North Melbourne’s star ruckman, Tristian Xerri, will have to wait to find out his fate after knocking out Melbourne player Tom Sparrow in yesterday's loss.
North Melbourne lost to Melbourne by 36 points yesterday at the MCG, but it was in the final eight minutes of the game where the main talking point came from.
The ball was thrown in the Kangaroos' forward pocket when Xerri collected Sparrow high with a swinging arm, which saw Sparrow knocked out before he hit the ground in ugly scenes at the MCG. Melbourne players immediately remonstrated with Xerri as spotfires broke out.
The hit could be classified as gradings of careless conduct, high contact, and severe impact based on MRO guidelines, which would net a suspension of at least three matches and a potential visit to the tribunal
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North Melbourne coach Alistair Clarkson defended his ruckman in the post-match press conference, explaining it was a split-second reaction.
“When it’s a competitive game of footy and there’s a lot of numbers around the ball, sometimes accidents like that are going to happen,” Clarkson explained.
“Our view is that there was every intent on big X (Xerri) trying to lay the tackle and just didn’t have enough time to lay it in the correct manner.”
Tom Sparrow came from the ground following this incident involving Tristan Xerri.#AFLDeesNorth pic.twitter.com/4LE1poUwDp
— AFL (@AFL) July 13, 2025
Opposing ruckman and Melbourne captain Max Gawn said he understood what Xerri was trying to do after the ruck contest, but he thought it was high.
“I haven’t seen any vision of it since. Xerri, I know as a ruck, he’s following up as hard as he can, and he’s the best in the comp at doing it, so there’s definitely an element of that,” Gawn told Fox Footy in an interview after the game.
St Kilda champion and footy analyst Leigh Montana has added that although Xerri’s hit was high, he could claim it was accidental, not careless which would help him with the MRO.
“We’ve spoken about this — just because a player gets concussed, doesn’t automatically mean you have to suspend a player. There has to be a careless act, and if you look at that, it’s just a split-second, trying to slap the ball out, trying to make a tackle, and he gets him high,” Montana said on Fox Footy’s First Crack program.
Xerri will find out his fate on Monday when MRO releases its findings from the game.