On Wednesday 10 September the AFL Sydney Appeals Committee heard the appeal lodged by AFL Sydney against the leniency of the seven week suspension handed down to Marcus Linsen of Western Suburbs by the AFL Sydney Tribunal, which resulted from an incident in the match against UNSW-Eastern Suburbs on Saturday 16 August 2014. The appeal was based on the Tribunal making an error of law in arriving at the penalty imposed.
The Appeals Committee found that while each member of the Appeals Committee would have imposed a higher, and perhaps substantially higher, penalty than a seven week suspension if each had been sitting as (or on) the Tribunal in this matter, 　the test as to what constitutes an error of law for relevant purposes is a very stringent one. It is the Wednesbury test.
The Appeals Committee ultimately decided that it was not satisfied that the decision of the Tribunal was unreasonable in the Wednesbury sense, given the stringency of the test, notwithstanding the submissions on behalf of AFL Sydney.
As the Appeals Committee was not persuaded that the decision of the Tribunal was unreasonable in the stringent Wednesbury sense, the appeal was dismissed.
Last Modified on 16/09/2014 13:53
