Hawks fans throw bottles at umpires<\/a><\/p>\nHawthorn fans are condemned for their behaviour after the siren following a heart-stopping preliminary final against the Brisbane Lions at the MCG.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hawks pair James Sicliy and Tom Barrass have been fined $10,000 and $5,000 respectively for abusing umpire Hayden Meyer following the frenetic finish to the match.<\/p>\n
Neale’s off-the-ball incident involved a gut punch to the Hawks’ Jack Ginnivan in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Vision showed Ginnivan wrestling with Lions forward Eric Hipwood, before Neale jogs over and hits the Hawks player with a left-handed punch to the stomach.<\/p>\n
It was graded intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact.<\/p>\n
Within minutes of the AFL releasing the match review findings on Sunday, the Lions confirmed they will challenge the ban.<\/p>\n
Neale will front the tribunal but, if unsuccessful, will miss Saturday’s grand final against Fremantle at the MCG.<\/p>\n
New match review guidelines state intentional strikes to the stomach are automatically graded as medium impact rather than low, resulting in one-match bans.<\/p>\n
![\"Lachie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/f26d60720ec0e6085abb9a67f90f455b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale has won two flags with the Lions. (Getty Images\/AFL Photos: Robert Cianflone)<\/p>\n
Neale may attempt to lean on the “exemplary record” clause to clear himself for the grand final.<\/p>\n
He has never been suspended in his 320-match career and could use the same clause that helped Scott Pendlebury escape suspension for his bump on Adelaide’s Josh Worrell this season.<\/p>\n
Under AFL regulations, “a player with an exemplary record may argue that their good record constitutes exceptional and compelling circumstances”.<\/p>\n
Players can no longer use the so-called “good bloke” defence that helped Brisbane’s Charlie Cameron overturn a ban in 2024.<\/p>\n
Neale’s other option is to attempt to have the impact grading reduced, though that route would be unlikely to be successful.<\/p>\n
A suspension would also mean Neale may have played his final match for the Lions.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old, who has twice won the Brownlow Medal, is expected to make an off-season move to Collingwood as a free agent.<\/p>\n
Neale and Harris Andrews were co-captains when the Lions won the 2024 and 2025 premierships.<\/p>\n
Should the Lions defeat the Dockers, they will match the feat of the club’s 2001-03 squad, which won three straight flags.<\/p>\n
![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4344260caef50a7bc682355912bf9144.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
James Sicily was fined $10,000 by the AFL. (Getty Images: Quinn Rooney)<\/p>\n
Sicily and Barrass were handed their massive fines for misconduct after their heated conversation with Meyer immediately after the final siren.<\/p>\n
It followed a controversial finish, in which a holding-the-ball free kick paid against Hawthorn’s Jarman Impey gifted Brisbane’s Hugh McCluggage the match-clinching goal in the dying stages.<\/p>\n
Sicily and Barrass were not offered an early plea.<\/p>\n
The AFL determined the fixed financial sanction for abusive language towards an umpire was inadequate, and so charged Sicily and Barrass under the “other misconduct” provision.<\/p>\n
Hawks midfielder Jai Newcombe was cleared over his first-quarter contact with Neale in a collision that involved opponents pushing the two players into each other.<\/p>\n
ABC\/AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tell us about your experience. The Brisbane Lions will challenge a one-match ban handed to Lachie Neale, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[638,64,63,17652,3237,10993,1635,10992,11288,16118,6854,25875,18021,19095,85,8630,26605,26604],"class_list":["post-898783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-dockers","tag-fans","tag-fremantle","tag-grand-final","tag-hawks","tag-hawthorn","tag-lachie-neale","tag-mcg","tag-preliminary-final","tag-sports","tag-striking","tag-suspension","tag-tribunal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898783","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=898783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}