{"id":6130,"date":"2025-07-19T14:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T14:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/6130\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T14:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T14:57:08","slug":"steven-may-set-for-suspension-after-bump-on-francis-evans-carlton-blues-vs-melbourne-demons-concussion-protocols-super-saturday-live-reactions-jack-riewoldt-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/6130\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven May set for suspension after bump on Francis Evans, Carlton Blues vs Melbourne Demons, concussion protocols, Super Saturday Live reactions, Jack Riewoldt, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

A long-term ban for Melbourne veteran Steven May has been labelled a \u201cno-brainer\u201d, as his brutal bump on Blue Francis Evans looks increasingly likely to be sanctioned by the AFL\u2019s Match Review Officer.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter of Saturday night\u2019s enthralling eight-point Carlton win<\/a>, the Demons defender and Evans charged towards a loose ball inside Melbourne\u2019s defensive 50 with Melbourne trailing by just two points.<\/p>\n

As the yellow Sherrin continued to roll over itself towards Carlton\u2019s goal, the ball popped up favourably for either player to make their own. Evans beat May to the ball by no more than a quarter of a second, but his mini victory very quickly ended his night \u2014 with May electing to bump at full speed after relinquishing his chase of the ball.<\/p>\n

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It left Evans bloodied and battered in a hit that also knocked out a tooth of his. The 23-year-old was groggy to get to his feet as claret quickly appeared on his face, before leaving the field of play with a concussion diagnosis imminent. <\/p>\n

While May never intended to concuss the rival Blue, the force and action with which he made contact on Evans has left three-time Richmond premiership player Jack Riewoldt with little doubt over an appropriate sanction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate Steven May\u2019s collected him high, but if you come in with that sort of velocity there \u2026 the collision was inevitable. Steven May has a duty of care when Francis Evans has the ball there,\u201d Riewoldt told Fox Footy\u2019s Super Saturday Live after the final siren.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, this will go to the Tribunal \u2014 and it\u2019s how hard, or how big a penalty they want to give Steven May. If they rank it severe, it could be anywhere from four to five weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

May floors young Blue in sickening hit | 00:38<\/p>\n

Two-time All-Australian David King agreed with Riewoldt\u2019s proposed suspension, and even wondered whether the hit could end May\u2019s 2025 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy view is, you\u2019ve got to come at it from the victim\u2019s point of view. What are we asking Evans to do?\u201d King questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s entitled to go at the ball in that fashion, and the game is supposed to protect him \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been preaching. So I don\u2019t have any empathy (for May) really in this instance, I think he knew he was going to make contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if that\u2019s the last time we see Steven May this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another unfortunate hit, a Tom De Koning knee to the back of May\u2019s head in the dying minutes of the match<\/a> saw the former Sun taken from the ground for concussion testing of his own \u2014 which coach Simon Goodwin later confirmed he failed in his post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

It means the 33-year-old will join Evans in the league\u2019s concussion protocols for at least 12 days, and rules him out of a return to AFL before August 2 against West Coast; regardless of whether or not he is suspended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really interesting test case for Michael Christian, in a year full of them. If he has elected to bump, then it\u2019s gone \u2014 that\u2019s done,\u201d Fox Footy reporter David Zita added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even if he hasn\u2019t \u2018elected\u2019 to bump, if he is contesting the ball, is it reasonable for him to contest the ball in that way? That\u2019s what the MRO\u2019s going to have to weigh up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be a sleepless night (for Michael Christian) … if he hasn\u2019t done that (elected to bump), he\u2019s missing at least three weeks and potentially more \u2014 depending on what the AFL wants to try and push for at the Tribunal. Once it is reportable, then it\u2019s automatically three weeks at least because of the outcome with Francis Evans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve learnt this season, and in seasons past, is that particular way to approach a contest is not really something permitted in the rules or by the MRO.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Koning comes off after BIG collision | 00:27<\/p>\n

May has previously been suspended long-term for a bump on an opposition player, most notably back in 2016 when knocking out Brisbane ruck Stefan Martin<\/a> during his time playing at Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Saturday night\u2019s clash was May\u2019s 249th at AFL level, however his milestone match looks likely to have to wait until the back end of this year \u2014 or worst case scenario \u2014 at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s in trouble. It\u2019s a contest that he\u2019s second to the ball (so) you then have to have a duty of care to slow down. The stride length doesn\u2019t change, he doesn\u2019t show any pattern to slow down. He gets him high with a shoulder to the face,\u201d Riewoldt ended by saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a no-brainer for mine, it definitely goes to the Tribunal. You see the scenes post that, it\u2019s a pretty gruesome injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing would shock me here. Whether they go three, four or five (weeks), I think it\u2019s going to be on the higher scale of a suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

A May-less Melbourne will face up against St Kilda at Marvel Stadium next Sunday to close out Round 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-term ban for Melbourne veteran Steven May has been labelled a \u201cno-brainer\u201d, as his brutal bump on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,8017,8012,3239,7998,8001,1818,8011,8002,8008,2485,8009,1823,7999,7804,8004,8005,8003,8010,677,8015,7997,4873,8016,701,8014,85,1122,8006,8018,8013,1117,8007,660,8000],"class_list":["post-6130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-blue-francis-evans","tag-brutal-bump","tag-carlton-blues","tag-concussion-diagnosis","tag-concussion-protocols","tag-david-king","tag-david-zita","tag-final-siren","tag-floors-young","tag-gold-coast","tag-interesting-test-case","tag-jack-riewoldt","tag-long-term-ban","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-michael-christian","tag-milestone-match-looks","tag-mini-victory","tag-multi-week-ban","tag-oceania","tag-opposition-player","tag-panel-debates","tag-post-match-press-conference","tag-premiership-player","tag-queensland","tag-simon-goodwin","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-stefan-martin","tag-steven-may","tag-stride-length","tag-tom-de-koning","tag-unfortunate-hit","tag-victoria","tag-worst-case-scenario"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130","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=6130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}