Star Brisbane midfielder Lachie Neale has been cleared to play in the AFL Grand Final after overturning his one-game suspension at the appeals board.
The dual Brownlow Medal winner will feature in the premiership decider against Fremantle - his former club - at the MCG on Saturday after having a striking charge on Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan downgraded on Thursday.
Neale will instead be fined $10,000.
He initially failed in challenging the one-game ban from the match review officer at the tribunal on Tuesday night.
To succeed on appeal, Brisbane had to prove the tribunal finding was either an error of law, an unreasonable decision, a manifestly excessive classification, or a manifestly excessive sanction.
The Lons were able to sway the appeals board that the tribunal had made an error of law in not considering the exceptional and compelling circumstances of Neale not having previously been suspended in 320 AFL games.
Neale avoids becoming the first player to miss an AFL grand final following a preliminary-final suspension since Collingwood's Anthony Rocca in 2003.
Brisbane legal representative Adrian Anderson tried various different arguments to clear Neale.
One included suggesting the ban should be served in round one next year, instead of in the grand final, due to the added importance of the match.
It was a bold strategy given Neale is almost certain to leave Brisbane and join Collingwood during the off-season.
Anderson leaned heavily on Neale's prior record of not being suspended, referring to the four-time All-Australian as "pretty close to a unicorn".
Introduced this year, the "exceptional and compelling circumstances" clause had been deployed once: to downgrade a one-game ban to Collingwood legend and AFL games record-holder Scott Pendlebury, to a fine.
Watch the incident that has Brisbane expecting Lachie Neale to be offered a one-match ban that would see him miss the 2026 Toyota AFL Grand Final.
— AFL (@AFL) September 20, 2026
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New vision of Neale's strike on Ginnivan became available on Thursday, but was not allowed to be used because it was not shown at Tuesday's tribunal hearing.
The footage would have shown a clearer picture of the incident and likely not helped Neale's case.
Sydney's Barry Hall (2005) and Richmond's Trent Cotchin (2017) famously escaped bans for incidents in their respective preliminary finals to play in eventual premiership wins.
The Lions named Neale in their team on Thursday, shortly before the decision was handed down, and didn't need to change the 23.
With rain expected for Saturday's grand final, Neale will figure prominently as one of the Lions' best wet-weather players.