Dylan Shiel has received an unprecedented penalty for the controversial push that injured teammate Luamon Lual, with the Essendon veteran sent straight to the AFL Tribunal.
Shiel was seen as likely to face a suspension after he pushed Geelong’s Mark O’Connor into a marking contest in the second quarter at GMHBA Stadium, in the process tunnelling Lual, who landed on his head and shoulders in a worrying incident.
Lual wasn’t concussed in the incident, and returned to play out the match before being subbed out in the third quarter.
In a further twist, the impacted ‘victim’ player was named as O’Connor rather than Lual on the list of charges.
Match Review Officer Michael Christian hasn’t graded the incident, but the AFL have stated their preference is for a one-match ban to be imposed by the Tribunal.
“If the charge is upheld by the Tribunal, while the Tribunal will determine the sanction in their sole discretion, the AFL’s view is that a suspension of one match is the appropriate penalty having regard to both the impact to O’Connor and the significant potential that Shiel’s teammate, Luamon Lual, could have suffered a serious head or neck injury arising from Shiel’s unreasonable conduct, which caused Lual’s head and neck to make contact with the ground with force,” the MRO statement reads.
“In this respect, the Laws of Australian Football state that a player owes a duty of care to all other players, not just their opponents.”
The incident is a virtually unheard of case of a player cited for injuring a teammate.
In mid-2023, Geelong’s Gary Rohan wasn’t suspended for an accidental bump in a marking contest that concussed teammate Jeremy Cameron.
