Brisbane’s Ty Gallop has pled guilty to serious misconduct but defended his behaviour at the AFL Tribunal. Live updates below!
The league was expected to ask for a suspension of two or three weeks after Gallop slammed Port Adelaide forward Mitch Georgiades’ head face-first into the Gabba turf on Sunday.
Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
Fox Footy experts Nathan Buckley and Jonathan Brown were among the ex-players who’ve called for Gallop to be suspended for only one match, given Georgiades wasn’t concussed.
Gallop told the Tribunal he felt Georgiades intentionally went after his injured thumb before the incident.
The Lions are about to enter a critical final month of the season as they try and clinch a top-four spot, with games against Carlton, Hawthorn, Gold Coast and Collingwood.
Follow David Zita’s Tribunal updates in our live blog below!
If you can’t see the blog, tap here.
Tribunal hearing
The case was heard in front of Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson and jurors Darren Gaspar and Scott Stevens, with Nick Pane representing the AFL, and Adrian Anderson representing Brisbane.
The Lions pled guilty.
“He’s a young man who’s made a serious mistake in the heat of the moment, after his opponent’s grabbed his broken thumb,” Anderson said.
Gallop said he had never previously been charged with an offence during his junior or senior footy career.
“The week prior against West Coast, I was chasing a player and went for a spoil, and tripped and got my thumb stuck in the dirt, and I fractured my thumb,” he explained.
Gallop said he wore a thumb guard during the game, showing a photo where it was taped all the way down to his wrist.
“After I laid a tackle, I saw advantage was paid and I’ve gone to stand up, and Mitch has grabbed my thumb as I’ve gone to stand up,” he explained.
“Then as an act of retaliation I’ve grabbed the back of his jersey and picked him up and pushed him back into the ground.
“It was an immediate reaction.
“I wasn’t entirely sure but to grab my thumb the way he did, I believe it was intentional.”
Gallop said he felt a “sharp pain in his left thumb, and then he’s held me down, and that’s caused my reaction”.
He has since apologised to Georgiades on the phone.
“Looking back now, and watching the footage I understand the retaliation to what happened wasn’t fair,” Gallop said.
“I’ve gone out of my way to push him down which I’m sorry for and I do regret, and yes I’d like to have that time over again … there’s no room for it in footy.”
Asked by the AFL whether he knew what he was doing, Gallop conceded he did, repeating it was “purely retaliation”.