Western Bulldogs skipper Katie Brennan is faced with the shattering prospect of missing the AFLW grand final, but the Dogs will pull out all stops to ensure that doesn't happen.
The club will announce on Tuesday whether or not they go to the tribunal to fight a rough conduct charge levelled at Brennan but it can be safely assumed they will.
Brennan was charged over a sling tackle on Harriet Cordner during the Dogs' tense win over Melbourne on Saturday night.
Cordner was shaken but able to play out the game after she was awarded a free kick.
But AFL match review officer Michael Christian offered Brennan a one-game ban with an early guilty plea, which would see her miss Saturday's decider against the Brisbane Lions at Ikon Park.
An admittedly nervous Brennan spoke to reporters at Whitten Oval before Christian handed down his verdict on Monday afternoon.
"It would be absolutely devastating ... but what's done is done," Brennan said of the prospect of missing her side's first-ever grand final.
"On review, it was a really heated contest and there were an enormous amount of tackles out there. It was our game plan to apply a lot of pressure ... it's what we pride ourselves on as forwards.
"It was an accident and I apologised to Harriet."
Christian, who fully expects the club to take their case to the tribunal on Tuesday evening, took a different view.
He assessed the fourth-quarter incident at Whitten Oval as careless conduct with low impact to the head.
The offence would have drawn a reprimand on its own but it was Brennan's second classifiable offence of the season, which increased the penalty.
"You're aware, obviously, of the implications but focused on trying to do the right thing," Christian said of his decision-making process.
"My job is to look at the guidelines and assess each incident on its merits and to come up with a determination of what I think is the fairest thing
"I've taken those guidelines and ignored the significance of it because my job is to uphold the guidelines and the rules. That's what I think I've done in this situation.
"No one likes to see anyone miss a grand final but my job is to uphold the rules and the guidelines and in this particular case I think Katie breached those guidelines."
Brennan received a reprimand for a dangerous tackle on Fremantle's Stephanie Cain in round one.
She risks a two-match ban if she is unsuccessful at the tribunal.
Fremantle's Ashlee Atkins was the only other player to be offered a ban from the final round of the season. She can accept a one-match suspension for rough conduct on Carlton's Shae Audley.
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