North Melbourne’s Tristan Xerri headed to tribunal for alleged blood smear; Collingwood captain Darcy Moore sidelined again with hamstring injury
Updated ,first published
Your daily football news package in today’s AFL Briefing:
- The kangaroo tramp is heading to court on charges of defamation.
- The Magpies have once again lost their captain due to a hamstring injury.
- AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon expects next year’s opening round to look different again.
Border review called for in final moments of Eagles win
Greg Dundas
The West Coast Eagles made it back-to-back wins by beating Port Adelaide by two points on Sunday in a game where the AFL’s controversial video review system was again needed late in the competition.
However, unlike Thursday night’s game at Geelong, where the on-field referees made the wrong call and were not reviewed, this time the game was postponed so that the correct decision could be made.
This meant that the Eagles were denied a free kick with about a minute left on the clock and were awarded a throw-in from the boundary. This decision gave Port Adelaide hope of overcoming the one point deficit they were facing at the time, but West Coast managed to gain possession and move the ball forward to go a further goal behind, securing their second win of the season.
That means the Eagles won more games in the first three rounds of 2026 than in all of last season.
The use of the AFL Review Center (ARC) late in Sunday’s match came three days after an altercation midway through the final quarter of Geelong’s eight-point win over Adelaide at GMHBA Stadium.
The day after that game the AFL admitted that Geelong’s Tom Atkins had taken a finishing touch free kick when the ball had actually left his shoe and that the crucial free kick should have gone to Adelaide.
The gap was two points at the time and with Atkins’ free kick the Cats took the ball forward and scored a goal to gain some breathing room.
The AFL’s statement on Friday said: “On the final free kick awarded to Geelong in the fourth quarter last night, the ball was put back into play before ARC had time to intervene. If ARC had intervened, the decision would have been overturned.”
“The AFL will look at his process in the later stages of the game and his ability to potentially sustain play to achieve the right result.”
Xerri deletion will be examined by the court
Jake Niall and Marc McGowan
North Melbourne ruckman Tristan
Speaking outside the MCG on Sunday, AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon condemned Xerri’s actions and said it was “something we don’t want to see”.
“This was assessed by the match review official [Michael Christian]“It will go directly to court and will be heard Monday or Tuesday night,” Dillon said.
“It’s not something we want to see on our fields.”
Under precedent and AFL rules, Christian will confirm on Sunday that Xerri has been charged with inappropriate conduct, meaning his case will go straight to court and he faces possible suspension if found guilty.
Christian reviews the events the day after the game and recounts his statements and sanctions from that afternoon.
The Xerri incident does not fall into a category that the MRO can rate and issue an automatic penalty for; Therefore, the case goes directly to court.
In the match, which the Roos won by two goals, Xerri touched his bloody nose while struggling with McGrath and then wiped his hand on Bomber’s face. Xerri’s actions were widely criticized by commentators and former players during and after the game.
Under court rules, Christian has the power to refer serious acts of misconduct directly to the court.
Under the rules, misconduct covers any action that “could reasonably be considered unacceptable or unsporting, or has the effect or potential to cause damage to the reputation of any person, club or the AFL, or to bring the game of football into disrepute”.
To find an example most highly comparable to the Xerri case, we have to look back almost a quarter of a century, well before the advent of MRO.
In 2002, then-Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley was suspended for smearing Geelong rival Cameron Ling’s blood on his guernsey in a landmark case. The obvious difference between the two cases is that Xerri wiped directly on McGrath’s skin rather than on his opponent’s guernsey as Buckley did.
Any suspension would result in Xerri missing a winnable Good Friday game against Carlton.
Meanwhile, Dillon also addressed allegations that St Kilda’s Lance Collard used a homophobic slur during a VFL match. The league’s integrity unit is investigating the matter.
“This is currently being investigated and it is an allegation, so we will investigate that,” he said.
“This is not something we want to deal with.”
AFL boss points to strong crowd in opening round debate
Marc McGowan
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon expects next year’s opening tour to look different again, but that’s mainly due to cricket’s 150th Test century rather than any backlash.
Various players, coaches and officials, including Fremantle’s Justin Longmuir and Simon Garlick and Melbourne’s rookie coach Steven King, argued that it was unfair that only some clubs could play matches and that they could have been better prepared when they faced a team that did not.
Dillon acknowledged that four of the six clubs playing in the opening round later faced an opponent who failed to win their first-round match.
The exceptions were Collingwood and St Kilda, who lost to Adelaide and Melbourne respectively.
“There are a lot of stakeholders that we consult with, and coaches are really important,” Dillon said.
“But if you look at the statistics, from the first round there were six teams playing in the first round and it was 4-2 but definitely [we] “Take the feedback from the coaches into account on this.”
Dillon said the opening round fixture, which usually focuses on northern markets, is something they monitor at league headquarters, but they are excited about the increased crowds this season.
“What I’m focusing on is making sure our audiences are as high as last year. We’re averaging just under 40,000 going to the games,” he said.
“We had three matches at Marvel [Stadium] this weekend and they all exceeded expectations. We’ll have a crowd of over 50,000 at ‘G’ [between Carlton and Melbourne]. “We had crowds in the 70,000s and played St Kilda in the opening round in front of the highest home and away crowds they have ever played in front of and they have been in the competition since 1897.”
To commemorate the legacy of Test cricket, a special one-off match between Australia and England will be held at the MCG from March 11-15 next year.
Dillon confirmed that this means the 2027 season will have a “different-looking start” compared to this year.
Moore is out for another month
Greg Dundas
Collingwood will be without captain Darcy Moore as they head into a blockbuster run of games in April.
The Magpies confirmed on Sunday morning that a low-grade hamstring strain suffered during Friday’s win over the GWS Giants will keep their star defender out for the next “three to four weeks”.
This extension includes Thursday night’s game against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba and play through to the Easter weekend, followed by games at home to Fremantle, arch-rivals Carlton and possibly an Anzac Day clash with Essendon.
It was a bitter blow for Moore, who played his first game of the season on Friday at Marvel Stadium.
Collingwood’s general manager of football, Charlie Gardiner, said scans taken since Friday night’s game showed Moore had an inflamed bursa behind his knee.
“Obviously we’re disappointed for Darcy. Scans yesterday showed he has a low-grade hamstring strain with an inflamed bursa behind his knee and this is expected to keep him out for the next three to four weeks,” Gardiner said.
“Darcy will continue to work closely with our medical and high-performance team as we progress through the return-to-play timeline.”
Collingwood beat the Giants on Friday despite Moore being sidelined with what was described at the time as “hamstring awareness” and his predecessor as captain, Scott Pendlebury, also having an Achilles strain.
Moore was sidelined for an extended period of time Friday. Speaking to the media after the game, Collingwood coach Craig McRae said Moore’s return to the field was being handled carefully.
“This is hamstring awareness,” McRae said. “For those coming back to rehab, he went through this about 10 to 12 days ago – same thing – and we just said, ‘No risk, no risk, no risk.’
“But we were in the game and you were like, ‘Can he progress? Can he take a few minutes?’ you ask. Because it’s important to see if you can spend a few minutes without risk in terms of rotations.
“Now I say this, but I only support the high-performance team. This is not my area and that’s what we did.”
“But he’s not right. It’s not 100 percent. Did he have a hamstring done? I’m not sure. I don’t think so… but of course we’ll do all the research and find out.”
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Jake Niall is a Walkley-winning sports journalist and The Age’s chief AFL writer.Connect with: X or email.
