![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The Tribunal found Fogarty did indeed strike Cunningham, and had the time to consider a more reasonable way of tackling, instead of \u201cswinging his right arm forcibly in the direction of Cunningham\u2019s upper body and head\u201d.<\/p>\n
Adelaide coach Matthew Nicks said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d in the verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was just a tackle, like the rest of the oval,\u201d he told Fox Footy\u2019s AFL 360.<\/p>\n
Fogarty will miss games against Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond.<\/p>\n
The incident was graded as careless with severe impact (due to the concussion) and high contact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to wrap him up and execute the tackle,\u201d Fogarty said during the hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI adjusted as much as I could to try and get low whilst he went low.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fogarty\u2019s lawyer argued the tackle \u201cchanged dramatically\u201d as Cunningham landed from his jump and then lowered his body.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s merely a high tackle against the rules and not the kind of tackle that rises to the level of a dangerous tackle,\u201d they said, \u201cand the observable force sits somewhere between medium impact and severe\u201d.<\/p>\n
The AFL said Fogarty swung his arm \u201croundhouse style\u201d and \u201che should\u2019ve known swinging an arm in that manner was going to lead to a forceful high strike\u201d. They said he could\u2019ve led with his hands or wrapped his arms around Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Darcy Fogarty has been hit with a three-game ban for a high tackleSource: Channel 7<\/p>\n
The league was also willing to make the alternate case this was rough conduct, but with the same gradings.<\/p>\n
The Tribunal took just 20 minutes to fully uphold the charge.<\/p>\n
Tribunal statement<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are comfortably satisfied that Darcy Fogarty committed the act of striking.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe saw Harry Cunningham jump and reach for a loose ball. He had time to assess the situation and knew that by the time he made contact with Cunningham, the player would have descended from his jump to a level or height that Fogarty could, of course, not precisely determined.<\/p>\n
\u201cFogarty had time to consider how he would tackle Cunningham in those circumstances. He chose to do so by swinging his right arm forcibly in the direction of Cunningham\u2019s upper body and head. While Cunningham may have been in a slightly lower position at the moment of impact than Fogarty hoped, he did not move in an unnatural or unexpected manner. <\/p>\n
\u201cFogarty\u2019s technique of forcefully swinging his arm in the likely direction of his opponent\u2019s head and neck was, in those circumstances, careless. Fogarty\u2019s evidence was he intended to do no more than wrap Cunningham up in a tackle. He could have done so without the unreasonable forceful swing of the right arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact was severe. The force of the blow was considerable and Cunningham was concussed and took no further part in the match. He will miss at least one further match. The examples we were shown differed from the present matter in the extent of force and\/or the nature of the extended injury suffered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe three-match suspension is appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide\u2019s Darcy Fogarty will miss the next three games after failing to escape his striking ban at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-812562","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812562","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=812562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}