AFL grand final: Appeal board make shock call on Lachie Neale’s status for grand final

With the teams locked in, here are the 23 Dockers chasing immortality.

“Yeah, it was pretty nerve-wracking and in pretty foreign territory, so I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself,” he says.

“I’ve been trying to keep busy and thankfully coming down here training and everything and having the boys around me has been great.

When asked if $10,000 is a small price to pay, “absolutely” is his response.

“I wouldn’t say I have a bigger point to prove on Saturday I just want to play my part and win on Saturday. Difficult challenge against Freo but hopefully we can do it.”

“Well, I was on Tuesday, and I thought he would play,” he says on AFL360.

“It probably took a little bit longer than expected to get to this point, but I understand the rationale behind it

“With tribunal or concussion or even umpiring, I’m after consistency, which there is consistency in this and other players have got off with exemplary records.

“We wouldn’t have changed our midfield anyway, and if he didn’t play, one of their other guys just picks up a little more time, and they’ve got guys lining up

“We’ll put some more time into him; he’s a champion of the game and having him out there is definitely going to help them.”

Here’s how the dramatic appeal fell Lachie Neale’s way.

Brisbane had named Lachie Neale in their team sheet prior to the result of the Appeal, which showed their confidence.

Meanwhile, Fremantle have made a call over their backline.

That’s a stunning decision as the Appeals board lays out it’s findings.

We do not find that the Tribunal failed to take into account the consequence of their decision that Neale would miss the grand final, even though it was not listed in the Tribunal’s reasons.

They were mindful of this confidence; we do not find there was an error of law in respect of this appeal.

We find that the Tribunal did err in having regard to whether the conduct was intentional.

We accept the position of Neale in his written submissions that the intentional aspect was an element of the charge which had already been established.

The relevant inquiry was whether, despite the charge having been established, there was exceptional and compelling circumstances.

In this case, that was Neale’s record.

We find that Neale’s record is exemplary, and that he should be afforded the benefit of the provision.

In conclusion, we allow the appeal.

We order that Neale instead be fined $10,000.

Neale looked like he could barely believe it with his mouth agape as that decision was read out.

He thanked the appeals board and let out a huge sigh

Decision incoming: rapid decision compared to Tuesday

Just shy of the two-hour mark and the Appeals board has retired to make its decision.

Hard to see Neale getting this overturned but stranger things have happened.

“The AFL said it was not relevant, and the tribunal did not identify it in its reasoning,” he said.

“The rules don’t say the suspension must apply in the next match, under exceptional and compelling circumstances it can apply.”

“The next point is that Tuesday’s took into account an irrelevant point in that it was an intentional charge, not careless in relation to exceptional and compelling,” Mr Woods said.

“It’s entirely relevant, and a responsible thing for the Tribunal to have done.

“You can’t say the rarity of it is not something that can be taken into account, and it’s very much relevant to the analysis here.”