West Coast Eagles star Andrew Gaff will front the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night for an "extraordinary" swinging left punch which left Fremantle youngster Andrew Brayshaw with broken jaw, four displaced teeth and unable to eat solids for a month.
Match review officer Michael Christian has sent Gaff directly before the judiciary, for his punch on the first-year Docker, having assessed the Eagle's conduct as intentional, with severe conduct to the head.
Replay
“I’m very comfortable that it was severe impact, and obviously the contact was high," Christian said.
"Certainly it’s the highest grading that you can get."
Asked if it was the crudest incident he'd reviewed this year, Christian compared the matter to Jeremy Cameron's hit on Brisbane Lions defender Harris Andrews for which Cameron was ultimately suspended for five matches.
Experienced lawyer David Grace QC is set to represent Gaff at the tribunal.
Such was the magnitude of Gaff's strike 20 metres off the ball in the third term of Sunday's Western derby at Optus Stadium, he could well face a suspension which rules him out for the rest of the season.
AFL great Leigh Matthews said a remorseful Gaff could face up to seven weeks on the sidelines, derailing the Eagles' premiership hopes. There are three matches left in the home-and-away season. The Eagles are six points clear in second spot on the ladder, meaning they could have only two home finals before playing off in the grand final.
Western Australian police said they were assessing the incident to determine if criminal charges were warranted. Matthews is the only player in VFL-AFL history to be charged by police for an on-field incident, in that case for his strike on Geelong's Neville Bruns in 1985.
Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett said Gaff would elaborate on why he had struck Brayshaw only during the tribunal hearing.
"It's totally out of character for a player who has never been reported at any level through juniors, his senior 174 games [before Sunday] – it just came out of the blue. It just seemed extraordinary that it happened," he said.
"He [Gaff] was beside himself with what happened. I think people saw the remorse he has under this situation but it doesn't go to exonerating him from the action. He has to take responsibility which he is taking but he is taking it pretty tough."
In 2015, Nisbett said any amateur player who engaged in thuggery should be deregistered, coming after an incident in Perth amateur ranks where a player had his jaw broken. Nisbett said the Gaff case was different.
"This is probably different circumstances … because we have a process in place the AFL will deal with it," he said.
Brayshaw's mother Debbie was in tears on game day while husband Mark is the chief executive of the AFL Coaches Association. Mark Brayshaw is also good friends with Eagles coach Adam Simpson, having played together at North Melbourne. Another of their sons, Hamish, plays with the Eagles.
"It's a difficult situation. Five days ago the brothers and Andrew Gaff were on the golf course together. It's an extraordinary situation we all find ourselves in at the moment," Nisbett said.
"We are all grateful that Andrew Brayshaw is in reasonable shape considering what happened and his parents are accepting of Andrew Gaff's apology.
"It wouldn't surprise you that with Hamish at our club, there is a reasonable relationship there."
Gaff has gone straight to the tribunal.
Gaff may have played his last match for the club, for he is a restricted free agent and is weighing up whether to return home to Victoria. The Dockers had expressed interest in the hard-running midfielder earlier this season but did not provide a formal offer.
"We hope not," Nisbett said when asked if Gaff had played his last match for the club.
"That [incident] probably complicates a few things for Andrew but certainly from our point of view, we would like to think it's not."
Nisbett said the relationship between the Dockers and Eagles was strained, and had not been helped by Ross Lyon's angry post-match comments and those of prominent lawyer and East Perth board member Tom Percy, the latter calling for Gaff to face criminal action.
Dockers coach Lyon said Brayshaw had been "king-hit 100m off the ball" and that he had needed to calm his players down for they had wanted retribution.
"Unfortunately they [comments] were made," Nisbett said.
"I would like to think when you make those comments you try and take out the emotion of the situation. It's very difficult to do that but you also need to be extremely accurate if you are going to make comments like that."
Christian refuted a suggestion that supposed leniency from the AFL on punches this year meant Gaff had not been sufficiently deterred from striking Brayshaw.
“I think we’ve been very strong with punching this year," Christian said.
"There’s been a number of punches that have not necessarily had significant impact, but that we’ve fined for misconduct far [more] than we have in previous years.
“So I’m a little bemused, to be honest, about those comments. We take punching very, very seriously.
“I think to charge and to suspend players, there needs to be more than a negligible amount of impact. And i think what you’ll find is that a lot of that impact from previous year has not been charged. So I would dispute that."
No other players face suspension from round 20's games, although a host of players can accept fines. Dockers Hadyen Ballantyne, Michael Johnson, Luke Ryan and Sean Darcy, and Eagles Liam Ryan, Jeremy McGovern and Daniel Venables were all fined following incidents which occurred in the aftermath of the Gaff strike.
– with JAKE NIALL
Source: Read Full Article