Dogs set to roll dice at tribunal

Katie Brennan faces a date with the tribunal on Tuesday night with the Western Bulldogs set to challenge the one-match suspension which threatens to cost their captain a place in Saturday’s AFLW grand final.

It’s understood the Dogs have engaged criminal lawyer Sam Norton to advocate on behalf of Brennan after she was rubbed out of the decider against the Brisbane Lions, with match review officer Michael Christian doing what he said was “the right thing” in deeming her sling tackle on Melbourne’s Harriet Cordner to be unreasonable in the circumstances.

Brennan told reporters on Monday she had apologized to her opponent.
Photo: Joe Armao

Christian assessed the incident as careless with low impact to the head. A reprimand for a dangerous tackle laid on Fremantle’s Stephanie Cain in round one meant that Brennan’s second classifiable offence triggered an automatic one-match ban.

While Christian was cognisant of the circumstances, he said he was able to assess Brennan’s tackle, laid in the final quarter of the Dogs’ win over Melbourne on Saturday night, on its merits.

“You’re aware obviously of the implications, but at the end of the day, focused on trying to do the right thing,” Christian said on Monday.

“Otherwise we’d be saying in a prelim for example, ‘go and do what you like.’

“No one likes to see anyone miss a grand final, but my job is to uphold the rules and the guidelines.”

This is the tackle Brennan was suspended for.
Photo: Supplied

While she played out the game, Cordner looked rattled after the tackle, with Christian saying he had taken into account the visual look of the impact, how Cordner appeared afterwards, and a medical report, before reaching his conclusion.

“Ultimately the test comes back to whether it is unreasonable in the circumstances,” Christian said, saying that the driving motion used by Brennan in her tackle was unnecessary.

“The guidelines then specify that if a player is slung, driven or rotated to the ground with excessive force in a vulnerable position, then that will be deemed to be unreasonable,” he said.

“Harriet Cordner was initially stunned, she was on her hands and knees for a number of seconds, and then was awarded a free kick, and I should make that point very clear that the umpire did see it as a dangerous tackle. We operate under the same guidelines.

“The main thing was the carry on of the tackle into the driving motion into the ground, with a player particularly in a vulnerable position.”

Brennan risks a two match ban if she is unsuccessful at the tribunal. However unlike the AFL men’s competition, the Dogs do not risk a $10,000 fee by taking the case to the tribunal.

Speaking before the AFL released the match review findings, Brennan said she would be devastated to be suspended for the grand final. She said pressure, particularly in the forward line, was a focus for the game against Melbourne.

"It's something that's out of my control ... it would be absolutely devastating [to be suspended].

"On review it was a really heated contest there was an enormous amount of tackles out there. It was our game plan to apply a lot of pressure.

"It was an accident. I apologised to Harriet."

Brennan looked proppy on her injured right ankle speaking to the media on Monday but indicated she was physically fine to play. Her ankle was still in a brace under her shoes.

She said she played through discomfort during Saturday's game - her first since round three - but that she was willing to do so again in the grand final.

Meanwhile the AFL announced on Monday that Saturday’s grand final would start 30 minutes earlier - at 12:35pm - to allow Lions fans to attend the decider at Ikon Park, as well as the Lions’ men’s match against St Kilda at Etihad Stadium which begins at 3:35pm.

In other match review decisions, Demons Shelley Scott and Katherine Smith were both offered reprimands for rough conduct, Fremantle's Ashlee Atkins was offered a one-match ban for rough conduct, teammate Cassie Davidson was reprimanded for striking, and Blue Katie-Jayne Grieve was offered a reprimand for rough conduct.