Rowell cleared but is mature-age Demon in strife again?
Melbourne's mature-age recruit Aidan Johnson could be suspended for the second time in his five-match AFL career after unleashing a brutal bump, but Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell's match-day report was thrown out.
Johnson leapt up and elected to bump as Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera got a rushed kick away in St Kilda's upset 28-point win over Melbourne on Sunday.
Wanganeen-Milera missed most of the second term while he was assessed for concussion, but he was eventually cleared to return and finished with 29 disposals and 795m gained in a standout display.
Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera came from the ground following this incident.#AFLDeesSaints pic.twitter.com/AcblOwrNu4
— AFL (@AFL) June 1, 2025
"I just wanted to come back and play my role, and it was good to get the win," Wanganeen-Milera told Channel 7 after the match.
Johnson was selected by Melbourne with pick No.68 in last year's national draft.
The 25-year-old was suspended after his debut match in round one for a spearing tackle on GWS forward Callum Brown, and the fact his bump on Sunday got his opponent in the head could spell bad news for him.
Meanwhile, Rowell was cleared of any wrongdoing for his glancing jab to the face of Fremantle's Neil Erasmus.
Rebounding defender Daniel Rioli also had no case to answer for an incident in which he rushed in and caught Andrew Brayshaw high in the dying moments of Fremantle's 11-point win.
Dockers forward Jye Amiss was fined $3000, reduced to $2000 with an early guilty plea, for striking Sam Collins.
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It could be the memories of a grandparent who introduced someone to a club in the first place or, for Day, of his late father, who was always at the end of the phone to discuss the Palace match afterwards. 'Everyone I spoke to on that Saturday evening had someone they wished they could have called,' he says. 'There must have been about three million Palace fans looking down from heaven. 'On a serious note, though, I do wonder whether all the posters put up in pubs in south London over the last five years, about how it's alright to talk, have actually had a positive impact and that this generation of men do think it's alright to show their emotions. Maybe that message is finally getting through. 'Or maybe it's just any group of men where something happens that they've waited 120 years for, finally happens. I don't know. 'But I'm starting to get goosebumps thinking about it all again now.' (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Manan Vatsyayana/AFP, Odd Andersen, Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
