The Adelaide Crows look set to appeal the AFL tribunal’s decision to uphold a three-match ban handed to forward Shane McAdam for his brutal hit on GWS’s Jacob Wehr.
McAdam’s bump on Wehr was one of three thrust into the spotlight in round one, along with Swans veteran Lance Franklin’s on the Gold Coast’s Sam Collins, and Demons firebrand Kysaiah Pickett’s on Bailey Smith.
The Swans had earlier accepted Franklin’s one match ban, as did the Dees for Pickett’s two-game ban. McAdam was sent straight to the tribunal.
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Franklin’s bump Collins was classified as high contact and careless contact, but only a medium impact which resulted in the smaller penalty.
Pickett was hit with a careless conduct, high impact and high contact charge.
The Crows used both Franklin’s and Pickett’s bumps as examples, but interestingly, the jury dismissed the Pickett example, deeming it to be a more “glancing impact” – dispute Pickett also launching himself into Smith.
They also produced Patrick Dangerfield’s bump on Jake Kelly in 2021 and Paddy Ryder’s on Hawthorn’s Will Day early last season as further evidence.
The tribunal found even though Wehr somehow escaped injury, the potential for serious injury was high.
Traditionally, the AFL tribunal did not classify hits particularly severely – as brutal as they may otherwise be – if the player on the receiving end was not injured.
McAdam’s advocate Tom Duggan said given that, the Crows were “surprised” about the classification.
“The reality is that in this case…there was no injury at all,” Duggan said.
“It is surely a material fact that there was no injury when considering whether the impact was severe.”
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Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said the hit amounted to “rough conduct under the broad definition”.
“It was careless. McAdam chose to bump at reasonable speed. Was it high contact? We find that it was.
“Was it at least low actual impact to the head? We find that it was. The impact was greater than that. It was not negligible.
“Here the potential for injury and serious injury was very high. We regard it as severe impact.”
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