{"id":15718,"date":"2025-07-23T10:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T10:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15718\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T10:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T10:20:12","slug":"melbourne-star-steven-may-banned-for-three-games-for-high-hit-on-carltons-francis-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/15718\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne star Steven May banned for three games for high hit on Carlton\u2019s Francis Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL tribunal has taken an eternity to make decision on Melbourne<\/a> star Steven May, who was cited for a controversial collision<\/a> that concussed Carlton\u2019s<\/a> Francis Evans on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

May faced the tribunal via a video hook-up on Wednesday night, with the tribunal eventually deciding \u2014 after deliberating for more than hour \u2014 the All-Australian defender was banned for three games.<\/p>\n

May was cited for rough conduct in an incident that divided the AFL world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

It was reported that insiders at the AFL believed the case to be the most challenging they had seen in years.<\/p>\n

Experts were also divided, with some believing that May had to make a contest of the situation, while others have suggested he needed to slow down or deviate when he realised he was on a collision course with Evans.<\/p>\n

Star Channel 7 commentators Daisy Thomas and Kane Cornes both believe May had little choice but to contest the ball and make contact.<\/p>\n

\"StevenSteven May collects Francis Evans with a high shot. Credit: Fox Footy\"EvansEvans was a bloodied mess after the collision. Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Thomas said ahead of the tribunal: \u201cMy mind would be blown if he does not get off. This is a footballing act to its core.\u201d<\/p>\n

But North Melbourne great David King said May needed to be punished because Evans was hit \u201cwith the absolute point of the shoulder\u201d and May hit him \u201cflush\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL\u2019s match review officer Michael Christian graded May\u2019s contact as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.<\/p>\n

But May told the tribunal on Wednesday that he could not believe he didn\u2019t take possession of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I did everything right, so I\u2019m just a bit shocked,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

May and Evans clashed at speed, but Evans arrived a fraction of a second earlier than his opponent, getting his hands to the ball before May caught him high.<\/p>\n

Melbourne lawyer Adrian Anderson said there were nine reasons why the incident wasn\u2019t rough conduct, which included both players were travelling at pace, May was \u201ccontesting the ball\u201d, the ball\u2019s bounce was \u201cunexpected\u201d, May didn\u2019t move off line, he didn\u2019t jump off ground, and May was significantly taller than Evans.<\/p>\n

Before the final decision was handed down, the tribunal deliberated for over an hour leading one tribunal reporter to wonder if the panel had gone into ghost mode.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas the Tribunal f***n ghosted me?\u201d Fox Footy reporter David Zita wondered on social media, while a fan said: \u201cGhosted all of us …\u201d<\/p>\n

Zita continued as he waited for the verdict: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but what the actual f***.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, the tribunal panel released its findings, deciding May was banned for three games.<\/p>\n

Even immediately after the incident there was debate on the hit, with Blues coach Michael Voss saying May\u2019s act was fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth players were in line with the ball and seemed to be attacking it,\u201d he said post-match.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sort of making a play at the ball, maybe one person was one step late, and obviously then the incident happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for Frankie (Evans) to be able to hold his line with a pretty strong man coming the other way was a pretty important moment in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said May\u2019s intent was \u201cclearly\u201d to win the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just look at his pure intent, it was purely for the ball and it was unfortunate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Goodwin said the AFL was doing an \u201cunbelievable\u201d job in trying to eradicate concussion from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we limit it as much as we can but there will be football incidents where someone is concussed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

May was concussed himself in a separate incident and was already ruled out of the Round 20 game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Powerhouse sports brand sends statement to players over messy issue<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Former AFL player banned and fined for \u2018shameful\u2019 act<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL tribunal has taken an eternity to make decision on Melbourne star Steven May, who was cited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,7804,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-15718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-melbourne-demons","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}