Crows star fails in tribunal bid following ‘roundhouse style’ act
Adelaide has failed in its bid to challenge Darcy Fogarty’s three-game ban after a visit to the AFL tribunal.
Fogarty was charged by the match review officer for his tackle on Harry Cunningham on Friday night that left the Sydney star with a concussion.
Darcy Fogarty’s high tackle on Harry Cunningham. Nine
The incident was graded as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact by the MRO, who offered the Crows forward a hefty ban.
Fogarty had argued at the tribunal he tried to wrap his arms and execute the tackle.
“I adjusted as much as I could to try and get low whilst he went low. I tried to get my arms as low as I could,” he said.
However, the AFL’s counsel Andrew Woods described the swinging arm motion as “inherently dangerous” and described it as a “roundhouse style” action.
The Crows claimed the impact should be changed from severe to medium because “it’s not the kind of tackle that rises to the level of a dangerous tackle”.
Adelaide and Fogarty’s arguments came to nothing though with the 26-year-old to miss the next three matches.
Speaking the day prior to the tribunal hearing on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show, former Adelaide captain Rory Sloane admitted his “confusion” over the tackle.
“Are they deeming this a strike or a tackle? I’m a bit angry about this one,” he said.
“There’s so much confusion because everything is based around outcome. How many times does it happen throughout a game where someone does a head-high tackle … you could see he was just trying to tackle him with force.
“Careless, absolutely - I just don’t think it’s worth three [games]. It’s a careless tackle that got him high and unfortunately had the outcome of a concussion.”
Co-host Tony Jones echoed those sentiments.
“I’m 100 per cent with Rory on this one - if he wasn’t concussed, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all and that should not be the case,” Jones said.
Fogarty has been in strong form with the Crows and booted four goals in the 87-71 win over the Swans that pushed his side up to fifth on the AFL ladder.
Adelaide will meet Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond in the next three weeks.
