Collingwood enforcer Brayden Maynard has defended his hit on Angus Brayshaw, describing the brutal conflict that ended the Demon’s evening early as a “footy act”.
It comes as Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin indicated that he wasn’t pleased with the incident within the aftermath of his facet’s seven-point loss and labelled Brayshaw “shattered”.
Maynard jumped to aim to smother a Brayshaw kick within the opening minutes of the match earlier than his proper shoulder collected Brayshaw within the facet of the pinnacle as he landed.
Brayshaw required rapid medical consideration and needed to be taken off the bottom in a stretcher, with the midfielder dominated out of the remainder of the sport.
Maynard is ready to face scrutiny from Match Review Officer Michael Christian for the incident, which sparked wild scenes of retaliation led by Melbourne’s Jack Viney.
Speaking to Seven after the sport, Maynard stated he was assured he wouldn’t have something to fret about as he appears to keep away from suspension forward of Collingwood’s preliminary last fixture in a fortnight’s time.
“I guess I don’t want to say too much, but it’s a footy act,” Maynard stated.
“I came forward. I jumped to smother the ball and unfortunately I just got him on the way down.
“So I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.
“But it’s all love. I absolutely love that guy to bits. So it’s shattering what happened.”
Goodwin stated he would go away the decision within the fingers of Christian however indicated he believed it required a assessment.
“That will be sorted out during the week. But we’ve got a pretty shattered player in there,” he stated.
“You can only go by the facts – he jumped off the ground and knocked a guy out. So I guess time will tell.”
Goodwin stated Brayshaw was “upset” within the rooms after the sport.
“He’s obviously had a history with concussion a long time ago. So he’s obviously dealing with some emotion there,” Goodwin stated.
“He wants to play finals footy and he’s going to be missing for a few weeks, so that’s disappointing.”
Magpies coach Craig McRae praised Maynard’s professionalism for having an essential impression throughout the sport within the wake of the incident, however stated he wasn’t positive how the conflict can be assessed.
“It didn’t look like it had much malice. But I’ll leave it up to others to decide if that’s worthy of a suspension or not,” McRae stated.
Christian will make his evaluation on Friday.
Seven analyst Matthew Richardson stated he believed Maynard can be cleared, however was involved that if he did have a case to reply, it may put a possible grand last berth in jeopardy.
“It’s so tough, this one,” he stated. “I think if he gets rubbed out, it’s not going to be one week.”
Fellow analyst Kane Cornes agreed Maynard would get off the hook, writing on X (previously Twitter): “Nothing else Maynard could have done there.”
Melbourne’s Jacob van Rooyen is dealing with scrutiny of his personal after his elbow made contact with the jaw of Collingwood’s Dan McStay.
The Magpie went off the bottom for a head harm evaluation however returned to play out the match.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
