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AAP
Sport
Steve Larkin and Shayne Hope

Adelaide appeal against McAdam's three-game suspension

Adelaide have launched an appeal against a three-game suspension for Shane McAdam. (Matt Turner/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Adelaide will appeal the three-match ban given to forward Shane McAdam as AFL great Michael Voss declares the bump officially dead.

Carlton coach Voss says the McAdam verdict leaves the AFL world in no doubt.

"The bump is well and truly done," Voss told reporters on Wednesday.

"What has come out in the wash in the last 48 hours ... if you've got a choice to tackle or bump, then you've got no choice but to choose the tackle."

As the fallout continues from the first-round flashpoint, the Crows on Wednesday morning were quick to lodge an appeal with the AFL after McAdam expressed disappointment at his three-match suspension.

McAdam was banned for rough conduct for his bump on GWS' Jacob Wehr. An appeal hearing is likely on Thursday evening.

"Shane is alright ... he's a good lad and everyone is getting around him," Crows teammate Izak Rankine told reporters on Wednesday.

"We all know what we can and can't do ... we understand that if you choose to bump, you have got to do it fairly."

McAdam's ban follows a two-game suspension for Melbourne's Kysaiah Pickett for a similar bump which felled Western Bulldog Bailey Smith.

The Crows, in their defence of McAdam at Tuesday night's tribunal hearing, used video of Pickett's hit.

The star Demon accepted a ban and avoided a tribunal hearing, with his bump graded by match review officer Michael Christian on a lower scale than McAdam's.

Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson, when announcing McAdam's ban, noted the Pickett bump.

"There appears to be a slightly more glancing aspect to the impact than occurred here," he said.

"If we are wrong about that, we note that the guidelines say that we are not bound by the examples.

"And it ought not be assumed that we would necessarily grade impact in the Pickett matter as high impact, and not severe."

Adelaide's dual premiership captain Mark Bickley demanded league hierarchy explain "mind-boggling" inconsistency between the cases.

"Two instances happen, almost identical, and we get different results," Bickley told SEN radio.

"I wouldn't be unhappy if Pickett and McAdam got three (games).

"It's really about consistency ... that is the thing that makes everyone put their hands in the air: how can we have inconsistency between things that happened so close together?

"It's mind-boggling."

Adelaide's Tom Duggan QC told the tribunal there was no severe head contact when McAdam chiefly made contact with Wehr's chest and shoulder, dispossessing the Giant of the ball.

"Yes it was a tough bump but ... it was entirely fair," Duggan told the hearing.

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