Dan Hannebery (Sydney) rough conduct to Michael Hurley (Essendon), round 9 - no charge.
Legitimate attempt to win possession. My instinctive reaction was Hannebery was in trouble, given the hefty blow to Hurley, but closer inspection revealed the ball was legitimately in dispute and the Swan's approach to it was reasonable.

Liam Jones (Western Bulldogs) rough conduct to Dean Terlich (Melbourne), round 8 - 3 matches, reduced to 2.
Looked bad enough for Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney to accept Jones would be sidelined. As Jones kept as low as possible the panel was right to limit conduct grading to negligent.

Jack Viney (Melbourne) rough conduct to Tom Lynch (Adelaide), round 7 - referred to tribunal, escaped penalty.
Panel member Joel Bowden clearly stated its decision to refer Viney to the tribunal was not an indication of guilty or innocence, but that it wanted to use the tribunal's ability to gain ''a full examination of the facts" to come to its decision. Eventually occurred, albeit after Melbourne successfully appealed the adverse tribunal ruling.

Ty Vickery (Richmond) striking Dean Cox (West Coast), round 18 - referred to tribunal, given 4 matches.
The referral to the tribunal was purely procedural, as the table of offences demanded it be done for high strikes of severe impact. The eventual penalty of 495 points after a guilty plea was fair.

Steve Johnson (Geelong) misconduct head contact to Ryan Crowley (Fremantle), round 9 - 1 match, unable to be reduced to reprimand due to bad record.
Like all of Stevie J's actions that draw the scrutiny of the panel, it was minor but silly enough to warrant punishment. Any defence of insufficient impact was undermined by Johnson instinctively rubbing his own head after he pushed it into Crowley's head.

Steele Sidebottom (Collingwood) rough conduct to Maverick Weller (St Kilda), round 11 - 4 matches, reduced to 3.
From the opening bounce Sidebottom, coming from the wing, delivered a blatant blow that forced his opponent's substitution. That he would have served one less week if he had been charged with striking demonstrated a key flaw of the system.

Brendon Goddard (Essendon) rough conduct to Kane Cornes (Port Adelaide), round 16 - 2 matches, reduced to 1.
Essendon reluctantly accepted a ban for Goddard's bump on Cornes just after a goal, but given it was behind play and Cornes was unsuspecting there was no cause for Goddard to be getting away with doing so.

Marc Murphy (Carlton) rough conduct to Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda), round 18 - no charge.
Riewoldt fell to the ground after a heavy blow, but the panel cleverly took more notice of the fact the champion Saint was innocently pushed into the path of Murphy, who did all he could to avoid contact.

THE BAD

Lance Franklin (Sydney) rough conduct to Clay Cameron (Gold Coast) in round 12 - no charge.
Textbook example of a punishable late and high bump - except that the panel somehow forgot the textbook existed. It was not a hanging offence - on its own it could have been reduced to a reprimand - but the sparing of Franklin was fed the conspiracy theory that elite players get special treatment.

Daniel Merrett (Brisbane Lions) rough conduct to Cam Pedersen (Melbourne), round 19 - no charge.
The panel's argument the spoil was legitimate because Merrett touched the ball just before his elbow smashed Pedersen's nose was absurd. The Lions' defender jumped after the ball was in his opponent's hands - by that stage he no longer had a legitimate chance to spoil, but did it anyway.

Reece Conca (Richmond) striking Devon Smith (Greater Western Sydney), round 19 - 3 matches reduced to 2.
The panel has the ability to inflate the impact classification for strikes that are inherently dangerous. It should have either done that or, due to the unusually deliberate nature of the strike (Conca took nine running strides to deliver the blow), sent it to the tribunal once the points calculator produced an insufficient penalty.

Darren Glass (West Coast) rough conduct to Chad Wingard (Port Adelaide), round 5 - 1 match, unable to be reduced to reprimand due to bad record.
As Wingard sat under a high mark the then Eagles captain completely ignored the falling ball to charge directly into his opponent. Allowing Glass to escape with a classification of low impact, just because the Port Adelaide player was lucky enough to escape injury, was absurd.

Tom Murphy (Gold Coast) misconduct kneeing Jake Stringer (Western Bulldogs), round 17 - 2 matches reduced to 1.
The former Hawthorn defender was standing on the outside of a pack when he blatantly dropped his knee into Stringer and then fell on him too. Even though increasing the impact grading from low to medium would have still allowed Murphy to serve only one match, due to his good record, the symbolism of doing so would have been worthwhile.

Adam Goodes (Sydney) rough conduct to Joel Selwood (Geelong), round 11 - not charged.
Not quite as baffling as the sparing of Franklin, but not far behind. As Selwood stretched high to tap a ball away from goal Goodes jumped into him and made contact with his upper arm to his opponent's head. That he escaped charge due to lack of impact was seemingly helped by the tough-as-teak Selwood getting up off the turf with little remonstration.

Clinton Young (Collingwood) rough conduct to Paul Chapman (Essendon), round 6 - 1 match reduced to reprimand.
Both players jumped while the ball was in the air. That Young only turned his body once it was clear Chapman would get the ball just ahead of him should have been enough to escape penalty. Instead, he was saddled with 93.75 carry-over points because Collingwood declined to risk a one-match ban.

Daniel Merrett (Brisbane Lions) striking David Swallow (Gold Coast), round 3 - 3 matches reduced to 2.
Swallow had just delivered a handball when his face was met by the elbow of Merrett coming from the other direction. The strike was rightfully deemed intentional but should have been rated higher than medium impact, or sent to the tribunal, due to the legitimate potential for serious injury from a low like Merrett's.

THE CONTENTIOUS

Nat Fyfe (Fremantle) rough conduct to Michael Rischitelli (Gold Coast), round 2 - 2 matches, unable to be reduced to 1 due to bad record.
It was not malicious and it was not dirty - but under rules clearly defined before the season it was a punishable offence. Fyfe's choice to bump, instead of attempting to tackle or smother, made him liable for the consequences of the head clash which hurt both players. Tough but correct call by the panel.

Hayden Ballantyne (Fremantle) rough conduct to Matt Jaensch (Adelaide), round 12 - referred to tribunal.
When Ballantyne ran across the line of opponent Jaensch to deliver a bump the panel referred it to the tribunal because the Docker's bad record would have triggered an overly harsh penalty. While probably fair enough, why does it not do so in other cases, especially when points-determined punishments are too lenient?

Gary Ablett (Gold Coast) striking Liam Picken (Western Bulldogs), round 10 - not charged.
Ablett was clearly fortunate to avoid penalty for throwing his elbow back into an opponent renowned for his tenacious tagging - but that does not mean the decision was wrong. Given the side-on footage was grainy, the behind-the-goals footage was obscured and helpful evidence from Liam Picken, the panel was entitled to give the then raging Brownlow Medal favourite the benefit of the doubt.

Lindsay Thomas (North Melbourne) misconduct by staging, round 19 - not charged.
The panel has got to shed its belief a player should only be charged with staging for feigning contact, rather than exaggerating contact. Thomas was entitled to a free-kick even before he comically propelled himself forward after trifling contact from Geelong's James Kelly, but that should not have absolved him of blame. It was an indictment on the panel that Thomas' coach showed more good judgment, in criticising the player, than it did.