North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri has been hit with a three-week suspension at the AFL Tribunal on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Kangaroos star was expected to throw himself at the mercy of the Tribunal after inexplicably deciding to wipe his blood on Essendon captain Andy McGrath\u2019s face during the Kangaroos\u2019 12-point win over Essendon. <\/p>\n
Xerri however didn\u2019t totally get down on his knees and beg for mercy, apologising yet still making efforts to explain how he was provoked in the lead-up to the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was quite displeased with the names I was being called … I was getting called an \u2018f\u2019ing c-word\u2019, a \u2018flopping c-word\u2019,\u201d Xerri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no excuses mate. It\u2019s a poor look and I had a brain fade. It wasn\u2019t my intention to get the blood to put on his face. I was defending myself and in that moment I just had a brain fade and did what I did, I know better. I should\u2019ve done better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not right what I did. I\u2019m sorry and I sincerely apologise for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairman Jeff Gleeson described the incident as \u201cdisgraceful behaviour\u201d and said had Xerri not been so candid and remorseful, he may have received a bigger penalty.<\/p>\n
Xerri will miss games against Carlton, Brisbane and Richmond.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A video shared to Reddit seemingly showed the 27-year-old acknowledging his mistake and stating he is about to land in some serious hot water. <\/p>\n
AFL-fan-turned-sleuth Chadwiko posted on Reddit, \u201cLip-reading Tristan Xerri\u2019s post-game comments about his incident\u201d.<\/p>\n
The AFL fan attempts to decipher an interaction between Xerri and North defender Aidan Corr post-game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I hit him with…\u201d Xerri is hypothesised as saying as he mimics the wipe and swipe.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah I\u2019m f***ed. I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can watch the post-match interaction in the player at the top of the page. <\/p>\n
Xerri reportedly called McGrath on Sunday to apologise for his actions.<\/p>\n
The Saturday night incident received widespread backlash, with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon stating it is \u201csomething that we don\u2019t want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday, AFL great Nick Riewoldt told Triple M radio he expected Xerri to be suspended for a month for his actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw something we haven\u2019t seen in a long, long time: a player wiping blood on another player\u2019s face. I think he\u2019ll get a month. The AFL would hate the optics,\u201d Riewoldt said on Triple M\u2019s Mick in the Morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the lead-up was he copped one a minute earlier from Andrew McGrath and went to ground, he obviously had a bit of blood. McGrath came over and called him soft for going to ground, and it looked like he was saying, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m soft? I\u2019m soft? Look at this!\u2019, and then wiped his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s gone three or four times to find a bit of blood, and that\u2019s the part that is going to stitch him up. We\u2019ll see but it\u2019s referred directly to the tribunal and that\u2019s never a good sign for a player.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFL Tribunal reasoning for three-week ban<\/p>\n
The intentional act of wiping blood from your nose onto the face of another player is disgraceful behaviour.<\/p>\n
Xerri\u2019s hand was quite close to McGrath\u2019s open mouth in circumstances where numerous players were pushing and shoving, where the blood could quite easily have made contact with McGrath\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n
The appearance or the look of the act is quite shocking. On any view, the act qualifies as serious misconduct.<\/p>\n
We also take into account the fact that Xerri pleaded guilty to the serious misconduct charge and made no attempt whatsoever than to minimise the nature of his conduct.<\/p>\n
Xerri\u2019s evidence was impressive. He stated that he suffered a lapse in judgment, but that there were no excuses. He said that he suffered a brain fade, and that he knows better and should have done better.<\/p>\n
We have viewed all of the video evidence and taking that into account, together with Xerri\u2019s evidence, it is clear that he had suffered a blow to the face and that he was upset at being taunted for having staged or flopped.<\/p>\n
It is of some significance that Xerri admitted that there was blood on his hand, despite the fact that the vision did not clearly show this to be the case.<\/p>\n
Although the vision did clearly show that Xerri\u2019s nose was bleeding and that he wiped his nose with his hand before touching McGrath\u2019s face, the concession Sherry made goes to his credit.<\/p>\n
We also note that Xerri took it upon himself to speak to his doctor about the medical aspects of his conduct.<\/p>\n
In the end, however, we are of the view that this serious misconduct warrants a suspension of three matches.<\/p>\n
The Buckley and Howe cases are quite significantly less serious.<\/p>\n
Those players wiped blood onto the jumper and shorts respectively of their opponents. There was no meaningful risk of the communication of a blood borne disease and the appearance of the act, while highly unsatisfactory, was not of the same disgraceful character as occurred here.<\/p>\n
We note finally that, if not for Xerri\u2019s early plea and his impressive, candid and remorseful evidence, we may have considered a sanction of more than three weeks was appropriate.<\/p>\n