Fremantle Dockers star Nat Fyfe has striking charge on West Coast’s Jai Culley upheld by AFL Tribunal
Fremantle star Nat Fyfe has failed in his bid to have a one-match suspension for striking West Coast’s Jai Culley overturned at the AFL tribunal and will miss Sunday’s game against Essendon at the MCG.
Fyfe pleaded not guilty to the charge of intentional conduct with high contact and low impact from the incident during the second quarter of Saturday night’s western derby.
Fyfe’s lawyer Seamus Rafferty said the Docker was backing away from Culley and the Eagle ran towards him to make contact. He said Fyfe responded by pushing back towards Culley’s chest and showed vision from multiple angles to argue contact was initially to the Eagles’ arm until Culley lowered his body.
He said the incident was prohibited contact instead of a report and broke the incident down to 11 factors to prove his point.
“It is the collective weight that is important here, which is self-evident in the footage and leads to an irresistible conclusion that at all times, Fyfe’s intention was to push Culley to the chest as Culley was doing the same thing to him. They were two legitimate football actions,” Rafferty said.
“What you have here is a combination of force. You have a player who has stopped and you have a player who has momentum going towards Fyfe. He’s lifted his own arms up in a pushing motion going forward. Clearly there is a combination of force which results in the impact.”
Camera IconFremantle star Nat Fyfe Credit: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian
AFL lawyer Andrew Woods argued Fyfe’s arms were at different heights, and his right hand made clear contact with Culley’s head. Woods said the potential to cause injury was clear and described striking to the head as inherently dangerous.
“Fyfe forces forward that right arm and makes forceful contact with Culley’s head,” Woods said.
“The fact he’s looking right at Culley, which you can see from the vision, is pretty clear. The direction of his arm and the amount of force that he uses are strong indicators in my submission of intention.
Camera IconNat Fyfe at training Credit: Ross Swanborough/The West Australian
“You can be comfortably satisfied this was intentional in the respect of him thrusting his arm forward with an intention to strike the player. Whether or not he intends to strike his head is neither here nor there.”
The tribunal deliberated for 38 minutes before finding Fyfe guilty of breaching new regulations, which deem hitting a player in the face is intentional when attempting to push or fend off to get space. It was the same type of incident that led to Sydney’s Isaac Heeney also receiving a one-match ban.
“The video shows that Fyfe’s right arm is thrown towards Culley with considerable force and in a manner more consistent with a strike than was the case with his left arm,” Tribunal Chairman Jeff Gleeson KC said.
“Fyfe’s intention was at least to push Culley off the ball to gain separation, and the effect was that he committed the reportable offence of striking.”
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