\n Updated\n <\/p>\n
\n The Tribunal has handed down its verdict on Mabior Chol’s tackle on Tom Stewart\n <\/p>\n
Mabior Chol looks on as Tom Stewart lies on the ground during the Preliminary Final between Geelong and Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 19, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
HAWTHORN’S Mabior Chol has been cleared of rough conduct by the AFL Tribunal for a tackle that concussed Geelong ace Tom Stewart.<\/p>\n
The charge, and Chol’s proposed three-game ban, were dismissed after a 100-minute hearing at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five-time All-Australian defender Stewart will miss Saturday’s Grand Final against Brisbane after entering the League’s 12-day concussion protocols.<\/p>\n
Chol’s rough conduct charge was graded by Match Review Officer Michael Christian as high contact, severe impact and careless conduct.<\/p>\n
Chol didn’t give evidence but his counsel Myles Tehan disputed the charge arising from last Friday night’s preliminary final.<\/p>\n
“He (Chol) feels sorry for what happened to Stewart as a result of this footballing accident,” Tehan told the Tribunal.<\/p>\n
“We all know what the consequence is, by reason of the concussion protocols, and of course the significance of the game this weekend.<\/p>\n
” … But it was a football accident. That tackle was not unreasonable.”<\/p>\n
Albert Dinelli KC, for the AFL, argued Chol failed in his duty of care to Stewart.<\/p>\n
“Chol falls on the player and his (Stewart’s) arms are pinned … and it’s only once his head hits the ground that player Chol rolls off,” Dinelli said.<\/p>\n
“And indeed player Chol’s actions in propelling him forward is such that there was considerable force with the ground which obviously results in the concussion.<\/p>\n
“The ball is released as player Stewart was falling to the ground but his arms remained pinned to him in such a way that he’s not able to break his fall.<\/p>\n
“And it’s that vulnerability caused by the tackle upon which we focus.”<\/p>\n
Chol had options to mitigate the risk including releasing one or both arms of the Geelong star, or rolling him to one side, he said.<\/p>\n
But Tehan challenged the AFL’s assertion that Stewart’s arms were pinned, and Chol didn’t roll off the defender.<\/p>\n
A tangle of legs between Chol, Stewart and another Hawk tackler, Sam Butler, had contributed to the outcome, he said.<\/p>\n
The Hawthorn advocate said Stewart “gets a handball of some description out and his left arm starts to move forward”.<\/p>\n
“That was an opportunity for Stewart to move his left arm in a way that might protect himself,” Tehan said.<\/p>\n
“Of course we’re not at all victim blaming in this … but it was reasonable for Chol to expect that Stewart would be able to move his arm to protect himself.”<\/p>\n
The three-member panel – Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson KC and former players Paul Williams and Shane Wakelin – deliberated for 50 minutes before handing down their verdict.<\/p>\n
“An important factor in our consideration was the involvement of the Butler tackle, in the way that it affected the Chol tackle,” Gleeson said.<\/p>\n
Mabior Chol celebrates a goal during the Preliminary Final between Geelong and Hawthorn at Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 19, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
“Butler’s tackle caused Stewart to lose his feet and by the time Chol commenced his tackle, it was inevitable that Stewart was going to ground.”<\/p>\n
Gleeson also noted Stewart handballed while tackled by Chol.<\/p>\n
“The limitation on the movement of his (Stewart’s) arms was not absolute,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The question is, however, whether what Chol did was unreasonable in the circumstances. We are not clearly satisfied that it was.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated The Tribunal has handed down its verdict on Mabior Chol’s tackle on Tom Stewart Mabior Chol looks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-163595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163595","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=163595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}