Two stars banned after farcical six-hour tribunal marathon

Both Melbourne and Carlton had failed trips to the AFL tribunal on Tuesday in a farcical night that lasted into Wednesday morning.
Demons forward Kysaiah Pickett’s case was heard first but it began later than first scheduled, not starting until 6.30pm.
Pickett was hit with a rough conduct charge after he whacked Collingwood defender Darcy Moore in the head during the Demons’ 46-point loss on Friday.
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Match review officer Michael Christian graded the incident as carless conduct with severe impact and high contact, resulting in a three-match suspension.
Moore was concussed after this head-high bump from Pickett. Fox Footy
The Demons pled not guilty on three grounds: firstly, at the time the bump was committed the act was unlikely to cause injury. Pickett was reasonably contesting the ball and the high contact was caused by circumstances outside of the star’s control.
“Firstly, I’m sorry to Darcy Moore and his injury and I hope he is okay,” Pickett told the tribunal via a pre-written statement.
“My intention was to protect space by taking Darcy off the line and win the ball in front of me.
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“This is the normal way I’ve contested the ball and made a play on the ball in other games… Darcy went to ground quite quickly in a way I did not expect.”
But the tribunal did not agree and hit Pickett with a three-game ban, which he will serve at the start of next season.
Pickett also missed the start of the 2024 campaign while serving a ban for high contact on Patrick Cripps last year.
The Pickett case didn’t finish until well after 9pm and so Carlton’s defence of Matt Owies didn’t kick off until about 10pm.
That hearing also went for three hours before the tribunal also upheld a dangerous tackle charge.
It means Owies will miss Carlton’s elimination final against Brisbane next week.