GWS recruit Brid Stack has revealed she was left in tears and “totally disheartened” by the decision to overturn Adelaide star Ebony Marinoff’s record ban after the collision that left Stack with a fractured neck.

Marinoff, who was dealt a three-match ban, had her sanction overturned after a marathon hearing that eventually found the midfielder not guilty of forceful front-on contact.

Stack, writing for the Irish Examiner, explained in vivid detail her reaction to Marinoff’s success in overturning the ban. 

“After sitting down to watch the second half (of the Collingwood-Carlton season opener), the news came up on a strap-line across the bottom of the screen at the end of the third quarter that Marinoff had been cleared. My heart just sank. I broke down in tears,” she wrote.

“Within minutes, my teammate Cora Staunton, Alicia, the team-captain, and our head coach Alan McConnell, were in the apartment, trying to console me. I was beside myself with anger. Disillusionment. I felt so totally disheartened by the outcome.

“My emotions almost felt trapped in this vortex of disbelief because I suddenly felt like a scapegoat. The emotional trauma of dealing with such a serious injury was exacerbated when the blame for what had happened suddenly seemed to be sitting at my door.”

Stack wrote that, although she didn’t want Marinoff to be “hammered” for the incident, she wanted the tribunal to find Marinoff showed no duty of care.

Also in the firing line for Stack was the argument of Adelaide counsel Sam Abbott QC, which suggested Marinoff had attempted to stop her momentum before colliding with Stack and that Stack put herself “in a vulnerable position” by moving directly to pick up the ball.

“To me, it was too easy to blame a ‘rookie’. It may be a different game, but I have played football all my life. I know how to protect myself,” she wrote.

“I’ve played in enough big games to know it’s not chess. But it’s even harder again to take when your character is being questioned by people who don’t know you.”

Stack said she’d been advised another six weeks in a neck-brace will be required and that it could be another six weeks before she’s able to play again, a timeline she hopes to “shave a couple of weeks off”.