Tom Lynch learns his fate at AFL Tribunal over brutal haymaker
Lynch found himself in the spotlight of the AFL after he was hit with a striking charge after an incident with Adelaide defender Jordon Butts on Sunday.
The 32-year-old Tigers star was not enjoying the close attention of Butts and late in the first quarter he lashed out after a marking contest, turning and whacking the Crows player across the face/head area, prompting him to fall to the turf in pain.
The umpire blew a free kick and Lynch engaged in some further argy bargy with Crows players.
The Tigers had attempted to argue that the incident was high impact, not severe as had been noted. They stated it was also not done with a closed fist with images shown to the Tribunal that Lynch was unable to make a closed fist due to a permanently fused joint on the middle finger on his right hand.
'Nowhere on the footage is there clear evidence of a clenched fist, particularly at the point of impact,' Sam Tovey said in Lynch's defence.
'In order to uphold a 'severe' grading, the Tribunal would need to be clearly satisfied contact was made with a fully clenched fist.'
Lynch said he had not swung a punch at Butts, instead it was a swiping motion. Despite this the AFL said regardless of it was a closed fist or not, the force of the swing had potential to cause injury.
'It's a blatant, forceful swinging arm ... it was the type of action of a bygone era. The AFL position is quite simple, there's no place for it in our game,' the AFL's Nick Pane said.
Lynch addressed the ugly incident shortly after the Tigers lost to the Crows, speaking to Channel 7.
'I didn't want to cause harm or anything like that, I was just trying to get free and the frustration came out,' he said.
'I gave away too many free kicks and was not good enough as a leader; said at halftime sorry boys, thought we were playing pretty well in that second quarter and it pretty much stopped the momentum.
'I was just more frustrated with how he was defending me, I thought. And clearly it was within the rules because there were no free kicks awarded to me and I went outside the rules. I've got to be better.'
The Tigers forward will now miss matches against Geelong, Essendon, West Coast, Collingwood and Gold Coast.
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