Three years ago, this Lion was \u2018finished\u2019. What came next made him a shock modern-day great<\/a><\/p>\nLachie Neale speaks on Grand Final ban | 04:11<\/p>\n
Garry Lyon: \u201cFirstly, there\u2019s a lot of emotion. I look back on my first comments, and I can\u2019t definitively say it was a clenched fist \u2014 but it was a strike to the stomach, it was off the ball and intentional. It was pre-meditated, so all these things have worked against him. From a home-and-away point of view, we wouldn\u2019t be arguing it. He, like the other nine cases that have gone forward, I just think it\u2019s a week. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we\u2019re into the argument of whether the penalty fits the crime; which my colleague (Tim Watson) argued really eloquently and strongly for. That\u2019s where I thought the AFL would find a way, either via a downgrade to low impact, or via the compelling circumstances \u2014 that\u2019s where I thought it would\u2019ve landed, and I would\u2019ve been satisfied with that. But, it hasn\u2019t, so now we find ourselves in this very emotive situation where a man\u2019s going to miss a Grand Final for what doesn\u2019t appear to be the severest of acts. It was a really poor decision, and he\u2019s got himself to blame at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerard Whateley: \u201cI had a lot thrown at me today (on radio): Karma, stupidity, sportsmanship, \u2018think of the children\u2019, and choose your own precedent. But, I\u2019m more of an evidence guy. So, how can you sustain a charge when the alleged strike is not captured and if you can\u2019t conclusively see contact, then how can you so certainly determine its nature; which was described as a forceful blow delivered with a swinging arm and an open hand. It\u2019s not a gut punch \u2014 that\u2019s the determination of the Tribunal, so just show me that. There was 1,641 words in the judgement that was handed down, and there was 26 that go to the crux of it: \u2018It is the case that there is no single frame of the vision that clearly shows Neale\u2019s hand or lower arm making contact with Ginnivan\u2019s abdomen\u2019. You need evidence to sustain a charge, not extrapolation, assumption or the arbitrary measure that \u2018there\u2019s enough there\u2019 to justify medium for a suspension, rather than low as a fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, there was a piece of evidence that was completely ignored. All of Neale\u2019s testimony was disregarded. He spoke of the flopping signal to Ginnivan, and said Ginnivan grinned, got up and trotted away. That stood both unchallenged, and completely unaddressed. I wonder, if the vision had been adequate \u2014 and we can surely all agree it is completely inadequate \u2014 for a professional sport and such a judgement that carries magnitude, that the vision might very well have shown Ginnivan grinning, getting up and trotting off. As likely as it was an open hand (Strike), it might also have shown the banter between the two players. This was weighted one way, completely disregarding the other, without the actual evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
GL: How did they arrive at the week then?<\/p>\n
Neale suspension UPHELD | 01:21<\/p>\n
GW: Yeah. They extrapolated, and supposed, and used comfortably satisfied. They relied on the vision so much to be comfortably satisfied. I don\u2019t think the appeal will be successful; I think there\u2019s such a determination to suspend Neale.<\/p>\n
GL: When you say determination, from where?<\/p>\n
GW: I just think it seems like the AFL has absolutely zeroed in that this must be a suspension. There\u2019s three others (strikes) this year that were graded as low. It\u2019s choose your own precedent!<\/p>\n
GL: But then you take that to the grading. When it\u2019s being graded, the consistency is there \u2014 nine times players have been found in this same position (this year), and nine times they\u2019ve got a week, and we haven\u2019t heard a word about it.<\/p>\n
GW: Yep, but if they used the other three and graded it as low, we wouldn\u2019t have heard a word about it either … You can have whichever precedent you like. To listen to Jeff Gleeson (last night), it was like this was an egregious action. If you\u2019d closed your eyes and listened to his wording, you would\u2019ve thought: \u2018This is a king hit from the previous era!\u2019 It\u2019s gone totally out of whack to what this actually was, which was a moment that left a player completely untouched (and) gets back up. The evidence is that he was grinning, and trotted away. The magnitude that has been put around this is out of proportion to what actually happened. There\u2019s clearly errors of law, and there\u2019s no reasonable Tribunal that could use the vision in such a way. I suspect that\u2019s a high bar though tomorrow night, given the resolute determination to see him suspended from a grand final.<\/p>\n
GL: I think he\u2019s put himself in the most vulnerable position by pre-meditating, and any way you cut it, swinging an arm and striking him in a manner that was always going to draw attention \u2014 whether he fell to the ground or not, unwillingly or otherwise. It was totally avoidable, and now he finds himself in this situation where I thought he would\u2019ve been downgraded and got himself off. He hasn\u2019t, and now he\u2019s found himself in this terrible situation. Maybe you\u2019re right, maybe they\u2019re baying for his suspension and missing the grand final other than pure football; which I wouldn\u2019t take any notice of them. You think there\u2019s no chance he can get off?<\/p>\n
GW: I think there\u2019s a chance, but it looks like a stacked deck for me. 320 games, two Brownlow Medals \u2014 fairest and best \u2014 two premierships, and he couldn\u2019t be afforded? How you can come to the definitive view that this is a forceful strike with an open hand…<\/p>\n
GL: It was pretty forceful, it was swinging. <\/p>\n
GW: I just don\u2019t think the evidence is there. Speaking to a couple of advocates that have been in the system for 30 years, they go: \u2018How do you end up with a verdict without the actual evidence?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201ccompletely inadequate\u201d vision of Lachie Neale\u2019s strike could prove his saving grace at Thursday night\u2019s Appeals Board,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-902463","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\/902463","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=902463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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