Sydney coach John Longmire was perplexed by the AFL Tribunal’s call to uphold Isaac Heeney’s one-match ban for striking.
Heeney was initially handed the ban from the MRO after collecting St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster high with a fend-off as he tried to create separation before leading for the footy inside 50.
The strike was graded as ‘intentional’ by the MRO instead of ‘careless’ and the Tribunal agreed with that decision despite Sydney’s attempts to have the strike considered careless, which would have resulted in a fine instead of a suspension.
Longmire simply thinks there was no way that the strike was intentional and he described Heeney as one of the fairest players he’s ever seen play the game.
“I’m not sure, ‘angry as a footy club’ would be the right term,” Longmire told SEN Sportsday.
“But first and foremost, Isaac is one of the fairest players that I’ve ever seen play the game. He’s incredibly hard, incredibly competitive, but incredibly fair and I think his record stands up to that.
“When you sort of look at the circumstances and in this particular instance, I just can’t accept it.
“I guess if I’m a forward – I played forward and I played defence – I’ve actually had experiences at both ends of the ground and I just can’t accept that it was intentional.”
Longmire encourages his players to fend off their opposition to gain distance on their opponent before leading for the ball, and after the decision, he’s at a loss at how he should coach his forwards going forward.
“Given all that, what am I supposed to tell him and how am I supposed to coach him? How does a player get off a player? Can you just turn around and fend?” Longmire said.
“It just seems to me in this game of football that we all support absolutely the crackdown on high tackles and high contact … but that doesn’t mean that every circumstance should be put in as one.
“There’s always in this competition going to be various things that you really can’t legislate for and you have to understand that’s part of the game.
“I just don’t know what to tell him now. What do I tell him?”
After the Tribunal’s decision, Sydney has confirmed they’re taking that call to the Appeals Board and Longmire is really confident that the board will agree with their conclusion given similar acts happen all the time.
“If you look at behind the goals angles, these types of things happen all the time,” Longmire said.
“Certainly, we’re really confident that if you look at the vision, in our view, it’s hard to come up with any conclusion other than he was trying to get him away.
“He certainly did not mean to strike him in the face, I think.”
The Appeals Board hearing is expected to be held on Thursday evening ahead of Sydney’s clash against North Melbourne at the SCG on Saturday.
Heeney, the current AFLCA Champion Player vote leader, will again be eligible for the Brownlow Medal if his ban is reduced to a fine.