EILISH Sheerin is free to play in week 10 after the AFLW Appeal Board dismissed a challenge brought by the AFL in a 45-minute-long hearing on Thursday night.
The League chose to appeal the AFLW Tribunal's Tuesday night decision to downgrade Sheerin's charge of intentionally making contact with an umpire to carelessly making contact with an umpire, leaving her with a fine of $200.
The AFL appealed on the grounds the Tribunal had made two errors of law and had acted unreasonably in coming to their decision, with the Appeal Board, chaired by Will Houghton KC and comprised of former players Richard Loveridge and Wayne Henwood, dismissing all three grounds.
Sheerin was initially charged by the Match Review Officer with making intentional contact with an umpire, but the charge was downgraded to careless contact in a two-and-a-half-hour Tribunal hearing.
Sheerin was sent straight to the Tribunal after the initial charge, but the Tribunal, chaired by Renee Enbom KC with panellists David Neitz and Michelle Dench, was unconvinced the contact was intentional and forceful, therefore the charge was downgraded to careless.
Had Sheerin been found guilty of making intentional contact, it would have been up to the Tribunal to determine an appropriate sanction.
The incident in question involved a push from Sheerin on Essendon's Georgia Nanscawen that caused the Bomber to fall into the path of an umpire, which in turn sent the umpire tumbling to the ground during Saturday night's Dreamtime match in Darwin.
The incident occurred during a stoppage in the final two minutes of the match, when Sheerin, who was positioned around the ball-up, pushed her opponent Nanscawen into the path of the umpire, who was running backwards away from the contest after throwing the ball into the air. Nanscawen's head and shoulders made contact with the umpire's hip, causing the umpire to fall backwards onto the ground.
