GEELONG defender Corey Enright has achieved a virtual win at the Tribunal on Tuesday night, despite failing to have his striking charge overturned.

 

Already ruled out of Friday night's semi-final against Port Adelaide because of a knee injury, Enright was handed a one-match suspension for a hit on Fremantle's Chris Mayne during the Cats' qualifying final loss at the weekend.

 

The offence drew 125 demerit points, meaning Enright will have 25 points left on his record after serving the one-match ban.

 

Had he pleaded guilty to the offence, Enright would have been available to play this week, but he would have been left with 93.75 demerit points on his record.

 

Given a medial ligament strain will prevent him from facing the Power anyway, Enright could only gain by challenging on Tuesday night.

 

The triple premiership star denied Monday night's result was a win, and conceded his availability for the rest of the finals series was unclear. 

 

"It's out of my control at the moment. It's up to the boys to win on Friday night," he said after the case. 

 

"We'll play it by ear ... [a preliminary final] is a bit too far out."

 

Enright, who had never been suspended previously in his 14-year career, told the Tribunal he did not intend to strike Mayne after the Dockers forward had handballed to teammate Hayden Ballantyne.

 

"I felt that he was going to block me and my best chance was to get him out of the way and move on to the next contest," the defender said.

 

However, the jury of Richard Loveridge, Wayne Henwood and Wayne Schimmelbusch disagreed, taking 11 minutes to uphold the Match Review Panel's charge.

 

Geelong did not seek to have the charge downgraded from intentional to reckless, presumably because that would have left Enright with 80 carryover points.

 

The jury could have come to that conclusion anyway but chose not to.