By John Van Klaveren
Steve Johnson is free to play against Fremantle after succeeding at his tribunal appeal against his one week ban.
The tribunal decided the force used by Jonhson when his knees made contact with North Melbourne’s Scott Thompson’s chest was insufficient.
Thompson gave evidence in support of Johnson and umpire Brett Rosebery said even after viewing the incident, he would not pay a free kick or make a report.
Earlier, the Independent reported:
Geelong will contest the one match ban handed to star midfielder Steve Johnson by the AFL match review panel.
Cats coach Chris Scott says he was shocked by the citing of Steve Johnson for kneeing North Melbourne’s Scott Thompson.
Scott was clearly angry with the decision at his media conference today but attempted to temper his shock with the reality of the penalty his star player faces if an appeal is unsuccessful.
Geelong plays Fremantle, a fellow top four contender, at Simonds Stadium on Saturday.
Scott said the fact that a 300 game umpire was two metres away and did not pay a free kick or report the incident “would work strongly in our favour”.
Scott repeatedly called the incident “innocuous” and said Johnson was paying a penalty for the club failing to challenge his previous two match review citings this season.
He also said other incidents across the weekend should be considered. Brisbane Lion’s Daniel Merrett was cleared of striking even though he bloodied Cam Pedersen’s nose in a crude spoiling attempt.
“We take a very conservative view of these things now, especially considering the potential cost of him missing two games,” Scott said.
“If we do decide to take it on with the stakes at this stage of the year we will be absolutely certain that this incident didn’t constitute a reportable offence.
“In order to plead our case in this one, in what is a very innocuous incident, we have to risk Steve not only missing the biggest game of our season for us this week but missing a really big game the week after, again for something that is, in the way footy is played, absolutely inconsequential.
“The prevailing view across the competition is that given some of the other incidents across the weekend the Steve one doesn’t meet scrutiny.
“I will leave it to other people in the industry to argue that on our behalf.
“We talk about sufficient force to constitute a reportable offence and have one of the best players in the competition missing his clubs biggest game of the year it’s only fair that you have a look at other incidents across the weekend to gauge the view of the MRP at the time
According to other people in the industry these decisions do not stand up to scrutiny.”
