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Why the Alex Pearce decision is the correct one
SEN • May 28th, 2025 8:58 am
Fremantle captain Alex Pearce’s three-game suspension for rough conduct was overturned at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.
In the eyes of Gerard Healy, the decision was the correct one.
He believed Pearce’s contact with Darcy Byrne-Jones - which left the Port Adelaide forward concussed - was accidental as the two players committed themselves to win the aerial contest.
“We've got ourselves in such a convoluted legal construct that sometimes the right decision isn't paid,” said Healy on SEN’s Sportsday.
“The Tribunal was right to accept that this is one of those rare occasions when both players did exactly what they needed to do, and unfortunately, there was an accidental hit to the head.
“Hits to the head happen in all manner of marking contests. But mainly when players are jumping on shoulders when all players are facing the ball.
“We rightly never question those hits to the head when a knee slams into the back of a scone and someone gets concussed.
“They never cause an eyebrow to be raised at AFL House or a brow to become furrowed, because they're accidental.
“And that's exactly what the AFL tribunal found - an accident happened when two players with eyes on the ball collided.
“It happens in a contact sport.”
Garry Lyon felt that Pearce had a very strong case to present even in the wake of all the commentary suggesting the AFL would suspend him.
“It was always going to be arguable, that he could go and present really well and he might b a chance,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“I deferred to Gerard Whateley, Sam Edmund and David Zita, those people who live in that space, they still thought he’d get rubbed out. Even after he gave his evidence.
“Because he said at the end that he braced that he’d given up the right. But he got off.”
Nathan Buckley had earlier spoken on SEN’s Whateley that he felt uncomfortable that Pearce had been suspended in the first place.
Watch Bucks on the incident below:
Pearce will suit up for the Dockers against the Suns on the Gold Coast on Saturday afternoon.
