Fremantle announced they would take Nat Fyfe's striking charge to the AFL tribunal almost before Michael Christian finished telling the world he had slapped him with a one-game ban.
The Dockers had until 1100 (AEST) on Tuesday to launch an appeal, but felt so strongly about Fyfe's case that they did so an hour after the sanction was made public.
The Fremantle captain will head to the tribunal on Tuesday night with his hopes of securing a second Brownlow Medal hanging by a thread.
The AFL match review officer assessed Fyfe's crude forearm to the head of Collingwood's Levi Greenwood as intentional contact with low impact to the head.
Unless Fyfe is able to have the sanction overturned at the tribunal he will be ineligible for a second Brownlow Medal, having previously won the award in 2015.
"A raised forearm or elbow is usually conclusive that it is intentional," Christian told reporters on Monday.
"The ball goes over Nat's head, he runs at Greenwood, jumps off the ground and raises his forearm and makes forceful contact to Levi's head.
"Weighing up all the guidelines and rules around intentional versus careless, based on the overriding principle that a raised forearm is usually conclusive that a strike was intentional, (that) was how we graded it."
A finding of careless conduct with low impact to the head would have resulted in a fine, which would not have ruled Fyfe out of Brownlow contention.
The 26-year-old had been sitting atop the Brownlow Medal betting charts having averaged just more than 30 possessions across 11 games and booted eight goals this season.
Fremantle will be docked $10,000 if the challenge is unsuccessful.
Fyfe was ineligible for the 2014 Brownlow because of suspension.
"I'm just trying to judge each incident on its merits," Christian replied when asked about assessing incidents involving Brownlow Medal favourites.
"(To) forget about the names of the players involved to try to make an assessment as best we can."
Meantime, North Melbourne youngster Jy Simpkin was issued with a two-match ban for rough conduct following an incident that left Brisbane onballer Allan Christensen concussed.
Richmond defender Alex Rance was fined $1000 for staging for a free kick in Saturday night's Dreamtime at the 'G encounter against Essendon.
"If you excessively exaggerate in an unsportsmanlike manner that may affect an umpire's decision then it's deemed as staging," Christian said.
"In this particular case, there was only minimal contact by (Shaun) McKernan and Alex excessively exaggerated that contact.
"He was paid a free kick and I believe it fit into the provisions of staging."
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