Isaac Heeney has been ruled out of the Brownlow Medal race, with the Sydney Swans star unsuccessful at the AFL tribunal.
The 28-year-old was cited for a strike on St Kilda star Jimmy Webster in round 17.
The act was graded as intentional conduct, low impact, high contact by the MRO and was upheld at the tribunal on Tuesday night. He’ll miss the Swans’ clash against the Kangaroos on Saturday.
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Isaac Heeney of the Swans. via Getty Images
Sydney argued that the incident was careless as opposed to intentional.
In his own defence, Heeney said he was trying to swat Webster’s hand away, and didn’t expect the Saints star to be as low as he was.
“He’s taller than me and where his hands were on my back is where I was swatting,” he said.
“I wanted to swat his hands away, I didn’t want to hit him anywhere other than the hands.”
“With your forward craft this happens a lot … probably 50 to 100 times in some games.”
He also noted he had briefly turned his back on play, despite the ball coming in his direction, because he realised where he’d hit Webster.
Swans lawyer Duncan Miller argued it would be “unexpected” for Heeney to “find someone a couple of inches taller than him in a position below his chest height”.
Webster was left with a bloody nose after his hit from Heeney. Footy on Nine
He also argued Heeney’s movement was “completely inconsistent” with that of someone intentionally trying to strike.
The Swans also asked Heeney’s character to be taken into consideration, given he’s been fined just twice in his 193 AFL games.
The last ineligible player to win the Brownlow was Bulldogs gun Chris Grant in 1997. North Melbourne’s Corey McKernan had suffered the same fate a year earlier.
Elsewhere, the Tribunal needed barely 40 minutes to uphold Izak Rankine’s four-game ban.