Ben Cunnington’s trip to the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday was a success, with the North Melbourne midfielder successfully overturning a rough conduct charge which originally saw him suspended for a week.
Cunnington collected Adelaide midfielder Rory Laird high during last Sunday’s clash, with the Match Review Officer Michael Christian grading the incident as high contact.
Laird, who was on the end of the hit, said he was happy to see Cunnington play this week, saying he didn’t believe it was something worthy of a suspension.
“I don’t think it deserved a game (suspension originally),” he said on SEN SA Drive.
“It looked bad in terms of hitting my head on the vision, but he didn’t really hit my head at all. I just went off because I couldn’t breathe.
“He’s a pretty big boy and I only saw it late, I didn’t brace for it as much as I could have and he just winded the hell out of me.
“I think it was just a late hit and a downfield free, we got a goal from it so that's probably all that needed to come from it.”
“I think it was just the whiplash and my head went towards him.
“People on social media were saying that it hit my head, I went off and they asked whether I was hit in the head and I say no, it was more the whiplash.”