In the wake of the Bachar Houli tribunal outcome, Rohan Connolly has listed his top five controversial tribunal cases in football history...
5. Wayne Johnston and David Polkinghorne
This one I thought was really significant because it changed the ethos of the player’s code. There was a time when you could be all but shot on the football field, but when you front up to the tribunal, you’d say, nope, I’ve got no idea how it happened. That all changed in 1982.
He was a very straight-laced character, David Polkinghorne. He went to the tribunal as the victim and was called up to give evidence and he didn’t play the game. He basically said, “He hit me and it really hurt”. Dominator got rubbed out for two games and because Carlton had won the qualifying final it put him in a bind the next week, because it meant that if the Blues beat Richmond in the second semi final, he would miss the Grand Final.
In the end, Carlton lost so Johnston missed the prelim and returned for the decider – where he played a cracker game.
4. Andrew Dunkley
It was the 1996 preliminary final. James Hird was diving for a mark and Dunkley came over the top and got him with a bit of a round-arm to the eye. You’ll remember when Hird won the Brownlow the next week with Michael Voss that he had a big cut under his eye.
Video evidence was still in its early days then. He wasn’t reported on the night and he was only cited on video evidence on the Wednesday. So Sydney went to the Supreme Court and got an injunction so the case wouldn’t be heard until after the Grand Final.
Dunkley played in the Grand Final and had a pretty ordinary game. He then got subsequently got rubbed out for three weeks by the tribunal.
3. Craig O’Brien
O’Brien was a small forward who was a pretty good player. He was playing for St Kilda in the reserves in 1992 and was suspended for three weeks on a striking charge.
He and the umpire who reported him exchanged words in the car park after the hearing and the umpire accused him (which O’Brien vehemently denies) of chasing him home and tailgating him in his car.
He was called back to the tribunal and got a further seven games suspension.
2. John Coleman and Harry Caspar
It was the last home and away game and Coleman got a four-week suspension. There is a famous photo of a tearful Coleman being carried from Harrison House by an Essendon official.
There was a suggestion that Coleman had been taunting Harry Caspar about a driving incident and Caspar whacked him, then the star Bomber forward got caught retaliating.
1. Barry Hall and Matt Maguire
Hall admitted he was very, very, very lucky to play in the 2005 Grand Final.
They were playing St Kilda in the preliminary final and he gave Matt Maguire more than a love-tap – it was a full-on stomach punch – and it was captured on video.
Somehow his defence managed to successfully argue that the ball was in play – it was measured as 50 metres away – but there was no way that it could be considered ‘in play’.