{"id":460153,"date":"2025-07-24T00:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T00:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=460153"},"modified":"2025-07-24T04:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:19:08","slug":"used-to-be-outraged-lloyd-predicts-may-bump-ban-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=460153","title":{"rendered":"'Used to be outraged': Lloyd predicts May bump ban appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd<\/a> has conceded that Steven May<\/a>'s three-match suspension for his contentious bump on Carlton's Francis Evans<\/a> is standard in today's game.<\/p>\n

Following a \ufefflengthy deliberation by the AFL tribunal<\/a> on Wednesday night, May received a three-match ban for the nasty incident that left Evans bloodied and resulted in him being substituted out of the match at the MCG on Saturday.<\/p>\n

With May suspended based on outcome rather than intent, Lloyd believed Melbourne<\/a> would appeal this week.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine's Today<\/em>, \ufeffLloyd admitted that he was not surprised by the decision.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt's been [the case] for years now that if you execute a bump of any kind, whether it's accidental or not, and you hit someone in the head," he said.<\/p>\n

"[Francis] had his teeth knocked out, a broken nose."<\/p>\n

Lloyd added: "I've got my head around the fact now. I used to be outraged a year or two ago, but I'm not anymore. I just expect that players will now be suspended."<\/p>\n

May was referred straight to the tribunal for the hit.<\/p>\n

The MRO deemed the incident careless with severe impact and high contract, with the Demons entering a plea of not guilty and claiming it was "not unreasonable".\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Experts<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the AFL argued that May had breached the "duty of care" and should have been able to "change his momentum or trajectory" before colliding with the Blues player.<\/p>\n

Melbourne also attempted to use a text message exchange \ufeffbetween May and Evans as part of their evidence, which the AFL sought to have dismissed due to late submission.<\/p>\n

After an hour and 40 minutes of deliberation, May's suspension was upheld. \ufeff<\/p>\n

With the speed of the modern game, Lloyd accepted that it was difficult for May to avoid head-high.<\/p>\n

"The tribunal said that he needed to slow down or change direction," he said.<\/p>\n

"You can't do that as a footballer, but I just know with concussion and where it has got to with lawsuits against the game, that players will get suspended more than not.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"When you're fully committing, it's a split-second decision; you have to try and get lower.<\/p>\n

"He was going for the football\ufeff, and he saw it late. He had to pull out [but] got Frankie Evans in the head.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Straight away, I knew he would get three weeks with where the game is going."<\/p>\n

May is now ruled out of Melbourne's upcoming fixtures against St Kilda, West Coast and the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

The premiership-winning defender gave evidence at the tribunal, \ufeffclaiming he believed he was "going to get to the ball first" and couldn't pull out of contact with Evans.<\/p>\n

"I just can't believe I didn't take possession," May said at the hearing.<\/p>\n

"I thought I did everything right, so I'm just a bit shocked."<\/p>\n

With these sorts of punishments affecting more players than ever before, Lloyd recalled\ufeff a moment in his career when he needed to "slow up" to avoid suspension.<\/p>\n

"At one stage in my career, I just opened myself up and Chris Judd and I both got knocked out because I knew if I hit him in the head, I'd be suspended as well.<\/p>\n

"So, it's unfortunate that \ufeffyou realise that with the bump, you've just got to try not to bump at all anymore."<\/p>\n

In the initial aftermath of the incident, Essendon great James Hird sympathised with May and claimed that five years ago, he would not have been banned for the same act.<\/p>\n

"I feel for Steven May – this is a really difficult one," he told Nine's Sunday Footy Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"I don't think he has gone out on purpose to hurt anybody.<\/p>\n

"Five years ago, it wouldn't have got weeks. But the rules have changed, and unfortunately for him, his shoulder gets him in the head."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Having suffered a head injury, Evans is in the league's concussion protocols. He can return in round 21 at the earliest.<\/p>\n

May will likely return to the Demons line-up for the \ufeffclash with Hawthorn on August 16. Melbourne is highly unlikely to play finals footy this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd has conceded that Steven May's three-match suspension for his contentious bump on Carlton's Francis Evans is standard in today's game. Following […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":460157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=460153"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460162,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460153\/revisions\/460162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/460157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=460153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=460153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=460153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}