{"id":591827,"date":"2026-04-07T19:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:10:23","slug":"carlton-recruits-striking-ban-upheld-by-afl-tribunal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591827\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlton recruit’s striking ban upheld by AFL tribunal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlton will be without Will Hayward for a high-stakes clash against Adelaide after failing to downgrade his one-match ban for striking.<\/p>\n

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The Blues forward fronted the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night and pleaded not guilty to intentionally striking North Melbourne star George Wardlaw in Carlton’s Good Friday defeat.<\/p>\n

Hayward hit Wardlaw late with a swinging arm to the midriff as he kicked North into attack during the third quarter at Marvel Stadium.<\/p>\n

The incident was graded as intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact.<\/p>\n

Will Hayward of the Blues looks dejected after losing to the Kangaroos.\u00a0Josh Chadwick\/AFL Photos\/via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Carlton argued the impact should’ve been graded as low and the conduct characterised as careless.<\/p>\n

While it took an hour of deliberation, the tribunal upheld the charge.<\/p>\n

“The conclusion that this was an intentional strike is, on the evidence, irresistible,” tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson KC said.<\/p>\n

“The only act with which Hayward’s swinging fist was consistent was that of a strike.”<\/p>\n

Hayward, who left Sydney as part of the blockbuster Charlie Curnow trade, had denied he had set out to strike Wardlaw.<\/p>\n

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“My intention the whole time was to put pressure on the ball,” Hayward said.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t see where the ball was at the time of the impact.<\/p>\n

“I just stand by that my intention was to put pressure on … to put him off balance by making contact.<\/p>\n

“The first point of contact was actually his arm, so that might have swung him, maybe forced him to move his hips and disrupt the kick.”<\/p>\n

Asked in cross-examination if he would repeat the action if he had his time again, Hayward said: “Yes”.<\/p>\n

The AFL argued Wardlaw was not braced for contact but “vulnerable, unguarded, unprepared”, noting the point of contact was the stomach.<\/p>\n

Hayward’s clenched fist was also taken by the AFL as a sign of a deliberate strike.<\/p>\n

But Blues lawyer Chris Townshend KC argued that this year’s rule change – which mandates that intentional strikes will at minimum be classified as medium impact – was meant to be applied to off-the-ball incidents, rather than in Hayward’s instance.<\/p>\n

“Accounting for all inflation in the world over the years,” Townshend KC began.<\/p>\n

“I doubt there’s anyone in their lounge room – even particularly with the big, beautiful screens they have these days, all around the country – who would say that swinging an arm out, across a body, in circumstances where the player gets up, takes the kick, gets the 50 (metre penalty), on they go, happy days, should ever be described as more than low impact.”<\/p>\n

Hayward’s suspension is another blow for the struggling Blues, who are already without vice-captain and first-choice key defender Jacob Weitering (concussion).<\/p>\n

Carlton will be out to rectify a 1-3 start to the season after a series of second-half meltdowns, with under-pressure coach Michael Voss in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlton will be without Will Hayward for a high-stakes clash against Adelaide after failing to downgrade his one-match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-591827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591827","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=591827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}