ROBBIE GRAY has been found guilty of rough conduct and will miss Port Adelaide’s Round 1 clash against Fremantle through suspension.

Gray faced the AFL tribunal after the club challenged the MRP’s charge of rough conduct against Eagle Jeremy McGovern in the first term of Port Adelaide’s JLT clash against West Coast.

Port Adelaide’s counsel, Mark Griffin QC, argued Gray was contesting the ball, but withdrew from the contest in an “evasive, protective manoeuvre once it became clear he would not get to the ball first.”

“Rather than commit a ridiculously dangerous move, which would have been completely reckless, he did all he reasonably could to avoid what was an inevitable contact, to make it less severe,” Griffin told the tribunal.

Gray also gave evidence that his actions were aimed at reducing the impact of the collision.

“I had every intention of winning the footy – and I thought I would,” he said.

“In the last couple of steps I saw [Mcgovern] out the corner of my eye, flying in - that’s when I made my decision. I had to make a judgement on whether I was going to win the footy, or he was. I thought he was going to get his hands to the footy first.

“I tried to slow down, I braced, brought my arm in, tried to protect myself, and tried to minimise contact between the both of us"

Mr Griffin also presented video evidence demonstrating that Gray slowed down as he approached the contest while McGovern accelerated.

The AFL’s counsel, Andrew Woods, argued that Gray had options to avoid the collision such as moving in the opposite direction, and that his action was a bump, not a brace.

“A brace is more to do with protecting one’s self from impact, where a person who is about to receive that impact is stationary, or close to stationary,” Woods argued.

“This is more of a bump; where the relevant person – the cause of impact - is the cause, not the subject of the impact.”

The jury concluded the Gray’s contact was a bump, and that he was not contesting the ball when the contact occurred.

The suspension was upheld, leaving Gray unavailable for selection in Port Adelaide’s Round 1 clash against Fremantle on March 24.