Carlton recruit Will Hayward is fighting to play in the Gather Round opener at the AFL Tribunal tonight. Live below!
The ex-Swan was handed a one-game ban for striking North Melbourne’s George Wardlaw, with his gut punch graded as intentional with medium impact and body contact.
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The Blues argued Hayward’s incident should not apply under the new gut punch crackdown, because that was intended to punish off-the-ball incidents, rather than attempts to apply pressure on the ball.
But the AFL made the case Wardlaw was vulnerable and dismissed Hayward’s claim the contact was no different to a tackle, due to his clenched fist.
Follow David Zita’s live updates from the Will Hayward appeal below!
Sam Bird represented the AFL with Chris Townshend representing Carlton, in front of Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson, and jurors Paul Williams and Shane Wakelin.
The Blues argued Hayward was not guilty with “three elaborations” saying the impact should be low not medium, and conduct should be careless not intentional, and if it’s found to be intentional it should not be appropriate to upgrade the impact to medium (as was done based on the new rules around gut punches).
Hayward pointed out he had played 184 games at Sydney without suspension.
“It’s my intention to close the space and apply pressure to the opposition to disrupt the kick. In doing so I reached with my forearm and… yeah,” Hayward said.
“Just getting physical contact on.
“It felt like any other tackle I’d make. We were both running at opposite directions so the force might’ve looked a bit larger but he was running towards me, I was running towards him, it was no different to any tackle I’ve done or felt before myself.”
Hayward was asked by Bird for the AFL: “You don’t say that was a swinging motion?”
He replied: “I’d need to look at it again, but more of a reach, and just trying to apply pressure.”
He added “based on the vision, it may look like” his fist was clenched and conceded Wardlaw was unable to protect himself.
Will Hayward’s hit on George Wardlaw on Good Friday.Source: FOX SPORTS
“My only intention was to put pressure on. I don’t think the force was strong enough to knock him to the ground,” Hayward said.
“If you look at a lot of my vision and attempts to tackle, I am very, sort of, arms flying around everywhere.”
Bird for the AFL argued: “There was no legitimate football purpose at that point to making contact.”
Hayward responded: “I can’t see at the time of impact whether the ball has left his boot or not. During the time of contact, my intention was to disrupt the kick and put pressure on.”
Hayward said he would do the same thing if the situation happened again.
The AFL argued blow delivered to a vulnerable, unprepared player carries a greater capacity for harm than the same blow delivered to a player who’s braced and prepared for it.
They also said a clenched fist “is inherently capable of causing greater harm” and argued the Tribunal “should be slow to reaching an outcome that would undermine” the new policy which upgrades the sanction for gut punches.
“There was no wrapping, grabbing or extending motion that would be consistent with a tackle,” Bird said.
Carlton argued the new rules around gut punches were intended to penalise off-the-ball incidents, which he put as “dirty cheap shots”, rather than incidents like this, and there is “no basis to start this case on the premise, in an objective assessment, the force is anything other than low”.
“It’s not that he (Hayward) didn’t clench a fist, it’s that he didn’t clench a fist to punch someone,” Townshend said for the Blues.
He added: “There is no doubt Wardlaw would’ve expected contact.
“Accounting for all inflation in the world, I doubt there’s anyone in their lounge room – even with particularly big, beautiful screens they have these days – who would say this should ever be described as more than low impact.”
He further added: “Honestly, does that get a week? A player trying to close down, making a desperate attempt to try and effect the kick – a one percenter that we want to see in the game? Not coming off, but does that get a week?”
But the AFL responded: “If the guidelines had been intended to apply only to these off the ball incidents, they would have said so.”
In an attempt to avoid debate, Tribunal chair Gleeson gave a direct instruction to his jury when deliberating.
“The instruction I give is that the guideline is not confined to off-the-ball strikes … however that the strike is one that might be regarded as in-play is a matter, perhaps a significant matter, that goes to the exercise of the Tribunal’s discretion as to whether this is the type of intentional strike that would attract the usual classification of medium impact,” he said.
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If Hayward is able to downgrade the conduct to careless or downgrade the impact to low, he will instead be fined.
That would see him eligible to face Adelaide on Thursday night at Adelaide Oval.
He was not the only player suspended for a gut punch this week, with Richmond’s Samson Ryan accepting his ban for what coach Adem Yze called a “silly” act.
The AFL has looked to crack down on gut punches this season.
A memo to clubs last December described the acts as “unnecessary, easily avoidable and having the potential to tarnish the reputation of Australian football”.