COLLINGWOOD star Dale Thomas will miss Monday's Queen's Birthday clash against Melbourne at the MCG after having his striking charge upheld at the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night.
 
The in-form Magpie pleaded guilty to the charge, but argued that his strike on opponent Clinton Jones during Saturday night's win over St Kilda was 'reckless', not 'intentional' as assessed by the Match Review Panel.
 
After the hearing Thomas said he was disappointed but will "move on and hopefully the boys can get the job done on Monday".
 
Had the tribunal accepted Thomas' version of events, his charge could have been downgraded from 225 to 125 demerit points, which, with discounts for his clean record and the guilty plea would have been further reduced to 70.31 points and a reprimand only.
 
Instead, the 23 year-old will miss next Monday's match after the tribunal determined that the 'intentional' classification was correct.
 
Thomas, who turns 24 later this month, has been in superb form for the Magpies this season, after finishing third in the 2010 Copeland Trophy voting.
 
In 2011 he is averaging nearly 26 possessions per game, which ranks him third at the club. He sits sixth in the competition on the AFL Coaches’ Association Player of the Year leaderboard.




Click on the image to watch the incident from Saturday's match.