\n Updated\n <\/p>\n
\n Dylan Shiel and Rory Laird are both facing the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night\n <\/p>\n
Dylan Shiel looks dejected after Essendon’s loss to Geelong at GMHBA Stadium in round 22, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
ESSENDON stalwart Dylan Shiel has been banned for one game for rough conduct in an AFL Tribunal test case which has split opinion.<\/p>\n
And Adelaide’s Rory Laird has lost his Tribunal challenge and is suspended for Saturday night’s blockbuster against Collingwood.<\/p>\n
In Shiel’s polarising case, the Tribunal took almost two hours to reach a verdict – twice as long as the hearing for his unusual charge relating to an incident that felled a teammate.<\/p>\n
The Bombers veteran pushed Geelong’s Mark O’Connor, causing the Cat to collide with Shiel’s teammate Luamon Lual.<\/p>\n
After a 66-minute hearing, the Tribunal returned 113 minutes later with its decision to suspend Shiel for one match.<\/p>\n
“This case is a little out of the ordinary,” AFL counsel Nick Pane KC said, conceding the charge “doesn’t fit neatly” in the League’s gradings.<\/p>\n
Shiel’s counsel Ben Ihle KC said the charge was an over-reach.<\/p>\n
“It is clear, in our submission, that the intention (of laws) is the protection of opposition players,” Ihle said.<\/p>\n
“And therefore the invitation that the AFL has extended to the Tribunal to look beyond O’Connor, and look at the incidental consequences by Shiel’s conduct to another player, is misconceived.<\/p>\n
“Not only does it not fit neatly, to use Mr Pane’s words … this is a situation that rules do not cover.”<\/p>\n
Shiel said he intended to mark or, at worst, protect the drop zone of an incoming ball.<\/p>\n
“After I contested and got the ground ball, I was quite shocked to see another teammate on the ground,” Shiel said.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know how he got there.”<\/p>\n
Lual flipped spectacularly and landed awkwardly on his neck and shoulder, but after being assessed by medicos, returned before being substituted.<\/p>\n
Tribunal chair Renee Enbom said the force of Shiel’s push on O’Connor was “unreasonable”.<\/p>\n
“It was not conduct that a reasonable player would consider prudent,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Shiel breached his duty of care.”<\/p>\n
Essendon coach Brad Scott, previously the head of AFL football operations, earlier on Tuesday said the Bombers had copped a “triple whammy” of punishment: a free kick against, Lual’s injury and a Tribunal case.<\/p>\n
“We have been penalised three times without the opposition actually being the victim, as far as I can see,” he told reporters before the hearing.<\/p>\n
And Adelaide’s Laird was banned for one game after failing to beat his rough conduct charge stemming from a collision with West Coast’s Jamie Cripps.<\/p>\n
His counsel Andrew Culshaw said Laird didn’t bump but “this was an attempt to push an opposing player which has gone wrong”.<\/p>\n
But the Tribunal differed.<\/p>\n
“We find that Laird did bump his opponent and, in doing so, he made high contact,” Enbom said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Dylan Shiel and Rory Laird are both facing the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night Dylan Shiel looks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-62874","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","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62874","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=62874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}