It took just four minutes for the jury of Wayne Henwood, Richard Loveridge and Wayne Schimmelbusch to clear the 27-year-old of the charge against Fremantle young gun Alex Silvagni.
The incident saw Burgoyne tackle Silvagni in the second quarter of the elimination final at Subiaco on Saturday afternoon.
Silvagni’s head hit the turf and a medical report from Fremantle stated he suffered dizziness for five minutes after the event.
While he was initially taken from the field, he suffered no further problems throughout the remainder of the game and was not treated post-match.
Burgoyne and player advocate Chris Townshend SC argued the Hawk’s intentions were simply to tackle Silvagni in the manner that was taught at training.
Townshend said the tackle “ended badly but didn’t start badly”, and that a player should not be responsible for the physics and momentum that influenced the outcome after applying the initial action.
Burgoyne said he pinned Silvagni’s arm and had tried to “roll him” after moving to his side to enforce the tackle.
“All I wanted to do was lay a tackle and win a free kick for myself,” he said.
“You never want to cause any damage to the opposition player. Unfortunately he did hit his head and sometimes players do have those accidents.”
Burgoyne conceded he gave away a free kick by falling into Silvagni’s back but attributed the momentum of both players to the force with which the Fremantle player hit the ground.
He said afterwards he was glad to be available to start next season in round one after missing the first seven games of this year through injury.
“I’ve missed enough footy over these last 18 months, I want to play as much footy as I can for Hawthorn,” he said.
“Round one is a great place to start next year.”
