{"id":162344,"date":"2025-09-23T02:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/162344\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T02:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T02:06:07","slug":"tom-stewart-misses-grand-final-with-concussion-geelong-cats-vs-brisbane-lions-pre-finals-bye-garry-lyon-reaction-afl-360-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/162344\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Stewart misses Grand Final with concussion, Geelong Cats vs Brisbane Lions, pre-finals bye, Garry Lyon reaction, AFL 360, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne great Garry Lyon has launched an unlikely defence for the AFL and their finals structure, after a concussion to Geelong star Tom Stewart last Friday night<\/a> ruled him out of this weekend\u2019s grand final.<\/p>\n

The Cats\u2019 five-time All-Australian went down before quarter time in his side\u2019s preliminary final win over Hawthorn at the MCG<\/a>, in the cruellest of blows on the eve of the last Saturday in September.<\/p>\n

Geelong\u2019s vice-captain will become the first AFL player to miss a Grand Final next Saturday through the AFL\u2019s concussion edict, that dictates a player must have at least 12 days to recover following a head injury.<\/p>\n

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Speaking on Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360 on Monday evening, host Gerard Whateley posed the ongoing question around a bye between the preliminary and grand final week, which if existed, would have given Stewart a chance to recover in time for the big dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the individual heartache of this … and then there is the industry-wide debate, which sparked immediately. Is this the reason the bye should be before the grand final?\u201d Whateley questioned.<\/p>\n

Lyon responded: \u201cI thought we\u2019d come a long way as an organisation, and as a media group … conceding that we can\u2019t have all these horrific (concussion) stories that are emerging, and not pay the attention we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the end, we\u2019re trying to make an excuse to get a player up to play, because he\u2019s had his brain injured. It\u2019s unfathomable for me that that\u2019s the line that we\u2019re taking.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reporters said this is a nightmare scenario for the AFL. No it\u2019s not. What, any more of a nightmare than (Jarrod) Berry doing his shoulder or (Scott) Pendlebury doing the AFL? It\u2019s a bigger nightmare because it\u2019s a brain injury, that\u2019s what I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collingwood 425-game veteran Pendlebury was subbed out inside the first three minutes of his side\u2019s clash with Brisbane last weekend, which would have also seen him miss the grand final had the Magpies qualified. Similarly, Berry is currently considered to be at long odds to retain his place for the Lions this Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“He’s got an injury like everyone else” | 01:00<\/p>\n

Currently, the AFL holds a bye held between the end of the home-and-away season and first week of finals. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying to the AFL \u2018well done\u2019, because you\u2019ve out in place a system that protects us from trying to rush him back either onto the ground during the game, or next week because it\u2019s a grand final,\u201d Lyon continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not missing because he\u2019s got a runny nose, which is what the sentiment was after the game … no, he\u2019s got a brain injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely shattered for Tom Stewart … but this has been happening forever. Players have been injured and suspended forever on grand final eve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart\u2019s replacement is expected to be veteran ruck Rhys Stanley, who is said to have fully recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him out of last Friday evening\u2019s match against Brisbane. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne great Garry Lyon has launched an unlikely defence for the AFL and their finals structure, after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,55,93661,107298,107301,1127,10145,107302,61,11288,107299,4517,24003,107300,7868,19071,85,12113],"class_list":{"0":"post-162344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-football-league","11":"tag-brain-injury","12":"tag-concussion-edict","13":"tag-finals-structure","14":"tag-fox-footy","15":"tag-garry-lyon","16":"tag-gary-lyon","17":"tag-gerard-whateley","18":"tag-grand-final","19":"tag-grand-final-eve","20":"tag-hamstring-injury","21":"tag-head-injury","22":"tag-media-group","23":"tag-nightmare-scenario","24":"tag-rhys-stanley","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-tom-stewart"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162344","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=162344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}