Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard has been cleared for his heavy hit on Melbourne onballer Angus Brayshaw, freeing him to play in the remainder of the Magpies’ finals series.
The AFL tribunal hearing started at 4pm, reaching its verdict just after 8pm on the incident between Maynard and Angus Brayshaw in last week’s qualifying final.
The tribunal panel of Darren Gaspar, Scott Stevens and chair Jeff Gleeson took just under an hour to find Maynard’s action to smother was reasonable and that he had not engaged in the act of bumping Brayshaw, who was knocked out cold and has an uncertain playing future.
All smiles: Brayden Maynard.Credit: Darrian Traynor
The Pies called in a biomechanist, Michael Cole, to demonstrate their argument that Maynard had insufficient time to make a conscious decision on how he would collide with Brayshaw.
“We accept that a reasonable player would have foreseen at the moment of committing to the act of smothering that some impact with Brayshaw was possible. But we find that it was not inevitable from the perspective of a player in Maynard’s position,” Gleeson said in delivering the finding.
“We are not at all satisfied that a reasonable player would have foreseen that violent impact or impact of the type suffered by Brayshaw was inevitable or even likely.
“We are clearly satisfied that Maynard did not engage in the act of bumping Brayshaw. It is not suggested by the AFL and nor could it be sensibly suggested that Maynard made a decision to bump his opponent at the moment of jumping in the air to smother. At that point in time, Maynard was clearly making a decision to smother.
“We accept that a reasonable player would have foreseen at the moment of committing to the act of smothering that some impact with Brayshaw was possible. But we find that it was not inevitable from the perspective of a player in Maynard’s position,” Gleeson said in delivering the finding.
“We are not at all satisfied that a reasonable player would have foreseen that violent impact or impact of the type suffered by Brayshaw was inevitable or even likely.
“We are clearly satisfied that Maynard did not engage in the act of bumping Brayshaw. It is not suggested by the AFL and nor could it be sensibly suggested that Maynard made a decision to bump his opponent at the moment of jumping in the air to smother. At that point in time, Maynard was clearly making a decision to smother.”