Geelong Advertiser |
ESCAPING suspension at the AFL Barwon tribunal has paved the way for Bell Post Hill veteran Shaun Lewis to make a surprise comeback to senior football.
Just weeks after turning his back on an offer to join rival North Geelong, Lewis could return to the Panthers’ team as early as Saturday’s clash against Belmont Lions.
The news comes as Lewis avoided suspension on Tuesday night for an alleged strike to the head of Anakie’s Nick Trotter.
Lewis was cleared by tribunal chairman Ron Drew and panel members Bill Hessey and Robert Carter on a misconduct report stemming from the second quarter of Saturday’s clash.
The officiating umpire told the tribunal Trotter was struck to the face with a raised elbow.
Trotter said he “didn’t see it coming”.
“I was semi-concussed,” he said. “The crunch that it made, I laid on the ground because I thought I’d broken my jaw.”
Lewis claimed he was waving his arms in the air to guard space when Trotter “ran into me”.
“It was not my intent (to hit the player),” Lewis said.
Panthers coach Brent Grgic provided an eyewitness report of the incident to the tribunal and claimed a “free kick would’ve been sufficient”.
Prior to the tribunal’s deliberation, Trotter asked to submit a medical report, which was declined on the grounds that the Anakie player had provided the evidence incorrectly.
Trotter, who was taken to hospital with a dislocated jaw, was angry that Lewis had avoided a ban. “I’m going to have long-term problems with it, most likely,” he said.
“The doctors said I can’t play for at least a week because I’ve got five stitches in my lip and if I wasn’t wearing a mouthguard I would’ve lost all my teeth. And he gets off on a technicality because a club umpire in twos football wrote it (report) down wrong. If I was playing seniors, he would’ve got weeks.”
A relieved Lewis, who recently had his ring finger amputated at the knuckle after complications from an injury sustained when it was caught in the jumper of an opponent, expects to spend another two weeks in the reserves.
“I’m just taking it week by week. I’m 35 now and hopefully if I’m still good enough and feeling confident and Grg (Grgic) is happy to have me back, I’m happy to play senior footy again.”
Lewis admitted he was close to signing with the Magpies, where he trained twice.
“In the end I had some old-school Bell Post Hill people talk to me about what I should be doing, and my wife, and I think I’ve made the right decision,” he said.
“It’s my home. I started playing junior football there in 1983 and senior football from ’95 and I feel I would miss it too much.’’
