Tigers star Tom Lynch’s fiancée shares her hilarious reaction to his tribunal victory after he dodged a three-week suspension for hit on Alex Keath
- Richmond’s Tom Lynch faced a three-week suspension
- Incident involving Alex Keath was referred directly to tribunal
- Counsel argued that Lynch maintained his line of momentum
- The 30-year-old is sidelined indefinitely with a broken foot
Richmond star Tom Lynch’s fiancé shared his hilarious reaction to a victory at the AFL tribunal on Tuesday.
Tigers forward Lynch faced a three-week suspension for careless and haughty conduct by Western Bulldogs defender Alex Keath – but the panel cleared the two-time premiership winner, who was initially referred directly to the tribunal.
Counsel Sam Tovey successfully argued that Lynch kept his eyes on the ball and maintained his momentum before bracing for contact.
Lynch, 30, who has been praised for his ’emphatic evidence’, said he misjudged the flight of the ball but it was too late for him to pull back from his jump by the time he saw Keath .
He insisted he turn to protect himself.
Richmond star Tom Lynch’s fiancé shared his hilarious reaction to a win at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday
Richmond Key forward Lynch faced a three week suspension for careless and haughty conduct against Western Bulldogs defender Alex Keath (pictured right)
The key forward has avoided suspension but will still be sidelined with a broken foot (pictured, with fiancee Olivia Burke)
“I just turned my body so that the contact coming forward, 45 (angle of degrees) would hit me in the side to avoid injury, otherwise it would have opened me up,” Lynch said.
AFL attorney Andrew Woods argued that Lynch chose to punch and that his actions were “unreasonable.”
But after 25 minutes of deliberation, the panel of Chairman Jeff Gleeson, Jason Johnson and Shane Wakelin sided with Lynch.
“We’re not clearly convinced that this was rough behavior,” Gleeson said.
After the result was confirmed, Olivia Burke shared an image with her Instagram followers of her husband eating some pasta on the couch – while still clad in a Tigers polo top.
It seems that Burke expected Lynch to take much longer to clear his name.
‘Half way [a manicure] and then got the call to pick up old friend from footy-courts,” she wrote on her post, captioning the photo of her husband-to-be “happy free(ish) old friend.”
Lynch suffered a fracture in his right foot in the defeat to the Bulldogs and a return date will become clearer after surgery.
His side from Richmond will take on Sydney this Friday at Adelaide Oval in a blockbuster.
Swans superstar Buddy Franklin will not play due to knee pain.