IF THERE was one place Toby Greene's hands simply couldn't, by choice, be placed on Saturday night, then it was on or near the face of the opposition team's best player.

Greene had stupidly done that in week one of the finals, and in an outcome that felt arranged, even contrived, he was fined $7500 after pleading guilty to misconduct against Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli. 

Of course, he was "really apologetic for what I did", too, when he spoke after the Tribunal hearing. 

So apologetic that in his very next match, Saturday night's semi-final against Brisbane at the Gabba, he again felt the need to willingly put a hand in the face of a player already pinned to the ground. 

Greene has never presented as a normal footballer, and is wired very differently on and off field.

A genius with Sherrin in hand. Old-fashioned white-line fever. Love, respect, even reverence, from the people he chooses to truly let into his private life. Hatred from supporters of 17 AFL teams. A walking headline. Occasionally, an attitude that has a metaphorical middle finger pointed toward authority.

On Sunday, AFL Match Review Officer Michael Christian charged Greene with unreasonable or unnecessary contact to the eye region of Lachie Neale, and suspended him from next Saturday's preliminary final against Collingwood.

The Match Review statement said Greene acted with intent, and made low impact and high contact, meaning a one-match ban.

Given this entire system is based on opinion anyway, this week, after the Bontempelli issue, there also seemed to be something else factored in: we gave you a chance last week, but you've made us look silly this week.

So, off to the Tribunal, but this time needing to have a case overturned, not merely heard.

Greene is legitimately tough, but moving hands over opponents' faces is not tough.

And having said all that, unless Neale says he was eye-gouged – and the word is that he won't be saying that because he wasn't – Greene simply has to be at the MCG on Saturday for the preliminary final against Collingwood. 

Where, in keeping with his track record, he could both find himself in a stoush with Scott Pendlebury and also kick four and lead the Giants to their first Grand Final.

The 2001 superdraft's last champion 

HODGEY'S had enough. Gazza is still standing, just.

Luke Hodge retired on Saturday night after Brisbane's loss to GWS, capping an outstanding, two-season stint with his second club and extraordinary 18-year, four-premiership, two-time Norm Smith Medal-winning career.

The No.1 pick in the greatest national player draft ever, 2001 (Chris Judd, Jimmy Bartel, Steve Johnson, Dane Swan, Sam Mitchell, and so many more), was the second-last player from that group to exit.

Ablett will be the last.

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Ten weeks ago, Ablett was flying, compiling a season which seemed headed for a ninth All Australian jacket.

But he has struggled of late, his performance for Geelong against West Coast on Friday better than his qualifying final output against Collingwood, but still lengths short of the impact he would like. 

Gut feel says Ablett has one more, old-school big game left in him this year. May as well make it this week, in Friday's preliminary final against Richmond.

With Tom Hawkins expected to fail in his Tribunal case, placing Ablett at full-forward might be worthy of consideration.

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Leon defies the doubters again

PRELIMINARY final, preliminary final, semi-final, preliminary final.

On that 2016-19 form line and obviously acknowledging that a premiership has to this point eluded him, Leon Cameron's supporters would still be entitled to mount a case around being the competition's most successful coach. 

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Enhancing that argument would be the fact that the performances have been achieved in an era of senior players departing the club for better money elsewhere, with Taylor Adams, Adam Treloar, Dylan Shiel, Devon Smith, Tom Boyd, Will Hoskin-Elliott and Tom Scully among the departures. 

Tom Scully and Dylan Shiel tackle Richmond's Brandon Ellis. Picture: AFL Photos

The Giants lost their two preliminary finals, in 2016 and 2017, to eventual premiers Western Bulldogs and Richmond.

They fell out of the finals in week two last year, but pushed eventual Grand Finalist Collingwood all the way, losing by 10 points.

The tough, all-in manner of their two finals wins this season have the Giants primed for a similar performance against the Pies on Saturday, in the expansion club's third preliminary final appearance of the past four seasons.

Toby Greene and Taylor Adams shake hands after last year's semi-final. Picture: AFL Photos

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A little thought experiment

HERE'S a little exercise for everyone here in Australia, where as a nation we loathe people who take drugs in sports, yet make exceptions, without fail, if the person in strife is actually Australian. 

Replace the name Willie Rioli with that of Sun Yang in every thought you have had, word you have uttered and opinion you have shared since learning last Thursday of the West Coast forward's issue with ASADA.

Willie Rioli at West Coast training earlier this month. Picture: AFL Photos

There is no way that the slack, sympathy, care and even anger on his behalf – all valid feelings and reactions, by the way – would have been afforded if it was Sun Yang, the Chinese Olympic Medal-winning swimmer once banned for a drugs breach, and not Willie Rioli, who last month allegedly tampered with a drug test sample, adding something other than urine to the substance he provided to ASADA.

Like most people in football, I am extremely sympathetic to Rioli, who is by all reports an incredibly likeable, courageous man who had already faced and overcome serious personal issues, only to now face a four-year ban. But what I still find staggering is the way we as a nation, yet again, feel sorry for one of our own and even attempt to argue that the whole drug testing situation is wrong. 

No one apart from Rioli will know exactly why he may have tampered with his own sample. Many close to him are saying he panicked. But even that doesn't wash. If he did panic, why? Did he think it was a test for the AFL's Illicit Drugs Policy, a program which is more an internal, welfare-based code of conduct mechanism than a drugs policy, and not the internationally-linked ASADA program? 

Unless the AFL again attempts to break free of ASADA (and therefore WADA) as it once tried about 15 years ago, and therefore places in jeopardy access to millions of dollars that comes from federal government backing, the League's players remain bound by the same rules as swimmers, track sprinters and cyclists. 

We in Australia, rightly, had our sympathy levels at zero for Sun Yang, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong and so many others. 

Twitter: @barrettdamian