Fremantle Dockers won’t appeal Nat Fye’s suspension with AFL Appeals Board after Tribunal did not overturn it

Fremantle superstar Nat Fyfe will miss the club’s clash with Essendon at the MCG on Sunday after the Dockers opted not to appeal the tribunal’s decision to uphold his one-match ban.

Fyfe and the Dockers went to the tribunal to get his suspension for striking West Coast’s Jai Culley in the western derby on Saturday overturned, which was graded intentional, high contact and low impact.

The bid, which had Fyfe’s lawyer Seamus Rafferty argue that the midfielder was backing way from Culley and the Eagles sub ran towards him to make contact, failed at the tribunal on Tuesday night.

Rafferty also argued that Fyfe responded to Culley by pushing towards his chest, arguing that the incident was prohibited contact instead of a report.

“It is the collective weight that is important here, which is self-evident in the footage and leads to an irresistible conclusion that at all times, Fyfe’s intention was to push Culley to the chest as Culley was doing the same thing to him. They were two legitimate football actions,” Rafferty said.

“What you have here is a combination of force. You have a player who has stopped and you have a player who has momentum going towards Fyfe. He’s lifted his own arms up in a pushing motion going forward. Clearly there is a combination of force which results in the impact.”

The Dockers have chosen not to take the matter to the AFL appeals board, meaning Fyfe will now miss the game against the Bombers— the first meeting between the two sides at the MCG since 1999.

It comes only weeks after Greater Western Sydney forward Toby Bedford and Brisbane star Charlie Cameron had their suspensions for dangerous tackles thrown out by the AFL Appeals Board.

Both Bedford and Cameron lost at the tribunal but had separate three-match bans overturned for their respective tackles on Richmond’s Tim Taranto and West Coast co-captain Liam Duggan.

A week earlier, Sydney Brownlow fancy Isaac Heeney failed inhis bid to have a striking charge on St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster overturned at the AFL Appeals Board.

The Swans argued the tribunal made an error of law, that no tribunal acting reasonably could have reached the decision it did and that there was manifest excessiveness in classifying Heeney’s action as intentional.

Fremantle will also be without captain Alex Pearce (broken arm) and forward Michael Walters (hamstring) still because of injury.