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The AFL has moved to confirm that former Hawthorn star Brad Sewell was not one of the three members of the match review panel that deliberated on the Luke Hodge incident from Friday night.
As expected, Hodge was given the all clear on Monday by the panel for the minor contact between he and Adelaide's Brodie Smith in an incident arising from the semi-final at the MCG.
Although it was highly likely Hodge would not be sanctioned for his part in the collision, there was potential sensitivity around Sewell judging the case given a comment he made, albeit it in a jocular fashion, on Channel Seven's AFL GameDay program on Sunday.
It was put to Sewell that the contact between his former teammate Hodge and Smith was not worthy of punishment and Sewell replied: "I think you hit the nail on the head."
The harmless comment had the potential to raise eyebrows given the AFL was forced to ask fellow panel member Nathan Burke not to adjudicate on an incident – involving Brownlow Medal favourite Nat Fyfe in round 21 – after Burke commented on the potential assessment of the incident before the panel had convened.
The AFL said the fact Sewell did not judge the Hodge incident had nothing to do with his comments on TV, making it different from the Burke situation last month.
Instead, the AFL said Sewell did not judge the Hodge incident purely because it was his turn to sit out in the three-member "rotational" policy the panel implements with its four members – the other panel members being Michael Christian and Luke Ball.
Burke was criticised for the comments he made before the Fyfe decision, with several leading industry voices calling it a conflict of interest. The Fyfe case was high profile given an adverse outcome could have cost him a chance of winning the Brownlow.