Essendon to appeal Shiel’s ban, Pickett escapes with fine – The Age

The former GWS player Shiel, who has starred in the Bombers’ rise up the ladder in 2020, was offered the ban for his bump on North Melbourne’s Curtis Taylor on Saturday night.
However, on Monday morning an MRI of Taylor’s face cleared him of a facial fracture.
Christian graded Shiel’s bump as careless conduct, high contact and high impact. Taylor came from the field for an assessment but played out the rest of the match.
Essendon could reduce the ban to one week if it is downgraded to medium impact, for example. The Bombers play the Western Bulldogs on Friday.
Christian deemed Pickett’s bump as careless conduct, low impact and high contact. Ebert was judged to have engaged in careless conduct, medium impact and high contact on Perryman.
Pickett’s bump was graded low because Heeney got up relatively quickly and played on, Christian said. He then said Ebert’s bump was medium because the Port player had a fair amount of momentum leading into the bump, but Perryman got up to play immediately.
Long’s bump was severe impact because Darcy was concussed and played no further part in the game, while Shiel’s bump was graded high impact because Taylor was off the field for a large part of the third quarter and had to get an MRI. Shiel’s momentum also was a consideration.
All incidents were deemed careless and not intentional because Christian was satisfied the each player had the “intention to bump but not to commit a reportable offence”.
“We acknowledge you’re allowed to bump fairly when the ball is within five metres but when you make that decision to bump you must exercise the bump fairly,” Christian said.
“Then it comes down to a question of impact …

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