Brisbane Lions star Charlie Cameron escapes with a fine for heavy tackle
Charlie Cameron’s clean record at the AFL Tribunal over more than 200 games has paid off after the Brisbane Lions livewire escaped with a fine for his sling tackle on Jake Lever.
The Lions successfully mounted a case that Cameron’s suspension-free record should be considered when penalising him for the heavy tackle in last Thursday’s match at the MCG.
Cameron had been facing the prospect of missing Saturday night’s crunch match against Geelong at the Gabba.
The contentious tackle involving Charlie Cameron and Jake Lever.Credit: Channel Seven
The AFL’s match review officer graded the tackle careless, medium impact and high contact, despite Melbourne defender Lever being uninjured and returning to play the rest of the game.
In a rare decision, AFL tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson, KC, said they were using their discretion to give Cameron a fine instead of a match penalty.
“It was careless, but not grossly careless,” Gleeson said of Cameron’s actions in which the Lion pinned one of Lever’s arms as he was slung to the ground.
“We take into account Mr Cameron’s guilty plea, and his acceptance that he could and should have released Lever’s arm.
“While this was medium impact for the reasons we stated, Lever suffered no injury or apparent discomfort.”
Cameron’s advocate, Adrian Anderson, turned to mathematics to explain how rare it was for a player to have played more than 200 matches before facing suspension. Anderson said less than one per cent of AFL players reached that level of experience and about half of them already have a ban of one or more matches by that point.
