ADELAIDE CROWS PLAYER Ebony Marinoff has been suspended for three weeks for the tackle in a practice game on Sunday that left Cork All-Ireland winner Brid Stack with a neck fracture.
Stack, who was making her Aussie Rules debut for GWS Giants, is ‘expected to make a full recovery’ after sustaining the worrying injury and has been released from hospital.
Marinoff has been handed a record ban for the AFLW after being charged with ‘forceful front-on contact’ – graded careless, severe impact and high contact. In the previous four seasons of the competition, no player had been suspended for more than two matches.
The incident occurred in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game and the case had been referred directly to the Tribunal.
Ebony Marinoff has been found guilty of engaging in forceful front-on contact at the AFL Tribunal tonight and has been suspended for three matches. Below is the incident in question, more to come #weflyasone #crowsaflw pic.twitter.com/3FDLg1kXmQ
— Adelaide Crows AFLW (@CrowsAFLW) January 19, 2021
JUST IN | Ebony Marinoff has been found guilty of forceful front-on contact late in the Crows' practice match on Sunday: https://t.co/8sNwXckpXB pic.twitter.com/ICtmVMTeAR
— AFL Women's (@aflwomens) January 19, 2021
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Marinoff was unable to accept an early guilty plea as a result of the incident being referred to the Tribunal. She pleaded not guilty with the reasons outlined on the report on the AFLW website:
- She was contesting the football, which had changed direction, and only saw Stack a split-second before contact was made.
- She did not have a viable alternative given the incident happened in the space of a few seconds.
- Simultaneous contact from Alyce Parker on Marinoff’s left (and Parker’s boot in front of her own) caused her to make contact with Stack’s head on Marinoff’s right.
The AFL’s counsel, Andrew Woods, argued it was front-on contact rather than from the side, that Stack was in a vulnerable position and Marinoff should have slowed or stopped before tackling the player.
The jury took around 45 minutes before handing out the suspension to Marinoff which will see her miss three games of the nine-week AFLW season.
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