The Gold Coast's Steven May will serve a three-match suspension after the AFL tribunal rejected his argument he had no alternative to bumping Brisbane's Tom Rockliff.
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The Lions' captain was knocked out by the bump in the jaw, as he and May chased the ball close to Brisbane's goal at the weekend.
The AFL's match review panel had offered May a two-match penalty if he accepted he had done the wrong thing, but he chose to go to the tribunal to defend himself.
The case came down to two elements – whether May was contesting the ball, and whether he had a realistic alternative to bumping Rockcliff.
Tribunal counsel Jeff Gleeson QC said May was far enough away from the ball at the time for it to be considered in contest.
In a sense all of the players on the ground were contesting the ball, so a line had to be drawn on what could be considered a fair distance, Gleeson said.
"The further you get away from the ball, the further you get away from the defence of contesting the ball," he said.
After that he was in some ways unlucky - 10 years ago May's contact would have constituted a "textbook bump", Gleeson said.
But May could have bent down to scoop up the ball, a clear alternative to bumping Rockcliff out of the way, and that made his action illegal.
Just because bumping Rockcliff was May's preferred way of contesting the ball, it did not mean it was his only option, Gleeson said.
May's counsel Tony Burns said the ball was clearly in play, because May picked it up half a second later.
The player had no alternative but to apply the bump, Burns argued; he could not slide into Rockcliff because that would take his legs out from under him and he could not tackle him because he did not have the ball.
Appearing via video link, May said Rockcliff had been running into an open goal so he left his direct opponent to go and help stop it.
"Tom looked like he was going to soccer it or pick it up," he said.
"I could not have got to the ball before him unless I dived, and that could have been a free kick."
After deliberating for 18 minutes, longer than in many cases, jurors Richard Loveridge, Wayne Henwood and Shane Wakelin found May had been contesting the ball, but he did have an alternative to the bump.
He will miss the opportunity to be selected against Adelaide, West Coast and Collingwood.
After beating Brisbane, their first win of the season, the Suns were already set to be without three key players when they take on Adelaide.
