- Toby Greene’s one-match ban confirmed
- The Giants star collided with his Carlton rival last week
- The incident has divided the football world
Toby Greene’s one-match suspension for punching has been confirmed, dealing a blow to the GWS Giants captain.
Greene advanced towards the ball and jumped to score, but turned his body just before a collision and made contact with the head of Carlton’s Jordan Boyd, who was retreating as the ball flew.
Boyd immediately got up to take a free throw and ended the game.
Greene’s actions were rated as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.
However, the episode has opened a huge debate about hurdles in football, with Melbourne captain Max Gawn predicting there will be seismic rule changes very soon.
Toby Greene has failed in his attempt to overturn his one-game suspension
The GWS Giants captain’s hit on Jordan Boyd has divided opinion in the football world
Despite this, the AFL Tribunal found Greene’s collision to be harsh conduct, much like Peter Weight’s hit on Harry Cunningham earlier this season.
Greene gave evidence and said she prepared at the “last minute.”
“Right as I left the ground I realized that Boyd’s hands were going to arrive right before mine, which means if I go in with my chest open, I’m opening myself up for impact,” Greene said.
“That’s why I turned my body to protect myself, knowing that he was going to get there before me.”
When asked if he considered spoilers, Greene said it didn’t cross his mind.
“The whole time I thought, I’m going to score it,” he said.
“It wasn’t until Boyd’s hands came right before mine, fractions of a second, that I realized he was going to get there and I turned around and got ready.”
Elsewhere, Star GWS forward Jesse Hogan is free to play against the Brisbane Lions after a one-game suspension for striking was thrown out by the court.
Hogan was penalized by the match review official, who rated an incident with Carlton defender Lewis Young as intentional conduct, low impact and high contact.
But the court panel dismissed the charge, saying Hogan had not exerted enough force to qualify as low impact.
“Hogan gave impressively candid evidence, including acknowledging that he made a forceful move to try to pressure Young,” presiding judge Jeff Gleeson said.
On the other hand, Jesse Hogan had his hitting ban lifted, in a boost for the Giants.
“We are clearly not convinced that there is anything more than negligible.”
Hogan admitted that he and Young engaged in “some words” and felt he was treated “a little harshly.”
“We had a few pushes and it bounced off his arm and at first I thought I had scraped his nose,” he told the court.
‘When I initially did it, I didn’t actually think I’d achieved anything.
‘Until he started saying that ‘they would give me a week for that’, I didn’t understand anything.
‘We addressed it after the game. We smoothed it out immediately afterwards.