Richmond and Collingwood players have been hit with more than $13,000 in fines for their halftime AFL melee at the weekend.
Richmond defender Alex Rance was deemed the melee instigator and hit with two fines totalling $3,000 by the AFL match review panel on Monday.
Teammate Jake King also copped a $3,000 fine after his third career melee offence, and fellow Tigers Jake Batchelor and Shane Tuck were also penalised with minor fines.
Collingwood’s Heath Shaw and Dayne Beams were given $2,100 fines, while ruckman Darren Jolly – whose exchange with opposite number Ivan Maric brought the teams into contact as they left the field at halftime – was given a $1,200 penalty.
All will need to make early guilty pleas for those fines to apply, otherwise they will face increased penalties should they fight and lose at the tribunal.
Essendon’s personnel woes grew with midfielder Sam Lonergan facing a one-match ban for a sling tackle on Port Adelaide’s Travis Boak in their weekend match.
The match review panel said Lonergan’s existing bad record elevated his penalty, but an early guilty plea could mean he misses only the Bombers’ clash with Gold Coast on Saturday.
Essendon are already without four regular players with soft tissue injuries after David Hille, David Myers and Nathan Lovett-Murray were injured at the weekend to join Jason Winderlich on the sidelines for multiple weeks.
West Coast’s Beau Waters can escape with a reprimand for rough conduct if he makes an early guilty plea for his high hit on Melbourne’s Jack Grimes.
But Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich escaped any penalty for a heavy bump on Swan Nick Malceski.
“After viewing all available footage and receiving a medical report from the Sydney Swans, it was the view of the panel there was no forceful high contact made and the bumping action was not unreasonable in the circumstances,” the panel said in a statement.
A match-day striking report on Brisbane’s Jack Redden was thrown out.
But Redden was hit with a $900 wrestling fine, as was Carlton’s Mitch Robinson.
