CTV> Geoff Walsh spoke with CTV at the Lexus Centre after the appeal was upheld in Nick Maxwel's case against a rough conduct charge

After a lengthy appeals process, Collingwood’s skipper Nick Maxwell was cleared of a rough-conduct charge that would have seen him miss four matches.

Club director of football Geoff Walsh led the Collingwood contingent into the AFL Appeals Board at the Telstra Dome on Friday and was extremely pleased with the result.

“We are pleased,” Walsh told CTV after the hearing.

“When you go to the appeal you obviously have the faith that you have got some chance of winning otherwise we wouldn’t have pursued it.”

The Magpie group included Walsh, Maxwell, CEO Gary Pert, club president Eddie McGuire, and QC Terry Forest.

“I think we wanted to pursue the appeal to keep faith with the player and also (we believed) all the circumstances warranted a second look.

“Through the agency of Terry Forest who ran the case extraordinarily well, ultimately we have been successful so it’s been great.”

“The first hour and a half was dealt with Terry putting some points both in pictorial form with some still shots and a transcript of the tribunal evidence.”

Walsh indicated that once an ‘error of law’ was included into the appeal, the process moved to the club’s favour.

“Once we amended the appeal to include an error of law…it seemed to move very quickly from there.”

It is the first time in 11 cases brought before the Appeals Board since the new AFL tribunal system was introduced in 2005 that an appeal has been upheld and a tribunal verdict set aside.

“I am sure others within the AFL circle will judge it as some sort of ground breaking decision but I think they (cases) are all dealt with on their merits.”

Maxwell’s case had created fervor with public opinion over the last two weeks with many supporters wondering if they had witnessed the end of the hip-and-shoulder.

“There is no doubt that the weight of public opinion in the last few days was (a) worry that the nature and the fabric of the game that they love was changing.

“There is no doubt that the public were voicing their opinion and that they didn’t like the look of the way things were unfolding.”