THE AFL will appeal downgraded umpire contact findings against Carlton brothers Ed and Charlie Curnow, describing the sanctions imposed as "manifestly inadequate".
The Appeal Board hearing will be held on Thursday at 3pm AEST.
The League will be seeking a suspension for both players after they escaped with $1000 fines on Tuesday night at the Tribunal.
Football operations general manager Steve Hocking made the decision ahead of Wednesday's 12pm deadline to file an appeal.
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Hocking said the AFL had appealed both of the financial sanctions on the grounds that:
- no Tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it
- the sanction imposed was manifestly inadequate.
The Blues pair both successfully argued before the AFL Tribunal that their separate contact incidents in Saturday's game against Essendon were careless and not intentional, and were fined $1000 each rather than suspended.
The brothers had been referred straight to the Tribunal by Match Review Officer Michael Christian, who initially graded both incidents as intentional.
A week earlier Geelong forward Tom Hawkins agreed on a plea deal with AFL counsel, effectively accepting a one-week ban and acknowledging his contact with an umpire was intentional.
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Gold Coast co-captain Steven May was cleared on intentional umpire contact at the Tribunal on Monday night, and instead fined $1000 after also successfully arguing his contact was careless.
The AFL confirmed it was not appealing that decision.
"We accepted that decision on the examination of the evidence that was put and chose not to appeal," a League spokesman said.
