Essendon will enter into their biggest Anzac Day match in years without their skipper Zach Merrett after his one-match ban for a tackle on Thomas Sparrow was upheld during a busy night at the AFL Tribunal.
That game will also take place without Collingwood's Taylor Adams, who was unsuccessful in challenging his one-match suspension.
Meanwhile, St Kilda’s Anthony Caminiti was issued with a three-game ban for his strike on Magpie Nathan Murphy, who was subsequently ruled out of his side’s next game due to concussion.
The three hearings on Tuesday marked the fifth consecutive week the Tribunal has sat with 11 cases being heard across the first five rounds.
MORE: Why Collingwood - Essendon Anzac Day game is the biggest since 1995
Essendon captain Zach Merrett’s suspension upheld
The Bombers challenged the charge of rough conduct as the AFL stated that Merrett had placed Sparrow in a vulnerable position with his attempted tackle.
“I wasn’t pulling him directly towards the ground,” Merrett said while defending his actions.
“I’m doing everything to pull him onto me. It feels like his body connects with mine as I hit the ground as well.”
However, despite AFL Tribunal chairman, Jeff Gleeson, detailing Merrett’s explanation as “honest and forthright”, the ban was upheld.
“The difficulty for Merrett is that by holding onto Sparrow’s jumper - and in our view pulling him to the ground - combined with the force applied by Merrett around Sparrow’s body with his left arm, there was a real risk of Sparrow’s head colliding forcefully with the ground,” Gleeson said after just under half an hour of deliberation.
“A reasonable player in Merrett’s position would have realised there was some vulnerability for Sparrow because his right arm was pinned…and his head was driving towards the ground with force and that there was a real risk Sparrow wouldn’t land entirely on Merrett.
“For those reasons, we find this was a dangerous tackle.”
Collingwood's Taylor Adams to miss Anzac clash
Taylor Adams hoped to dodge a one-match suspension but, like Merrett, was also unsuccessful.
The incident saw St Kilda's Seb Ross already tackled by Adams' Collingwood teammates Tom Mitchell and Beau McCreery, before the 29-year-old engaged and slung the midfielder to the ground.
Adams sought to downgrade his dangerous tackle charge from medium to low impact, arguing that the force of the tackle was increased because his teammates fell off balance.
“Tom [Mitchell] has got half a foot on the ground, he’s got his whole weight falling onto us,” Adams said.
“Beau [McCreery], he likes tackling that much that he’s tackling Tom to try and tackle Ross. There’s almost 180 kilos of weight going through them.
“I tried to protect both Seb [Ross] and myself. It’s lucky I did, otherwise, he would’ve hit the ground harder.
“Seb actually mentioned to me after this that he was able to get a handball away.”
It was determined by the Tribunal that Adams’ actions made it a dangerous tackle, with the admittance that the other two players “might magnify” the force of the tackle.
However, the one-match ban was ultimately upheld.
Anthony Caminiti has charge downgraded at the Tribunal
St Kilda argued that Caminiti’s strike on the Collingwood defender was careless rather than intentional as the AFL pushed for a five-match ban if it was deemed by the panel to be on purpose.
“I was very remorseful and wanted to say how sorry I was for the action,” the rookie said.
“I felt quite bad at the outcome. I just wanted to see if he was ok and just wanted to apologise.
“It was never my intention to swing, my whole intention was to push.”
The incident was originally graded as intentional conduct, severe impact and high contact by the match review officer.
The young Saint has given evidence as he faces a lengthy striking ban at the Tribunal.
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"I don’t see it as a deliberate act," Nathan Buckley stated on Fox Footy’s On The Couch over the weekend.
"I think that Nathan drops his knees a little bit and I just reckon that Caminiti is not expecting to collect him in the head. So, I think it’s careless."
And this was the conclusion the panel reached after over an hour of deliberation when they returned to issue Caminiti with a reduced three-game ban for careless conduct.
"While we’re disappointed Anthony will now be unavailable for three weeks, we are pleased to have had the contact intent reviewed and adjusted accordingly," Acting General Manager of Football, David Misson, said.
"As a club we place a premium on protecting the heads of not only our players, but our opponents, however as we saw tonight, incidents should be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.
"Anthony is a young player only five games into his AFL career and our focus is on supporting him throughout this process.
"We’re confident this will serve as a big learning for him, which he we know he will embrace."
Caminiti will now not be eligible for selection until St Kilda's Round 9 game against Adelaide.
