Tristan Xerri: North Melbourne ruckman handed ban for wiping blood on Essendon defender Andrew McGrath

North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri will miss three games after being suspended for wiping blood on Essendon defender Andrew McGrath on Saturday.

Xerri was sent straight to the Tribunal, and despite North Melbourne pressing for a two-week ban, the AFL successfully argued for a three-week ban at Monday evening’s sitting.

It means the big man will miss clashes with Carlton, Brisbane and Richmond before a likely return against the Giants.

Xerri pled guilty to the act, which came in the first half of North Melbourne’s 12-point victory on Saturday night as tempers boiled over.

After giving away double 50-metre penalties, Xerri found himself still kicking a goal at the other end after Essendon turned the ball over and were burned on the counter.

After kicking the goal, Xerri was knocked to the turf and given a bloody nose by an elbow from Essendon’s Archie Roberts after McGrath had bumped into him.

After rising, the North big man was caught clearly on the broadcast, wiping his bloody nose and then applying the discharge on McGrath’s face.

The Match Review Officer deemed there were no clear guidelines for him to assess the incident, so he sent it straight to the Tribunal.

During the hearing, Xerri didn’t attempt to defend his actions, instead apologising and revealing the background that led to the incident.

“I was quite displeased with the names I was being called ... I was getting called an ‘f’ing c-word’, a ‘flopping c-word’,” he said.

“It’s not right what I did. I’m sorry, and I sincerely apologise for that.

“There’s no excuse, mate. It’s a poor look, and I had a brain fade. It wasn’t my intention to get the blood to put on his face. I was defending myself, and in that moment, I just had a brain fade and did what I did. I know better. I should’ve done better.”

Xerri also confirmed he called McGrath the next morning to apologise.

However, the Tribunal described his behaviour as “disgraceful” and said that while the ruckman owning up and expressing remorse was to his credit, the misconduct was too serious to consider a lesser penalty.

“The intentional act of wiping blood from your nose onto the face of another player is disgraceful behaviour,” Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson KC said.

“It is of some significance that Xerri admitted that there was blood on his hand, despite the fact that the vision did not clearly show this to be the case.

“We also note that Xerri took it upon himself to speak to his doctor about the medical aspects of his conduct. In the end, however, we are of the view that this serious misconduct warrants a suspension of three matches.

“We note finally that, if not for Xerri’s early plea and his impressive, candid and remorseful evidence, we may have considered a sanction of more than three weeks was appropriate.”

The most comparable incident to Xerri on Saturday came in 2002 when Collingwood star Nathan Buckley was given a week’s suspension for wiping blood on Geelong tagger Cameron Ling’s jumper in a bid to get him sent off the ground with the blood.