BRISBANE Lions co-captain Jonathan Brown has been suspended for two matches after he unsuccessfully challenged a striking charge at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.
Brown could have accepted a one-game ban for striking Carlton's Michael Jamison in the Lions' round nine loss, but the club decided to roll the dice and his sanction was doubled.
Brown will now miss matches against Collingwood and Fremantle either side of the club's round 11 bye.
The offence was assessed as intentional conduct, low impact and high contact, drawing 225 demerit points and a two-match sanction.
Brown had no existing good or bad record and could have accepted a 25 per cent discount with an early plea, resulting in a one-match ban.
The champion forward would have received a reprimand had he successfully argued on Tuesday night that his conduct was reckless, not intentional.
However, the jury of Wayne Henwood, Richard Loveridge and Emmett Dunne took 15 minutes to uphold the Match Review Panel's finding.
Brown said his intent was to drag Jamison past him and "clear a path" to the ball, but he never intended to strike the Carlton defender.
His forearm clipped Jamison's shoulder, he said, and "maybe slipped up a little".
"If it was a striking motion it would have been one whack," he told the jury.
Brown's advocate Gavin Handran stressed that Australian football was a contact sport and said Brown was unlikely to strike an opponent in clear view of two umpires.
AFL counsel Jeff Gleeson SC said Brown's act was not a tackle or spoil that went wrong, but a swing of the arm that was "obviously a strike".
He said the act was not directly in play and the jury could reasonably conclude there was an element of frustration and fatigue in the throwing of his arm.
Brown's loss is another blow to the Lions, who have added vice-captain Tom Rockliff (quad) and Matthew Leuenberger (thumb) to their injury list.
Both suffered their injuries in Saturday night's 13-point loss to Carlton, with Leuenberger to miss up to six weeks, while Rockliff will miss two.
Key defender Daniel Merrett will also be unavailable against the Magpies and Fremantle as he serves the remaining two matches of a three-game suspension.
Nathan Schmook is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter:@AFL_Nathan
