Brisbane will try free star midfielder Lachie Neale for Saturday's Grand Final against Fremantle at the AFL Appeals Board after the Tribunal upheld his one-match suspension.
Neale was penalised for his strike on Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan during the Lions' thrilling nine-point Preliminary Final win, which set up a fourth consecutive decider.
After more than four hours at the Tribunal earlier in the week, the panel maintained the two-time Brownlow Medallist was guilty of striking Ginnivan.
Once the verdict was realised, the Lions immediately confirmed they would appeal the one-game ban.
According to multiple reports, new vision of the incident between Neale and Ginnivan has emerged, which has offered a clearer look at the Brisbane on-baller's gut punch.
FOLLOW LIVE BLOG
16:50: Mr Loveridge has challenged Mr Anderson on whether he is asking the Appeals Board to not consider any of the negative elements into the suspension such as his previous fines or distance from the ball the incident took place.
Mr Anderson said he is not, he said the fact Ginnivan was not injured, what the suspension would mean in terms of missing a Grand Final means it should have been considered more in the Tribunal's verdict.
Mr Anderson said the Appeals Board must look beyond just Neale's record due to the gravity of what his one-match suspension will mean he will miss. And whether that is fair for the incident itself.
16:43: Mr Anderson has referenced Bob Skilton and Nat Fyfe in terms of their claims they would trade their Brownlows for a Grand Final and premiership.
16:43: Mr Anderson said the Tribunal considered the importance of missing the Grand Final through suspension when handing down the ban, but not when the Tribunal denied the ECC claim.
Mr Anderson is putting an emphasis on the Tribunal's use of the word "extraordinary" when describing Neale.
16:37: Mr Anderson said there is no reference that an intentional act can deny an ECC request.
He said ECC is not defined within the AFL's rules.
Mr Anderson said there is no reference as to whether how big the suspended game is (being the Grand Final) can be factored into a ECC claim. He believes it is relevant for consideration for ECC and there is no rule that outlines that it isn't.
16:31: Mr Anderson said this ECC provisions were brought in to help fix player punishments that are too strong for the football crime committed.
16:28: Mr Anderson said the punishment of missing a Grand Final is an unfair punishment for the action of a man with Neale's football and suspension history.
Mr Anderson said the fact Neale's exceptional and compelling circumstances (ECC) claim was denied by the Tribunal mainly due to the fact other ECC cases were for careless acts not intentional acts is unfair given there has only been two previous ECC cases to work off.
16:25: AFL Appeals Board chair Richard Loveridge has said the board will not view the newfound footage.
16:22: Mr Woods said in regards to reasonable diligence in discovering new evidence, it was pretty incredible that the footage was found at all.
16:18: Mr Anderson said Neale is not challenging the intentional or striking element in this appeal. therefore the footage of the strike is not relevant.
They are challenging the Tribunal's reasoning behind the denial of exceptional and compelling circumstances claim.
16:16: Brisbane counsel Mr Adrian Anderson has said the club does not understand why the video evidence was not available during the Tribunal hearing as it is owned by the AFL through its contractor Champion Data.
Mr Anderson said he would have thought in such an important hearing ahead of the Grand Final, the AFL would have found it for the Tribunal hearing.
He also said it was handed to Brisbane in the afternoon, not in the morning.
16:11: Under regulations, the Appeals Board has to permit the use of fresh evidence. And will have to permit the use of the new found footage during this appeal.
16:08: AFL counsel Mr Andrew Woods has said the new footage is more clear than previous footage (not hard) from a contractor for the league. He said it came to light on Wednesday morning and was sent to Brisbane.
Welcome back to Zero Hanger's live blog of the Lachie Neale suspension case. This time we have moved onto the AFL Appeals Board, with the premise of previously unseen footage of the incident promising to be a tasty treat.
