Neale's Grand Final Dreams Shattered as Tribunal Upholds Ban

After a marathon four-and-a-half-hour hearing, the AFL tribunal upheld Lachie Neale's one-match ban for striking Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan — the dual Brownlow medallist will miss Saturday's grand final against his former club Fremantle.

Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson KC delivered the brutal verdict, ruling Neale's evidence was "inconsistent" and declining to invoke the "exceptional and compelling clause" that might have saved his season. Despite 320 games of unblemished...