Match review panel member Joel Bowden is expecting a base penalty of more than a month when Richmond's Ty Vickery faces the tribunal on Tuesday evening for his blow to West Coast's Dean Cox at the weekend.
Vickery is only the third player in a decade to be sent to the tribunal for a strike deemed too serious to be punished just based on the AFL's set penalties.
Unlike previous instances this of the panel referring cases directly to the tribunal because it was not comfortable grading the incident itself, it did make a determination of Vickery's strike: intentional, severe impact, high contact (the most serious for each category). Its rulebook states such an incident must be sent to the tribunal to determine a penalty.
The only other two instances of this occurring, since the match review panel points-based system was introduced in 2005, were in 2008.
In the first, one of the most notorious in the modern era, then Sydney spearhead Barry Hall delivered a fierce behind-play punch to the jaw of then West Coast defender Brent Staker. The tribunal gave him a seven-match suspension.
In the second, Fremantle's Dean Solomon was given an eight-match ban, the heaviest for a single incident in 11 years, for elbowing and breaking the cheekbone of Geelong's Cameron Ling.
Bowden said the panel was comfortable with its decision on Vickery.
"We just felt it was a clear, intentional hit, a round-arm clenched fist to the head. Even though it was in the ruck contest we deemed that intentional," he told the AFL website.
Bowden said the grading of severe impact, rather than high, was because the situation of a player delivering a hefty round-arm to an opponent's head in a ruck contest, as Vickery did to Cox, was specifically cited in its rule book as a scenario which had the potential to cause serious injury.
"Obviously he [Cox] has been knocked out but it's the severe impact that we've chosen, because not only was he knocked out, there is a potential to cause serious injury when you do swing a round-arm and make head-high contact," he explained.
By referring the incident to the tribunal, Bowden said "that assumes the points [penalty] will be over 425", which would have been the base penalty had Vickery's strike been classified high impact rather than severe.
Notionally, a level-six strike would, based on the points allocated for preceding levels, be about 550 points. When added to Vickery's 43.75 carry-over points it would inflate the penalty to just under six matches, and probably five with a guilty plea.
Such a scenario is not assured, however, because the tribunal jurors have the power to set their own penalty, and are not compelled to include carry-over points or to allow a discounted penalty if the player wishes to plead guilty.
Any penalty of five matches or more would sideline Vickery for the rest of the season, given Richmond is out of finals contention.
Bowden also defended the panel's decision to spare Cox from punishment for an elbow to the midriff of Vickery that preceded, and some may argue triggered, Vickery's blow to him.
"It is part of the narrative of this case but we deemed it below the level of force to constitute a reportable offence," he said.
Bowden also defended the misconduct fines of $1200, reduced to $900 with guilty pleas, on Eagles pair Luke Shuey and Mark LeCras for their sandwich-style bumps on Vickery in the aftermath of the incident with Cox.
"In its totality we deem this a misconduct charge. In isolation there's probably no reportable offence but we don't want to see guys ganging up on someone, pushing them from behind, bumping them from in front," he said.
TRIBUNAL - ROUND 18 WEEK 2
Ty Vickery (Rich) striking Dean Cox (WC). Intentional, severe impact, high contact. Penalty TBC.
Penalties accepted:
Jeremy Laidler (Syd) striking Jack Gunston (Haw). Reprimand and 70.31 carry-over points.
Luke Shuey (WC) misconduct against Ty Vickery (Rich). $900 fine.
Mark LeCras (WC) misconduct against Ty Vickery (Rich). $900 fine.
