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Melbourne’s Jack Viney slapped with two-game ban for serious misconduct against Gold Coast’s Sam Collins

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Catherine HealeyThe West Australian
VideoDunstall on Viney: 'That is as bad a look as we could possibly have'.

Demons star Jack Viney is out of Monday’s blockbuster clash with West Coast after he was rubbed out for two matches by the AFL tribunal tonight.

The midfielder was sent straight to the tribunal for serious misconduct after he was caught on camera pushing his elbow into the throat of Gold Coast opponent Sam Collins.

It took the jury just 10 minutes to find Viney, who gave evidence from his team’s Perth hotel where he remains in quarantine, guilty of serious misconduct.

Viney had claimed it was Collins who instigated the scuffle and that he only made contact to the Sun’s lower jaw region.

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“I could feel him trying to roll me like he was trying to wrestle me,” he argued.

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“It was more a show of defence. I didn’t want to get rolled over and him be on top of me. that was the position I was pulled into and that was where my strength was.”

Viney, represented by former AFL footy boss Adrian Anderson, admitted his actions “weren’t a good look” but claimed he was trying to protect himself from an opponent 15 kilograms heavier than he is.

But AFL counsel Jeff Gleeson rubbished Viney’s claims that he was acting in self-defence, labelling the evidence as “nonsense”.

“You’ll have no difficulty rejecting (the contact to the jaw first) submission when you look at the evidence ... he’s given evidence that is flatly inconsistent with what he knew he did,” Gleeson argued.

He said Viney’s actions were unsportsmanlike and called for a minimum two-match ban.

The jury, made up of Paul Williams, Shane Wakelin, Wayne Henwood, agreed and slapped the midfielder with a two-game ban.

Collins, who did not require treatment at the time, will not miss any training or matches.

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