Brisbane Lions star Lachie Neale to fight for chance to play in AFL grand final after tribunal date set

Brisbane star Lachie Neale will fight for his chance to play in the AFL grand final, with a date set for his tribunal hearing.

The dual Brownlow Medallist was handed a one-match ban for striking Hawthorn’s Jack Ginnivan in the preliminary final, ruling him out of the decider against Fremantle at the MCG on Saturday.

After the Lions elected to challenge the suspension, the tribunal will sit at 3pm AWST (5pm AEST) on Tuesday night to decide his fate.

The club are expected to centre their argument on compelling and exceptional circumstances, the same clause that saved Collingwood great Scott Pendlebury from suspension in March.

The Lions will cite Pendlebury’s hearing on March 17 this year. However, the acts in the cases of Pendlebury and Neale are starkly different.

The Magpie great was charged with rough conduct for a bump on Adelaide’s Josh Worrell.

His proposed one-match suspension was downgraded to a $3000 fine after Pendlebury’s advocate Myles Tehan successfully argued the ex-Pies captain “stands in a class of his own”, having never previously been before the tribunal in a 21-year AFL career.

“It’s frankly difficult to imagine how it could not constitute an exceptional and compelling circumstance (to avoid a ban),” Tehan told the hearing.