Judd found guilty at AFL tribunal

Carlton captain Chris Judd will miss the first three matches of the 2010 AFL season,
unless the Blues launch an appeal which clears their superstar of a misconduct
charge.
Judd was found guilty of making unnecessary and unreasonable contact to the face of
Brisbane's Michael Rischitelli during Saturday night's elimination final at the
Gabba.
He then failed in a separate bid to have his three-game sanction reduced on the
basis of "exceptional and compelling circumstances".
But the 2004 Brownlow medallist and West Coast premiership skipper of 2006 has left
open the option of taking the case to the appeals board.
"Obviously I'm disappointed with the outcome," Judd said immediately after Tuesday
night's hearing.
"But now we'll go and assess our options and we'll make further comment at a later
date. That's all I can really say right now."
Judd was captured by television cameras with the fingers of his left hand moving
around near Rischitelli's eye while the Brisbane player was lying on the ground
early in the second quarter of the Gabba clash.
He argued he was simply trying to hold Rischitelli's head down to prompt him to get
his arm away from Carlton's Shaun Grigg.
Judd attempted to backtrack on comments he made to media on Sunday that he had been
searching for a "pressure point" at the back of the Lion's head.
He said those comments were made during a press conference organised at short
notice, and on limited sleep, after he and fellow Blues players had been at a bar
the previous night commiserating over the end of their season.
"I tried to make light of the situation by referring to what WWE wrestlers would
call a pressure point," he said.
"It was stupid to make light of the situation with a poorly-timed joke.
"I guess you make those sorts of errors when you're coming off a half-hour's sleep.
"I wouldn't know where to start to find a pressure point. I have no formal training
in martial arts, no form of training whatsoever.
"It was not my intention. My intention was to pull him away from Shaun Grigg."
He also denied he had been trying to make contact with Rischitelli's eye, saying his
fingers had moved around because it was a muggy night and the player's face was
slippery.
But tribunal counsel Jeff Gleeson said Judd's explanation was "implausible" and it
was open to the jury to find a "less benign" explanation.
"He doesn't look like a player holding down a head, he looks like a player searching
round a face," Gleeson said.
Judd acknowledged there was no need to touch Rischitelli's face at all.
"Looking at what it's caused you would certainly say that," he said.
But he argued the contact was so light it was not enough to constitute the "low
impact" with which he was charged.
After the guilty verdict was handed down, Judd's advocate David Grace argued for the
penalty to be downgraded, saying the impact of the contact was so low it should be
regarded as an exceptional and compelling circumstance.
He said Judd's mostly clean record, along with his status as a best and fairest
winner and captain at two clubs and a Brownlow Medallist should also be taken into
account.
But the jury deliberated very briefly before rejecting that application.