semi-finals, will miss at least the first two home-and-away games in 2007 and the first three should the Cats not progress to the NAB Cup grand final on March 17 by beating Brisbane this week.
Later, Fremantle's Michael Johnson also received a four-match ban for his head-high contact on the Kangaroos' Lachlan Hansen during their NAB Cup match at Telstra Dome.
After the hearing, Geelong football operations manager Neil Balme admitted the tribunal had sent a strong message to all players that front-on bumps would not be tolerated, particularly ones that made head-high contact such as Stokes’ clash with Cassisi.
“We understand the rule and how important it is and there is certainly no dispute about that but it’s very severe on the (reported) player obviously,” Balme said.
I was disappointed to hear we would challenge this as with the AFL crackdown on these kind of incidents I knew we were going to be hit hard. If we make it to the NAB Cup GF the last game he'll missis the Carlton game (Round 2) which hopefully we can afford to lose him for.
4 weeks is a lot for player on a first offence. I would hate to think what somebody with a bad record would cop. Speaking of bad records I wait with anticipation of Farmer's verdict. If this kind of contact is worth 4, a player with Farmers record and a serious charge of eye gouging he should cop 10 minimum, but knowing the tribunals consistency he's bound to cop only about 6, or dare I say it....4.
Posted by Sammy D at March 6, 2007 10:44 PM
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