Luckless former Crow joins MRP
Retired Richmond half-forward – and former Crows star – Chris Knights has been appointed to the Match Review Panel.
After 96 outings for Adelaide, Knights crossed to the Tigers as a free agent ahead of the 2013 season, but managed just six games in a latter-day career wrecked by a spate of serious injuries – including a major knee injury after he announced his impending retirement last season.
His heyday was in 2009, when he was briefly one of the most damaging – and accurate – small forwards in the competition.
Knights joins former Bombers star Jason Johnson replacing Luke Ball and Brad Sewell on the match review panel.
Johnson, who retired in 2008, was a two-time best and fairest winner at Essendon and played in their 2000 premiership team.
The AFL said in a statement Sewell had stepped down because of work and travel commitments, while Ball will have an expanded role in the AFL football operations department.
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AFL General Manager Football Operations Mark Evans said Knights “is able to bring current playing experience to the panel’s deliberations”.
Knights and Johnson will join Nathan Burke and Michael Christian on the MRP.
Meanwhile, Fremantle will have to go to the tribunal if they want to have star ruckman Aaron Sandilands available for the start of the AFL season.
Sandilands became the first player to be reported this season after his clash with Richmond opponent Ben Griffiths in the third quarter of Friday’s NAB Challenge match.
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They were jostling for a ruck contest when Sandilands tried to block Griffiths so a teammate could take the tap.
Sandilands collected Griffiths high with his shoulder, laying the Tiger out.
The match review panel booked Sandilands for rough conduct and handed him a two-match ban.
If Sandilands accepts the penalty it will mean a one-game suspension and he must serve it for the round-match against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.
The Dockers would risk the two-game penalty if they went to the tribunal.
The incident was ruled as careless conduct with medium impact to the head.
-AAP
