Adelaide forward Taylor Walker is "very disappointed" the club failed to overturn his one-match suspension at the Tribunal on Monday.
Walker will miss Thursday's mouth-watering clash against the Western Bulldogs after the Tribunal found him guilty for forcibly shoving Geelong defender Connor O'Sullivan into a marking contest.
Although O'Sullivan and Crows skipper Jordan Dawson were cleared of any injury, the potential to cause injury clause was the determining factor in the Tribunal's decision.
"With all the evidence that we had… we thought we had a really, really good case to put forward and unfortunately didn't go our way. I sit here very, very, very disappointed," Walker said on Triple M.
"I didn't intend to push him into the contest, I tried to guide him off the line of Dawse (Jordan Dawson), so Dawse could take the mark, and I didn't think the push warranted a suspension.
"The likelihood of getting off is very, very, very slim now once you go to the tribunal. I think it's like one in 20."
The Crows argued it was not a reportable act, and if it was, the grading shouldn't be classified as medium, which was upheld.
O'Sullivan, speaking ahead of Monday's hearing to The Geelong Advertiser, said he believed there was no malice from Walker, noting the veteran apologised.
"I did speak to ‘Tex' after and he apologised, I didn't think there was any bad intent behind it. It is very difficult to adjudicate the game at the best of times but when both players are going full for the ball and as hard as they can at the contest, it is hard to judge," O'Sullivan said.
"For me I wasn't really ready for it, more because I had my eyes on the ball, and that'll happen a lot of times in a game.
"It's a difficult one, but the main thing is everyone came out of it okay and we got on with the game, there was no injuries or anything like that.
"So I'm just going to leave that up to the tribunal to decide and the best part was that everyone got up and continued with the game – I hit Dawson with the shoulder pretty hard. So I was just glad to see us both up. And we had a bit of laugh about it when he was on the mark."
There was no chance he was going to get off.
Not because the “push” was “intentional” – because it wasn’t.
Not because considerable or unreasonable force was used, – because it wasn’t.
Not because he didn’t have “eyes on the ball” – because he did.
Anyone who watched Crows games knows exactly why the appeal “had no chance”.