Jacob van Rooyen: Melbourne to appeal three-game suspension for WA forward at AFL Tribunal

Melbourne will head to the AFL Tribunal in an attempt to have star spearhead Jacob van Rooyen cleared for finals.

The WA forward copped a three-match ban for his hit on Port Adelaide’s Aliir Aliir during Saturday night’s win over the Power.

As Aliir marked the ball, van Rooyen came through with a late spoil attempt but struck the defender high with a swinging arm. Aliir had to be helped off the field and was later ruled out of the match after failing his Head Injury Assessment.

The match review officer on Sunday graded the incident as careless with high impact and severe impact, resulting in the three-match suspension that would see van Rooyen miss the first two matches of fifth-placed Melbourne’s finals campaign.

The Demons on Monday morning announced they would fight the ban, with the 42-goal forward’s availability crucial to the club’s hopes in September.

Melbourne are an outside chance to sneak into fourth place on the ladder and set up a qualifying final clash against Fremantle in Perth, should they beat the Western Bulldogs combined with a loss for one of Brisbane (against Collingwood) or Hawthorn (against West Coast).