In 2021, then AFL football boss Steve Hocking had sent Adelaide’s David Mackay directly to the tribunal without a grading for bumping in a contest with St Kilda’s Hunter Clark, who was concussed in the collision. Hocking had let the tribunal decide, as Mackay was cleared.
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Hocking had wanted the case – another split-second call by a player that led to a nasty-looking concussion – heard, given the ramifications. A source said Hocking took the view that the Mackay incident was unusual and he did not take that strong a position on Mackay’s guilt.
If Christian did not want a grading, he finally accepted that Maynard would go to the tribunal with a grading of “careless”, which set the suspension bar at a minimum of three matches. Two matches would be enough to rule him out of the grand final if the Pies made it, a fate that famously befell Collingwood’s Anthony Rocca (2003), Jason Cloke (2002) and Phil Carman (1977) in losing or drawn grand finals.
Christian’s acceptance of the charge and grading was – as the AFL’s media release suggested – on the proviso that the AFL and Kane take some ownership of the decision to charge Maynard; in the release, Kane, the executive general manager of football, was cited as the person who’d made the call, alongside the MRO.
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Once Maynard went to the tribunal, the case went in his favour. Collingwood were armed with a biomechanist and behind-the-goals footage that allowed Ben Ihle, KC, to argue that Brayshaw had moved slightly into the “lane” that Maynard was hurtling towards; essentially, Ihle and Maynard argued that the Collingwood player had not enough time (inside fractions of a second) to alter his course and also that he had touched the ball – evidence that his smother attempt was genuine and not something carelessly endangering Brayshaw.
That the AFL chose not to appeal the verdict of the tribunal was, in part, a recognition that the odds were stacked against a successful appeal to their own last-chance saloon (the AFL appeals tribunal). The tribunal chairman, Jeff Gleeson, KC, had all but closed the door on a successful appeal in his 1100-word judgment of why Maynard had been cleared of rough conduct.
The case was closed, the arguments about the incident would linger for a while yet, in one of the game’s most emotive episodes.