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| Steele Sidebottom collides with Maverick Weller during the opening minute of Friday night's 86-point win over St Kilda. |
The AFL's Match Review Panel has suspended Sidebottom for four games. He can reduced the length of his suspension to three matches with an early plea.
It will be the first block of matches Sidebottom has missed this season.
In fact, it will be the first time he has missed a match since round 18, 2012. He has missed just two of Collingwood's 112 games since the 2009 Qualifying Final.
The AFL's Match Review Panel released the following assessment of the Sidebottom-Weller incident:
"Steele Sidebottom, Collingwood, has been charged with a Level Four Engaging in Rough Conduct Offence (425 points, four-match sanction) for engaging in rough conduct against Maverick Weller, St Kilda, during the first quarter of the Round 11 match between St Kilda and Collingwood, played at Etihad Stadium on Friday May 30, 2014.
In summary, he can accept a three-match sanction with an early plea.
Based on the video evidence available and a medical report from the St Kilda Football Club, the incident was assessed as reckless conduct (two points), high impact (three points) and high contact (two points). This is a total of seven activation points, resulting in a classification of a Level Four Offence, drawing 425 demerit points and a four-match sanction. He has no existing good or bad record. An early plea reduces the sanction by 25 per cent to 318.75 demerit points and three-match sanction."
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REAL FOOTY
Collingwood has accepted the three-match ban handed down by the match review panel to midfielder Steele Sidebottom.
Sidebottom risked an additional week on the sidelines had he chosen to contest the decision, but the Magpies chose not to challenge the sanctions, meaning that Sidebottom will miss matches against Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn.
Sidebottom was charged with rough conduct for his bump on St Kilda tagger Maverick Weller which led to Weller being subbed out of the game between the Saints and Magpies on Friday night.
The MRP assessed the collision as reckless, "high" impact and "high" contact.
Sidebottom was surprisingly frank about the incident before the match review panel's verdict, saying he had apologised to Weller and would accept his penalty "on the chin".
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley said the bump was “unlucky” and what Sidebottom learns from the incident is up to him.
“First and foremost Steele’s a ball player and the ball bounced up in front of his eyes and he jumped up to get it and the ball was gone and he didn't know what to do after that, so he was caught in a position, that every footballer gets caught in at times,” he said.
Because the MRP considers severity of injury, not just whether an incident was accidental or intentional, it was enough to send the midfielder off for weeks, Buckley said.
“We’re disappointed we’re going to miss out on one of our best players over the next three weeks but it’s an opportunity for another. I don’t know what Steele learns from that other than he probably could have made a different decision at the time.”
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