Richmond's injured attacking ace Tom Lynch will miss at least three months as his coach expressed surprise the spearhead was cited by the AFL.
Lynch, sidelined by a foot injury, was charged with rough conduct by match review officer Michael Christian and sent directly to the AFL tribunal.
That ruling suggested at least a three-match ban for the star Tiger, but he was cleared at a tribunal hearing on Tuesday night.
"There's three certainties in life, death, taxes and Tom Lynch going to the tribunal," Richmond coach Damien Hardwick told reporters on Thursday.
"Sometimes you harshly judge the guy. He is a combative person, we understand that.
"We love the way he plays the game and every now and then it's going to be line-ball.
"What we do have to understand is the game is played at breakneck speed and there are going to be accidents ... mistakes are going to happen."
Lynch was charged after colliding with Western Bulldog Alex Keath, who was concussed in the incident during last weekend's game.
Hardwick, asked if he was surprised Lynch was charged, said: "Yes, I was.
"What we have got to look at is players have to make split-second decisions," Hardwick said.
"He (Lynch) doesn't go into that contest thinking I am going to iron out Alex Keath.
"He goes in to mark, misjudges the ball and then he has got to protect himself.
"So a reasonable person test, 99 people out of 100 would probably do what Tom did."
Hardwick said there was some confusion between what constituted a reportable offence and what didn't but stopped short of criticising Christian.
"The challenges will always be there," he said.
"We will be talking about this today, we will be talking about this for the next three or four years as well.
"It's always a hard job for Chrisso (Christian) to do and he's going to get some right and he's going to get some wrong."
