Fremantle’s Alex Pearce is free to take on the Gold Coast Suns this weekend, after successfully having his three-match suspension thrown out at the AFL Tribunal.

Pearce was originally slapped with a three-game ban for rough conduct by the Match Review Officer for his collision with Port Adelaide opponent Darcy Byrnes-Jones in the Dockers’ win in Perth.

The club decided to take an all-or-nothing approach and challenge the suspension, with the defender pleading not guilty.

Giving evidence at Tuesday night’s hearing, Pearce says he was attempting to impact the contest and thought he could take a chest mark.

“It’s possible I could have just not gone for that contest,” Pearce told the hearing.

“But given the context… being a captain of our club who has an obligation to set the standard… to give 100% at all contests.

“I don’t believe that in that situation again I would be able to make a different decision than go at that ball and at that contest 100 per cent and make a play at the ball.

“If you can make a play on the ball and impact a contest, you do that.”

Pearce added that when it was clear that he wasn’t going to mark the ball at the very last second, he made an action to limit the contact as much as possible, rejecting claims he should have seen his opponent earlier.

“It would not sit well with me if I were to pull out of that contest and not impact it,” the Fremantle skipper said.

“The way that would look and the way my teammates would see it, and to be honest, the way the broader football public would view me as a footballer.”

Byrne-Jones was running with the flight of the ball when Pearce cannoned into him, and was soon subbed out of the game with concussion.

Adding to their argument, the Dockers presented that drawing a line with a ruler would show Pearce has “at all times made a line without deviation for the football”; both players equally committed to gaining possession, and the real blow came when Byrne-Jones’ head hit the ground.

The incident was assessed as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact, and the AFL suggested that he could have slowed his momentum much earlier or elected not to leave the ground.

Representing the AFL, Sally Flynn argued that it was reasonably foreseeable that he would be committing a reportable offence, and it was inevitable that Pearce was going to be second to that contest.

The Tribunal deliberated for over half an hour before dismissing the charges, allowing him to play this weekend.

“It is not and never has been the position of the Tribunal, or as far as we can ascertain the MRO, that an outcome of concussion inevitably results in a finding of at least careless conduct,” Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson said.

“Every incident must be, and is, examined and determined on its own facts.”

As part of its reasoning, the panel explained that Pearce’s attempt to mark was entirely realistic – finding it was not rough conduct.

“He had his arms out to attempt to take a chest mark, and if not for Byrne-Jones entering the contest from the opposite direction, would likely have taken the mark,” Gleeson said.

“Byrne-Jones ran back with the flight of the ball. The kick was fairly high, and the players arrived at the ball in roughly opposite directions at almost precisely the same time.

“If a collision results in a concussion to a player, but that collision was not caused or contributed to by a failure by the reported player to take reasonable care, there is no reportable offence.

“Evidence showed that what Pearce did was not to bump Byrne-Jones, rather to move in a way to attempt not to bump him.”

Ever since the MRO charges were handed down on Sunday, this case loomed as another major test of the duty of care a player has to his opponent, and the ongoing issue of head-high contact in the game.

Post-game, his coach Justin Longmuir believed that the incident didn’t even deserve a free kick, and doubled down during a later television interview.

“His view is he’s hard-done by and he’s very disappointed with the result that got handed down,” Longmuir told Fox Footy’s AFL360.

“It’s a really difficult situation both players found themselves in. We ask our players to play the ball.

“I was so strong on it after the game because I didn’t think Alex turned and braced and bumped. Alex, if anything, left himself open on impact.”

While he has sympathy for Byrne-Jones and his injury, Longmuir said the incident was a “footy act”.

“I’m not sure there’s a lot a 200 centimetre guy, running at full pace thinking he’s going to take a chest mark in the wet, is able to do in that situation,” he said.

– with AAP