Dylan Shiel banned for one match for 'unreasonable' act after mammoth hearing

Essendon midfielder Dylan Shiel has been banned for one match by the AFL tribunal in a hearing that lasted two hours and 30 minutes. The charge was for a dangerous shove that led to young teammate Luamon Lual landing on his head.

Shiel shoved Geelong defender Mark O'Connor into an oncoming stoppage, with the Cat colliding with Lual, leading to the ugly landing.

Thankfully, the young Don avoided both a serious neck injury and a concussion.

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The match review officer assessed the incident as rough conduct and referred it straight to the tribunal without a grading, indicating a desire for an independent assessment of the incident outside of the usual matrix.

A one-match ban was recommended by the MRO.

Essendon argued a fine would be sufficient with five key reasons tabled.

Those reasons were that other players cleared the space initially, Shiel's eyes were on the ball, he's trained to protect the drop zone and that O'Connor was not pushed into the contest and there was no high contact.

Shiel also said he had eyes on the ball and thought it was a one-on-one marking contest.

The AFL's counsel Nick Pane said Shield "was not contesting the mark and instead chose to forcefully push his opponent towards the fall of the ball in circumstances where he knew or should've known other players would be arriving to contest the ball."

It was also argued the conduct was unreasonable and the push into the path of players was inherently dangerous.

After the incident, a number of experts were critical of Shiel with Leigh Matthews predicting a fine or ban.

"I think he is liable and he will get either a fine or a suspension," Matthews told 3AW.

"I think it is very dangerous. When you're deliberating pushing an opponent into contact ... that should be penalised.

"That one last night to me was a dangerous action and should be penalised."

The tribunal ruled it was rough conduct and agreed the push was unreasonable and did not accept Shiel had his eyes on the ball.

Watching the incident in real time during the game, Melbourne great Garry Lyon agreed that a suspension was necessary, even if the push didn't injure an opponent.

"That's dangerous by Dylan Shiel. Fine, suspended, whatever you want there. I think that's a suspension," Lyon said on the Fox Footy broadcast.

"This is what we talk about with tunnelling and pushing players into contests, this is why we get up in arms about it.

"(New AFL head of footy) Greg Swann is sitting at home, enough of that, stamp it out. Give him one or two weeks.

"You can't go pushing blokes like that. The danger of that is extraordinary. Make a stand now."

Essendon coach Brad Scott said Lual was sore, but could have played on if required.

"It'll be an interesting one. I'm not sure if you can get suspended for hurting your own player, but we'll see," Scott said after the loss.

"(Lual) was very sore, but he was able to function and he competed hard. But we just felt that – while he was able to function, he was sore, so we needed to make the sub anyway. He was the obvious candidate, to us."