The Victorian Football League (VFL) wishes to advise that it today notified the VFL Appeal Board and the Richmond Football Club that it would appeal the three-game suspension imposed on Richmond’s Tyler Sonsie for striking in last weekend’s Round 22 VFL match.

The VFL Match Review Panel initially graded the incident as intentional conduct, severe impact and high contact.

Because the incident was graded as severe impact, it was sent directly to the VFL Tribunal with a base sanction of 5+ matches in accordance with the classification.

The VFL Tribunal found that the incident constituted high impact (downgraded from severe), intentional conduct and high contact, which carries a base sanction of a four- match suspension.

The sanction was reduced to a three-match suspension based on Sonsie’s early guilty plea to that classification.

The VFL will appeal the three-game suspension on the grounds that:

(A) the decision involved an error of law that had a material impact on the Tribunal’s decision; 

(B) the decision was so unreasonable that no Controlling Body or Tribunal acting reasonably could have come to that decision having regard to the evidence before it; 

(C) the classification of the Reportable Offence or Policy Breach or other conduct (as applicable) was manifestly excessive or inadequate.

The appeal will be heard at 5:00pm on Monday, August 28.