![\"Lachie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790246896_691_17e354bd86815637f798233bd5944d908d1d4fbf.jpeg\")
Lachie Neale is free to play in Saturday\u2019s grand final.AFL Photos<\/p>\nLachie Neale is free to play in the grand final after the AFL appeals board sensationally handed him a fine, overturning a one-match suspension on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The board of chairman Richard Loveridge and members Wayne Henwood and Stephen Jurica found that the AFL tribunal should have used the exemplary and compelling circumstances exception to reduce Neale\u2019s one-game ban for gut-punching Jack Ginnivan.<\/p>\n
They instead gave him a $10,000 fine after the AFL was denied the opportunity to introduce new evidence in the hearing \u2013 vision taken during a trial of an optical data tracking trial by Champion Data.<\/p>\n
Lachie Neale is free to play in Saturday\u2019s grand final.AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Loveridge said the board only wanted to consider the evidence that the tribunal originally considered.<\/p>\n
Speaking straight after the hearing, Neale said he was thrilled with the appeals board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing in the grand final now, and I just want to thank the club, Danny [Lions football boss Danny Daly], everyone involved for the process and helping me play this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully all the attention is 1790246894 off me and we can get ready to play on Saturday in the grand final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neale has played 320 games without a suspension but has been cited multiple times for offences that resulted in fines, including some for similar striking of the body offences before AFL football boss Greg Swann\u2019s crackdown on gut punches this season.<\/p>\n
As the hearing ended, Neale could be heard thanking the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to the tribunal, thanks Mr Chairman,\u201d Neale was heard saying before the stream cut off.<\/p>\n
Loveridge said in his short statement announcing the findings that Neale\u2019s disciplinary record was exemplary and should have received greater weight when the tribunal made its decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn regard to whether exceptional and compelling circumstances provision can apply to Neale\u2019s benefit \u2013 we find that the tribunal did err in having regard to whether the conduct was intentional,\u201d Loveridge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe accept the position of Neale in his written submissions that the intentional aspect was an element of the charge which had already been established.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relevant inquiry was whether, despite the charge having been established, there was exceptional and compelling circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, that was Neale\u2019s record. We find that Neale\u2019s record is exemplary, and that he should be afforded the benefit of the provision.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn conclusion, we allow the appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former AFL operations boss Adrian Anderson, appearing for Neale, appealed on two fronts but didn\u2019t attempt to challenge the striking charge.<\/p>\n
He urged the board to give Neale a more \u201cproportionate\u201d penalty of either a $10,000 fine or have him serve his suspension in round one next season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He claimed the tribunal didn\u2019t consider Neale missing the \u201chistoric opportunity\u201d to play in a grand final when it considered any exceptional and compelling circumstances around the penalty he received.<\/p>\n
He also argued it was an error to look at prior cases for Scott Pendlebury and Charlie Cameron as their acts were deemed as careless contact, not intentional.<\/p>\n
On the first issue, Anderson noted that missing the grand final was only mentioned in the intentional strike section of the findings and not the penalty.<\/p>\n
Loveridge and Jurica both challenged him on that argument, stating that, surely, the tribunal would have had it on their minds.<\/p>\n
Jurica quoted the findings, which mentioned, \u201cWe are mindful of the significant consequences of this finding of intentional strike\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAren\u2019t we [at] cross purposes here?\u201d Jurica asked.<\/p>\n
But Anderson countered to say that was in the section on the striking charge, not the penalty.<\/p>\n
Anderson spoke for almost 90 minutes and was politely asked to hurry up his claims while AFL counsel Andrew Woods KC only used 25 minutes in his rebuttal.<\/p>\n
Woods said Anderson\u2019s own argument to the tribunal for exceptional and compelling circumstances focused on Neale\u2019s record of 320 games without a suspension and the fact that Ginnivan didn\u2019t report any injuries from the strike.<\/p>\n
He added that it wasn\u2019t right to \u201cdissect\u201d AFL tribunal findings for tiny errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a sporting tribunal, and it took into account everything it needed to,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Anderson is inviting you to dissect the decision as you would an appellate court argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [tribunals] offer brief reasons for any decision made by it. It\u2019s inappropriate to dissect them in the manner urged on you earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Neale is free to play in the grand final after the AFL appeals board sensationally handed him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-903632","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\/903632","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=903632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}