Patrick Cripps is free to play in the final two rounds of the home-and-away season after the AFL Appeals Board overturned his two-match ban in a four-and-a-half hour hearing.
The Blues‘ legal representative, Christopher Townshend QC, argued the Tribunal was not given proper directions and could not have reasonably found Cripps to have bumped opponent Callum Ah Chee while still labelling the incident a contest where both players had eyes for the ball.
After a lengthy hearing - including a near two-hour submission from Townshend and a near two-hour deliberation process, the Appeals Board ultimately overturned the Tribunal‘s decision.
Key to the Appeals Board’s decision was “the failure to afford procedural fairness” by the Tribunal, which amounted to an “error of law”.
Further, the Appeals Board was not able to see how the Tribunal could’ve arrived at the conclusion Cripps’ actions were “in the bumping of an opponent”.
Part of the Appeals Board’s findings were that the Tribunal, despite concluding Cripps bumped his opponent, did not actually receive any indication from Cripps or his counsel to suggest that, with neither even asked during the proceedings prior to the Tribunal’s verdict.
The Tribunal on Tuesday found that Cripps was engaged in a contest but also elected to bump, which Townshend said was a leap in logic and one that required transparent directions from Tribunal Chairperson Jeff Gleeson before the jury retired to deliberate.
Additionally, the notion of bumping while contesting the ball was one initially brought up by Gleeson, rather than by either Carlton or the AFL.
The AFL on Thursday - represented by Nicholas Pane QC - insisted there had been “no denial of natural justice”, while also arguing the Tribunal had enough evidence at its disposal to conclude Cripps performed a “bumping action”.
The Appeals Board dubbed the Tribunal’s decision “unreasonable” and “an error of law”, with the Appeals Board unconvinced the evidence provided to the Tribunal was enough for it to find Cripps had turned his body into “classic bumping position”.
It means Cripps will now be free to play in crunch games against Melbourne and Collingwood as the Blues look to cement a spot in their first finals series since 2013.
