Brent Harvey's hopes of playing in North Melbourne's first preliminary final in seven years rest on the tribunal not taking Joel Selwood's cut eyebrow as proof the bump, and resulting head clash, inflicted on him was hefty enough to warrant punishment.
Selwood said Harvey's hit was "very minor" and did not warrant a one-match suspension. The Geelong captain said he would give evidence at the tribunal if required.
"Those collisions happen throughout the night. We've all seen it. It was very minor. Accidents happen," he said on Footy Classified on Channel Nine on Monday night.
Harvey was training at Arden Street on Monday when he was informed of the match review panel's decision. The veteran, stunned at the outcome, immediately headed inside the club's headquarters.
While North had about 23 hours to mull over the panel's offer of a one-match suspension, it needed only 23 minutes to confirm it would fight the decision at the tribunal on Tuesday evening.
Had Harvey not been saddled with a 10 per cent loading and 41.5 carry-over points from his misconduct against the Western Bulldogs' Liam Picken in round 21, his rough-conduct offence could have been reduced to a reprimand with a guilty plea.
Those factors were not enough to mean the Kangaroos risked their veteran missing an additional match – potentially a grand final if they shocked Sydney on Friday night at ANZ Stadium – with an adverse tribunal finding.
Given that the high contact to Selwood was undeniable, and the other classifications of negligent conduct and low impact were the most lenient available to the panel, the charge cannot be downgraded in any way.
Instead, North must argue the impact made by Harvey was below the threshold needed for a charge to be laid.
The cut to Selwood was caused by a head clash with Harvey. Under a rule introduced at the end of last season, players who bump and make unintended contact with their head to their opponent's head can still be punished if they had an alternative to bumping.
Selwood had just handballed to a teammate, was slowing and heading away from the ball, when Harvey, coming from the opposite direction, jumped into him. Usually, the panel deems players who have jumped to deliver a high bump guilty of reckless conduct. Had it done so in this instance, Harvey would have been banned for two matches, even after a 25 per cent discount for a guilty plea.
In deciding to charge Harvey, the panel was seemingly swayed by the cut created by the head clash.
During the year there have been at least three instances where a player has delivered a high bump to an opponent but escaped penalty because the panel deemed the impact to be below the threshold required for a charge to be laid.
In each of those cases – Nick Maxwell on Trent Cotchin in round four; Adam Goodes on Selwood in round 11; and Lance Franklin on Clay Cameron in round 12 – the victim was knocked to the ground but did not bleed.
On Friday night, Selwood was not knocked or even swayed backwards by the impact from Harvey. But the head clash did cut him in a region of the head considered by boxing aficionados to be susceptible to cuts from even glancing blows.
Carlton champion Chris Judd registered his disapproval at the verdict, declaring on Twitter on Monday night: "Can't believe Harvey is missing a prelim for that. #freeboomer."
If Harvey's tribunal challenge fails, it would mean he would have been suspended for all but one of the Kangaroos' matches from round 22 to the preliminary final.
His captain, Andrew Swallow, rejected the suggestion the All-Australian team nominee was culpable for again putting himself at the risk of suspension.
"I think it was just a bit of bad luck," he said on Monday.
A match-day report against Fremantle's Zac Dawson for striking Port Adelaide's Robbie Gray was thrown out by the panel.
MATCH REVIEW PANEL
FINALS WEEK 2
Brent Harvey (NM) rough conduct to Joel Selwood (Geel): negligent, low impact, high contact. 125 points up due to bad record and carry-over points to 178.5 (1 match); 133.88 with guilty plea (1 match).
Investigated but not charged:
Reported: Zac Dawson (Fre) striking Robbie Gray (PA).
