Sydney Swans captain Barry Hall is free to lead his team into battle against West Coast in the 2005 AFL Grand Final after being cleared to play by the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night.Hall's defence team successfully argued that his striking charge against St Kilda's Matt Maguire be downgraded, allowing the spearhead to avoid suspension. The Swans convinced the three-man jury that his actions were "in play" rather than "behind play".The burly Swans forward had pleaded guilty to the other three components of the charge - that it was reckless conduct, with low impact and to the body.But by successfully downgrading the incident to "in play", it reduced the charge from a Level Two striking offence to a Level One. Hall still received the 25 per cent points discount and it brought his total points to below the 100 point cut-off for a one-match suspension.After the hearing, a relieved Hall said he was delighted to now turn his focus to Saturday's grand final."I'd like to thank all the support I've got the last couple of days - all the Sydney supporters and the Melbourne-based supporters. There were a couple of people outside who turned out for me, so that's fantastic."Now I'm just really looking forward to Saturday. It's a big event and I can't wait to get back into it."The key to Sydney's defence was the AFL's pre-season instructional DVD, which was distributed to all clubs and showed which incidents would be deemed behind play and which would be deemed in play under the league's new judicial system in 2005.The DVD showed an "in play" incident involving Essendon's Dean Rioli and Kangaroo Adam Simpson in 2003 where the Bomber pleaded guilty to striking Simpson in a clash which happened away from the action.Hall's defence advocate, Terry Forrest QC, conceded Hall had done the wrong thing by striking Maguire in the stomach during the first quarter at the MCG last Friday night."But it is by no means an off-the-ball incident," Forrest told a packed a tribunal hearing."He shouldn't have done it, but it's in play."Tribunal chairman David Jones instructed the jury - comprising Richard Loveridge, Emmett Dunne and Wayne Schimmelbusch - that they must consider the case on the evidence available, and not be swayed by sympathy, gossip or any other factors.Jones also told the jury there was nothing in the AFL's guidelines about proximity to the football when determining what incidents are "in play"."It seemed to me that at all times Hall was looking towards the ball," Jones said.In his evidence, Hall conceded he was about 25 metres from the football when he struck out at Maguire while changing direction to make another lead."It was a pretty physical game … I wanted to make a physical impact," Hall said."The incident was very unfortunate, but very minimal."While the burly forward is free to skipper the Swans into only their second Grand Final in 60 years, Hall will carry 93.75 points (nearly a one-match suspension) on his record.