St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster is fronting the AFL Tribunal ready to receive one of the longest suspensions in recent memory for his bump on North Melbourne’s Jy Simpkin. Live below!
Webster left Simpkin concussed, collecting the Roos’ co-captain with his shoulder after Simpkin had disposed of the ball in the opening quarter of Sunday’s practice match.
The AFL has asked for an eight-match ban, which would make it the equal-longest since Andrew Gaff’s eight-week ban in 2018 for striking Andrew Brayshaw.
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The Saints pled guilty with Webster saying: “I’m really sorry about what happened on Sunday. It’s something I’m not proud of – I’ve left a lot of people down.
“My main concern is for Jy to get back to playing footy and I really hope he’s OK. I understand how bad concussions are and how much we want to see them stamped out of the game.”
Asked why he jumped off the ground he replied: “I haven’t got an excuse.”
Webster had not watched the footage back until the hearing, saying he felt “pretty sick about it”, but was concerned about the criticism his family members have received.
“I’m happy to cop the backlash, but I’ve got a 16-month old and a wife at home. For them to cop it on social media, it’s obviously pretty shit,” he said.
Andrew Woods, representing the AFL, argued the hit was not intentional but “at the higher end of carelessness”.
“(From a couple of steps out after his arm drops down), it’s clear he’s not going to get the ball or be able to smother the kick,” Woods said, with Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson disputing that based on Webster’s evidence he could’ve tried to smother.
“At that point the decision is made.
“You see the turn of the body, the left arm tucking in … the result of that arm coming in and that turn of the body for the bump is that you see the pretty significant movement of Simpkin’s head.
“Simpkin seems to see what’s about to occur a moment before it does, after he’s disposed of the ball.”
He added: “This is at the higher end of carelessness. Intention isn’t alleged but a clear decision was made to leave the ground and tuck the arm in. It’s very significantly careless given his speed and player Simpkin’s momentum.
“You need to think about what Webster knew and could’ve been expected to know about Simpkin’s vulnerability … it really can’t be said that a player in Simpkin’s position should be reasonably expecting that type of contact, or doing anything about it.”
The Saints argued an eight-week sanction was not fair.
“It’s excessive and disproportionate in the circumstances,” Adrian Anderson said.
Pointing to intentional acts, like Andrew Gaff’s punch on Andrew Brayshaw in 2018, he argued: “There’s a very significant line between intentional and careless … that (a punch to the face) is in a different category.
“It is a very, very big thing to double a base sanction. It must be something extraordinary to take it from a base (3-4) to something in the vicinity.”
They argued the incident was “in some aspects a little bit worse” but “very very similar” to the Sam Powell-Pepper bump which earned a four-week suspension.
Webster’s absence would add to an availability shortage for the Saints in defence, with the club confirming on Tuesday key defender Dougal Howard will miss more than a month of football after suffering a left hamstring injury.
Meanwhile Simpkin has been ruled out of North Melbourne’s Round 1 clash in 11 days’ time with GWS given it was his third concussion in 12 month.
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Source Agencies
