{"id":571467,"date":"2026-03-29T05:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571467\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T05:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:50:15","slug":"kangaroos-tristan-xerri-sent-to-afl-tribunal-after-alleged-blood-wiping-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571467\/","title":{"rendered":"Kangaroos’ Tristan Xerri sent to AFL tribunal after alleged blood-wiping incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri has been sent directly to the AFL tribunal after he allegedly wiped blood on Essendon captain Andy McGrath’s face.<\/p>\n

Xerri is facing a lengthy suspension for a charge of serious misconduct, with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon eager to see such incidents stamped out of the game.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that we don’t want to see,” Dillon said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“That’s been assessed by the match review officer and it will go directly to the tribunal, and that will either be heard on Monday or Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

“It’s not something we want to see on our fields.”<\/p>\n

Xerri had complained to an umpire about a bloodied nose before kicking a goal and clashing physically with McGrath during the Kangaroos’ 12-point win over the Bombers at Docklands on Saturday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He then touched his nose and appeared to wipe his hand on McGrath’s face.<\/p>\n

\"Tristan<\/p>\n

Tristan Xerri could face a lengthy suspension as a result of the incident. (Getty Images: Josh Chadwick)<\/p>\n

Xerri will likely face a greater penalty than the one-match suspension handed to former Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley when he wiped blood on Geelong’s Cameron Ling’s jumper in 2002.<\/p>\n

Buckley later admitted it was a tactic designed to force Ling off the ground under the blood rule.<\/p>\n

Ling recalled there was “no malice” in the Buckley incident but declared Xerri’s action unacceptable in the modern game.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want a young player that I’m coaching in the under-12s this season seeing that and thinking that’s OK to do on a footy field,” Ling told ABC radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want a local footballer doing it, I don’t want anyone else in the AFL doing it. I get there needs to be a punishment.<\/p>\n

“I look at it more from a lens of the overall sport of football. That act is not an acceptable act on the football field.”<\/p>\n

AFL speaks on slur allegation<\/p>\n

Dillon said an investigation was ongoing into an allegation St Kilda player Lance Collard used a homophobic slur in a VFL match against Frankston.<\/p>\n

The allegation comes less than two years after Collard served a six-match ban for the same offence.<\/p>\n

“That’s being investigated and it is an allegation, so we’ll look into that,” Dillon said.<\/p>\n

“I got asked about this a couple of weeks ago and it’s not something that we want to be dealing with.”<\/p>\n

\"Lance<\/p>\n

Lance Collard is alleged to have made a homophbic slur in a VFL match. (Getty Images\/AFL Photos: Janelle St Pierre)<\/p>\n

Collard’s 2024 ban was issued while he was playing for VFL side Sandringham, then affiliated with the Saints.<\/p>\n

It was among several cases of homophobic slurs that prompted an AFL crackdown.<\/p>\n

Adelaide’s Izak Rankine was banned for four AFL matches late in the 2025 season following an incident against Collingwood.<\/p>\n

Rankine missed the Crows’ finals series and returned from the suspension for their round-three loss to the Western Bulldogs last week.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri has been sent directly to the AFL tribunal after he allegedly wiped blood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,36846,64,63,55,639,17652,280589,21452,3028,12413,3195,12415,6855,85,26605,26604,14428],"class_list":["post-571467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-andrew-mcgrath","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ban","tag-blood-wiping","tag-bombers","tag-essendon","tag-homophobic-slur","tag-kangaroos","tag-lance-collard","tag-north-melbourne","tag-sports","tag-suspension","tag-tribunal","tag-tristan-xerri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571467","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=571467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}