Brisbane Lions defender Ty Gallop has been slapped with a three-week ban by the AFL Tribunal after pleading guilty to serious misconduct.
The young Lion threw himself at the mercy of the tribunal on Tuesday night, admitting he regretted his actions and “would like to have that time over again” before being told his guilty plea spared him an even greater sanction.
Gallop, 20, was referred directly to the tribunal following the incident in the second quarter of Sunday’s game at the Gabba, when he lifted Port Adelaide forward Mitch Georgiades off the ground before pushing him back into the turf.
“Watching the footage I understand the retaliation to what happened wasn’t fair,” a contrite Gallop told the tribunal.
Ty Gallop shoves Mitch Georgiades into the turf
“I’ve gone out of my way to push him down which I am sorry for and I do regret.
“Watching back the video it is a very bad look and there is no room for it in footy.”
In its ruling, the tribunal said Gallop’s admission of guilt “contributed to a higher sanction not being imposed” on the Lions’ defender, who will miss upcoming matches against Carlton, Hawthorn and Gold Coast as a result of the suspension.
Brisbane asked the tribunal to consider a two-week suspension as a sufficient penalty, after AFL counsel Nick Pane had earlier requested that Gallop receive a three-week ban “so as to send a strong message that this conduct is unacceptable.”
The Lions attempted to use Gallop’s fractured thumb, which he injured the week prior against West Coast, as a reason why he reacted the way he did.
Gallop told the tribunal he believed, at the time, that Georgiades had made a deliberate attempt to aggravate his thumb injury after he had laid the initial tackle on the Power forward.
“After Mitch grabbed my thumb I pulled my hand out and I immediately lifted him up and pushed him back down,” Gallop said.
“I wasn’t entirely sure, but to grab my thumb the way he did, I believed it was intentional.”
The tribunal heard that Brisbane sent an email to the AFL on Tuesday morning to inform the league of the club’s intention to reference Gallop’s belief during the act that Georgiades had attempted to deliberately injure him.
Brisbane counsel Adrian Anderson clarified that Gallop did not allege that Georgiades deliberately attempted to injure him, only that he believed that to be the case at the time of the incident and informed why he reacted the way he did.
“I think I play a hard brand of footy but a very fair brand of footy as well,” Gallop said.
“I don’t like to do that after a tackle.
“It was purely out of retaliation.”
But the Brisbane player was told by the tribunal that was no excuse for his actions.
Anderson argued that Georgiades was uninjured by the incident and that although the vision “looks awful” because the Power player’s head did not “bounce on the ground” there was “a lot less potential” for injury.
Again, the tribunal disagreed.
“The potential for injury such as concussion was real,” tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson said.
“The vision of the serious misconduct is startling in the degree to which it is unsportsmanlike.”
Brisbane’s defence also included vision of Liam Baker on James Peatling from Round 1 last year and Jack Ginnivan on Zeke Uwland from Round 7 this year as similar examples of incidents which both resulted in financial sanctions.
But the AFL argued that neither Baker (misconduct) nor Ginnivan (striking) were graded as serious misconduct and should therefore not be considered and the tribunal agreed.
Gallop confirmed he had called Georgiades to apologise “and we ended it on good terms”.