NORTH Melbourne's Lindsay Thomas was yesterday cleared by the match review panel of rough conduct despite being the aggressor in a head clash that forced Collingwood's Ben Reid out of Sunday's match in the third quarter.
The clash, which left Reid with blood streaming from his mouth, sparked a row between coaches Nathan Buckley and Brad Scott.
The match review panel said the head contact was caused by circumstances outside the control of Thomas that could not be reasonably foreseen.
"Thomas comes across the Collingwood player's line to legitimately block him within 5m of the ball," the panel said.
"Thomas did not leave the ground to jump into his opponent when seeking to shepherd for his teammate, as per the guidelines on the tribunal DVD examples, and the contact made was primarily with the shoulder to the body, with a clash of heads occurring as part of the collision."
The definition of rough conduct in a high bump says a player will be guilty of rough conduct where in the bumping of an opponent he causes forceful contact to be made with any part of his body to an opponent's head or neck, unless:
- The player was contesting the ball and did not have a realistic alternative way to contest the ball.
- The forceful contact to the head or neck was caused by circumstances outside the control of the player which could not reasonably be foreseen.
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