For newly appointed Collingwood Captain Nick Maxwell, it was a dream start to his first year as captain, with a 62 point defeat of the West Coast Eagles. However it wasn’t all good news for Maxwell.
In the third quarter of the match, Nick Maxwell appeared to engage in rough contact (a bump) with West Coast Eagles player Patrick McGinnity, this contact eventuated in a broken jaw for the Eagle.
Maxwell was then to face a three-match suspension after being charged with a rough conduct offence by the AFL tribunal.
The Collingwood captain was charged with an overall Level 3 engaging in rough conduct offence against Eagle’s player. The incident on the field was considered as a negligent contact offence (1 point), high impact (3 points) and high contact (2 points). This totalled 6 activation points, which then resulted a classification of a Level Three offence, drawing 325 demerit points and a three-match sanction.
With the Magpies deciding to appeal the initial incident to the Match Review Panel, there was a strong chance; the ban could be increased to a fourth match.
The Magpies challenged the Panel and found that Maxwell’s bump Patrick McGinnity was “negligent and the Collingwood skipper did have a “realistic alternative” other than shepherding. “
As Maxwell already had an existing bad record at the AFL Tribunal, with a previous one match suspension within the last three years, his penalty increased by 10%, meaning it was raised to 357.50 points. He also had a further 82.81 points carried over from within the last 12 months, increasing the penalty to 440.31 points and a four-match sanction.
After all this the Collingwood Football Club would not give in and again wanted to appeal the tribunal result.
With the new tribunal rules that were set in stone in 2005, if Maxwell was cleared it would make history for the AFL Tribunal.
On Friday 20th February, just under a week before the Pies will be taking on Richmond for a place in the NAB cup semi-finals, the Nick Maxwell decision has been made.
After one and a half hours, the AFL Appeals Board ruled in favour of Collingwood’s captain, who was facing a four match suspension against West Coast’s Patrick McGinnity. The Collingwood Captain has been cleared of all charges and is free to play next Thursday night at the Telstra Dome against Richmond.
The Pies went to the Appeals Board on the basis that “no Tribunal acting reasonably could have reached this verdict on the evidence before it.”
It seems after much determination, persistence and the “never give up” approach by the Collingwood Football Club, the Maggies have prevailed!
Tags: Nick Maxwell, Tribunal
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