Whether Carlton can get Patrick Cripps’ Match Review charge reduced or thrown out could well define the club’s season.
The Blues skipper was cited by the MRO for a collision on Sunday with Brisbane’s Callum Ah Chee, who was subbed out with concussion shortly after.
Cripps is set to miss two weeks with the incident graded as careless conduct, high impact and high contact. However, Carlton is widely tipped to challenge the result at the tribunal and has until 11am AEST on Tuesday morning to confirm whether they will do so.
Crippa goes BANG 💥
— 7AFL (@7AFL) August 7, 2022
Is Patty Cripps in trouble with this hit on Callum Ah Chee? pic.twitter.com/xWPrJkXAZh
But Essendon great Matthew Lloyd can’t foresee a successful challenge.
“I thought two (weeks) was right,” he told Sportsday shortly after the news broke.
“I thought that when you jump off the ground, I felt like he turned and didn’t really reach and make a good enough attempt at the football.
“To me, Cripps has just turned, braced, and knocked a guy out.
“I thought you’re in trouble, two weeks straight away. I don’t see how they get off this one.”
The potential challenge will be of bigger significance given its timing. Carlton may need to win one of their final two games to lock themselves into September, and Cripps, the club’s go-to midfielder, would likely need to be there.
But in a glimmer of hope for Blues fans, 1988 Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy suggested he could potentially see the ban being changed.
He compared the case to that of Lachie Plowman’s last year, with the defender’s tribunal case and subsequent appeal both unsuccessful and a two-week ban remained.
Carlton's Lachie Plowman has learned his fate following a marathon tribunal hearing.
— AFL (@AFL) May 25, 2021
Full details 👇
“I think it’s more line-ball for me (than the Plowman bump),” Healy said.
“That’s why we’re going to send it to the tribunal… I think he’s in trouble, but I still think it’s not a closed case this one, whereas Plowman’s, I think that was a bit of a joke that they took that to appeal.
“(If the two-week ban remains it) really makes it difficult for them to retain their spot in the eight. I thought with Cripps in, maybe George Hewett back, they’re a chance in the last game.”
The Blues play Sydney and Collingwood in the remaining two games of the season and will go into both as underdogs.