Geelong senior coach Chris Scott believes, in hindsight, the Cats should have challenged the one-match suspension given to spearhead forward Shannon Neale for his high bump on Swans midfielder Jake Lloyd, after the Tribunal made a bizarre ruling on a similar incident involving Suns midfielder Alex Davies.
Neale, who stands at 203cm tall, appeared to incidentally make high contact with Lloyd while shepherding teammate Gryan Miers during the third quarter. The Match Review Officer (MRO) graded the incident as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact, resulting in a week off.
Davies was involved in a strikingly similar version of rough conduct the day prior in Gold Coast's 35-point loss to GWS, collecting Giants midfielder Ryan Angwin during the fourth term. The MRO categorised it identically to Neale's reportable offence.
Geelong did not challenge the suspension, while Gold Coast did, ultimately managing to get Davies off the hook by downgrading the impact to low.
The initial suspension of Neale gave Scott a surprise due to the incident's "innocuous" nature, but it was the Tribunal's downgrading of Davies' suspension that left Scott most shocked.
Shannon Neale has been offered a one-match suspension for this incident involving Jake Lloyd.
Details: https://t.co/muT7mJCWtJ pic.twitter.com/ZxsMni5ptF
— AFL (@AFL) August 18, 2025
Scott revealed in a press conference on Friday the details in the AFL's rule book that should have prevented the suspension from being overturned.
"It seemed really innocuous. It was one of those very, very rare situations where I didn't notice it on gameday," Scott said.
"Even on the vision, I didn't notice until it was pointed out to me. The way the rules are and our understanding of the rules, they're quite clear.
"They changed it some time ago to say, if it's a bump and the contact is high, the lowest grading can be medium. So, it made it impossible to challenge based on the rules [in our view].
"As it turned out, Gold Coast went and challenged exactly the same thing, and they downgraded it to low, which our reading of the rules was that's not an option available to them. So, yeah, I was doubly surprised."
Scott further stated that, if he had known there was a possibility Neale's suspension could be scratched, the Cats would have challenged the ban.
"[In hindsight] it would have been good to go straight after Gold Coast [at the Tribunal]," Scott said.
"We could have cut to the chase and said, 'What they said'."
Alex Davies is fronting the AFL Tribunal. Follow via @FOXFOOTY & this thread. pic.twitter.com/PcDgWVYu0b
— David Zita (@DavidZita1) August 19, 2025
However, Scott was not a fan of the idea that an outward demonstration of remorse is necessary in incidents like Neale's and Davies', underlining that it should not contribute to whether a player gets a reduced sentence.
"I hope that we haven't got to the extreme end of virtue signalling, that every time you bump into someone that you have to apologise and throw yourself to the mercy of the court," Scott said.
The Cats will have to take on Richmond on Saturday afternoon without their star forward, who has catapulted onto the AFL scene with 19 goals in the past six weeks.
Neale will be available for selection for the first week of Finals, which should be a home qualifying final for Geelong, barring a shock upset.
