Brisbane Lions are expected to appeal Lachie Neale’s one-match suspension after the AFL tribunal upheld his ban, leaving the dual Brownlow Medallist in danger of missing Saturday’s grand final against Fremantle.
Neale was suspended for striking Hawthorn forward Jack Ginnivan during Brisbane’s dramatic preliminary-final victory. The decision was confirmed after a tribunal hearing lasting more than four hours.
Brisbane can still challenge the verdict in an attempt to make Neale available for what could be the Lions’ third consecutive premiership. Veteran Dayne Zorko said the club was likely to pursue that option.
“I haven’t spoken to him. I can imagine, like most of us or all of us, he’s really disappointed with the outcome of it all but the club will do everything in their best interest to take it one step further I assume,” Zorko told Nova 100 Melbourne.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone from the club about it, but I imagine we’ll probably go another step forward and see what can happen after that.”
The tribunal spent more than two hours deliberating after the hearing before informing Neale that his suspension had been upheld.
Zorko said several Brisbane players had waited for the outcome, with the uncertainty stretching late into the night.
“There would have been a few of us that waited up…I was flicking over to the AFL app every now and then to see if there was an update,” he said.
“But I saw the result and then and then went to bed. There’s not much we can do now other than obviously appeal it. But there was a few of us that would have been waiting by our phones to see the result.”
