Fremantle defender Ryan Nyhuis had no intention to injure Robbie Gray in a tackle that concussed the Port Adelaide star on Sunday at Optus Stadium, according to teammate Lachie Neale.
Nyhuis will face the AFL tribunal at 4pm WST on Tuesday afternoon in Perth via a video link to Melbourne and is likely to face a multiple-week suspension.
Match Review Officer Michael Christian classified Nyhuis’ tackle on Gray as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact on Monday.
According to the AFL’s tribunal guidelines, all intentional or careless incidents classified as ‘severe impact’ are referred directly to the tribunal and carry a minimum sanction of three matches.
“I know the sort of person that Ryan is and he would never go out to intentionally hurt anyone,” Neale said.
“He would be feeling a little bit bad for what happened. He is obviously remorseful for what happened and he will head to the tribunal and cop the consequences.”
Neale said he empathised with Nyhuis, saying that due to the fast-paced and hard-hitting nature of AFL football, it can be easy to make a mistake in the moment.
“That is the art of it. It is tough to do,” Neale said.
“It is a split-second decision and we have seen a number of these cases over the last couple of years where, unfortunately, someone gets concussed or knocked out.
“It is difficult to manage that - you want to be aggressive and instinctive but at the same time there is a duty of care as well.”
Neale said that Nyhuis wouldn’t have been aware that the ball had spilled free before bringing Gray to ground and agreed with the suggestion that the tackling action was more to get Gray over the boundary line rather than to hurt his opponent.
“Often you think they still have the ball.,” Neale said.
“Having seen the replay the ball does spill out but Ryan wouldn’t have known that at the time.”
