ADELAIDE CROWS STAR Ebony Marinoff has seen her three-game ban overturned after the AFL appeals board found her not guilty of forceful front-on contact after a tackle that ended Bríd Stack’s season.
Marinoff’s challenge on Stack left the Cork legend with a broken C7 vertebra in her neck which ruled her out for the full AFLW campaign.
Her initial appeal was adjourned after Marinoff’s legal counsel Sam Abbott QC produced video evidence which they suggested showed an earlier incident where Stack could have sustained the damage.
But the evidence was withdrawn before the latest hearing and instead Abbott argued on three grounds why the ban should be quashed.
The Adelaide counsel used 12 still images from the incident to show Marinoff attempted to stop before the contact took place. He also noted that Stack’s team-mate Alyce Parker had her right arm on Marinoff’s back when contact was made, which he said played a major role in the collision.
“Given the the unreasonableness of the finding from the tribunal…the appeal board should then go on and make the decision for yourself that there was no realistic alternative way to play the ball,” Abbott declared.
He also said there was “no analysis, no questioning (from AFL counsel) about where the head (of Stack) was – and this is a case that involved forceful contact to the head.”
Two and a half hours after the hearing began, Marinoff was cleared to pay in Round 1 of the AFLW on Saturday.
Stack remains in a neck brace before she’ll start rehabilitation on the injury.
