Hawthorn will head to the AFL tribunal in a bid to have co-captain Jai Newcombe cleared to play in their Opening Round clash with GWS.
Newcombe will challenge his one-match suspension for rough conduct, handed out over a tackle on Western Bulldogs opponent Ed Richards.
West Coast’s Harry Schoenberg was also hit with a one-match ban, charged with intentionally striking Port Adelaide’s Logan Evans.
Essendon midfielder Sam Durham was cleared over his potentially dangerous tackle on St Kilda’s Ryan Byrnes.
Richards had one arm pinned by Newcombe but wasn’t seriously hurt, getting up quickly to take his free kick and playing out the rest of last Friday night’s practice match.
The incident was graded careless conduct, medium impact and high contact by the match review officer (MRO).
The tackle could have been graded low impact, but the MRO has the option to elevate the force grading based on potential to cause serious injury.
The Hawks may attempt to have the impact downgraded at Tuesday night’s tribunal hearing, in their efforts to avoid another huge blow to their midfield stocks.
In the practice match broadcast, former Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley and Melbourne great Garry Lyon both said they expected Newcombe to escape suspension, though Lyon felt there were grounds for a ban.
“(It) ticks a lot of boxes for a suspension apart from the fact he (Richards) got up and played on,” Lyon said on Fox Footy.
“I know we ask a lot. But the way it’s described to us is he has to identify he has one arm where he can’t move and he takes him to ground and his head hits the ground.
“From that point of view, a lot of those boxes were ticked. But the fact that Ed Richards jumps up and plays on suggests he’ll be OK.”
Hinkley didn’t feel Newcombe had much to worry about.
“The outcome is really important in most of these things,” Hinkley said.
“He’s tackled him fairly and taken him down with natural force.
“I don’t think it’s an over the top sling or anything like that. I doubt he gets in too many troubles for that.”
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Hawthorn’s midfield is already without star ball-winner Will Day (shoulder) and Cam Mackenzie (concussion), and free agent James Worpel defected to Geelong over the off-season.
GWS are battling an even greater personnel crisis for the Sydney Showground grudge match with the Hawks, who knocked them out of the flag race in an elimination final last year.
Tom Green (knee), Josh Kelly (hip), Sam Taylor (hamstring) and Toby Bedford (hamstring) are all sidelined for the Giants, while Finn Callaghan (hip flexor) has been in doubt.
But teammate Aaron Cadman insisted Callaghan is “ready to go” and admitted GWS are still hurting from their last meeting with Hawthorn.
“When someone knocks you out in the finals, you don’t take it very lightly,” Cadman said.
“It’s going to be a great game and they’re obviously a really talented side, we saw that last year.”
AAP
