{"id":566365,"date":"2026-03-26T21:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566365\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:04:29","slug":"afl-2026-tom-lynch-comes-clean-after-middle-finger-removed-from-team-photo-richmond-tigers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566365\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Tom Lynch comes clean after middle finger removed from team photo, Richmond Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richmond\u2019s Tom Lynch has come clean on why his right hand needed to be airbrushed for the club\u2019s team photo.<\/p>\n

The towering forward insists he wasn\u2019t flipping off the photographer or trying to be cheeky, he simply just can\u2019t help it.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the 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.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lynch has a permanently fused joint on the middle finger on his right hand, caused after it had become dislocated.<\/p>\n

It means the 33-year-old is unable to form a fist with his right hand and during the team photo, the problem became evidently clear.<\/p>\n

Lynch spoke about the incident with Hamish McLachlan on Channel 7\u2019s Unfiltered, saying the photographer had to do a lot of work to clean up the photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to clench your fists for team photos, it\u2019s the old footy (tradition), so I did that without thinking about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the photographer thought I was giving the rude finger to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photographer wasn\u2019t too happy with me, which he thought I was playing the joke on him, which I didn\u2019t think I was that immature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was pretty annoyed going through every photo in there airbrushing it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch\u2019s middle finger became a key piece of defence during a Tribunal hearing in July last year when the Tigers attempted to clear him of a striking charge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lynch was not enjoying the close attention of Adelaide defender Jordon Butts and late in the first quarter he lashed out after a marking contest, turning and whacking the Crows player across the face\/head area.<\/p>\n

The Tigers attempted to argue that the incident was not done with a closed fist due to Lynch\u2019s fused joint.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere on the footage is there clear evidence of a clenched fist, particularly at the point of impact,\u201d Sam Tovey said in Lynch\u2019s defence.<\/p>\n

\"Nate<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to uphold a \u2018severe\u2019 grading, the Tribunal would need to be clearly satisfied contact was made with a fully clenched fist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch said he had not swung a punch at Butts, instead it was a swiping motion. Despite this the AFL said regardless of it was a closed fist or not, the force of the swing had potential to cause injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blatant, forceful swinging arm \u2026 it was the type of action of a bygone era. The AFL position is quite simple, there\u2019s no place for it in our game,\u201d the AFL\u2019s Nick Pane said.<\/p>\n

Lynch was ultimately hit with a five-match suspension over the incident.<\/p>\n

Originally published as Tom Lynch comes clean after body part removed from team photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richmond\u2019s Tom Lynch has come clean on why his right hand needed to be airbrushed for the club\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-566365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566365","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=566365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}