Suns defender free to play after AFL tribunal success
Oliver Caffrey |
Gold Coast defender John Noble has been cleared to play in a crunch clash against Hawthorn after having his one-game ban overturned.
Noble was suspended for rough conduct against Essendon’s Tom Edwards in the Suns’ close win over the Bombers on Saturday.
The former Collingwood player argued his head contact with Edwards was incidental and unavoidable.
“We consider that in the unusual circumstances of this case, the high contact was caused by circumstances outside of Noble’s control which could not be reasonably foreseen,” the tribunal chair said when dismissing the case.
Noble will be available for Saturday’s clash with the Hawks in Launceston, when their opponents will be without suspended pair James Sicily and Dylan Moore.
Earlier, GWS young gun Joe Fonti unsuccessfully contested his rough conduct charge against Sydney superstar Isaac Heeney.
Fonti, who has played all six games this season, was given a one-match ban for a fourth quarter incident involving Heeney in Friday night’s Sydney derby defeat.
The incident was graded as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact by match review officer Michael Christian.
GWS attempted to downgrade the impact from medium to low, as well as having the contact graded to body instead of head.
But after deliberating for more than 40 minutes, the AFL tribunal upheld the charge, meaning Fonti must sit out Sunday’s match against North Melbourne in Canberra.
Fonti told the tribunal he was trying to smother the ball, but realised he wasn’t going to be able to.
Instead of smothering, Fonti said he braced for contact with Heeney, arguing the impact was against Heeney’s shoulder.
AAP