Tuesday evening’s hearing lasted 30 minutes and the three-man jury of Emmett Dunne, Wayne Henwood and Richard Loveridge took about 10 minutes to find the Melbourne defender guilty.
Given it was Rivers’ first offence, he was fined $2600.
He was not risking a suspension by fighting the charge, but the Demons had hoped to clear his name as they believed the contact between the 24-year-old and umpire Schmitt was accidental.
Replays of the incident showed Rivers alongside Adelaide opponent Myke Cook before a bounce in the Crows’ forward line.
After bouncing the ball, umpire Schmitt backed away from the contest before clipping heels with Rivers, the contact bringing the official to ground.
“As a defender, I just don’t see how I can do anything different to that,” Rivers told the tribunal.
He said he had crossed behind the umpire’s path before the bounce but was to the side of Schmitt when the official began backing out on his path.
“I wasn’t moving in any way towards him,” Rivers said.
“He came into my space.”
Melbourne’s player advocate, Iain Findlay, said the fact no free kick had been paid against Rivers at the time of the incident corroborated the Demons’ view that this was simply an accident.
The AFL’s legal counsel, Jeff Gleeson, said the umpire had backed away from the bounce in a straight line. But he said that even if he had deviated slightly, Rivers was aware of the rules and knew his obligation to show a duty of care to the umpire.
“To say that he [the umpire] might come back in a perfectly straight line is requiring too much of the umpires,” Gleeson said.
Earlier in the day, Port Adelaide backman Troy Chaplin decided to accept a reprimand for striking St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt on Friday night at AAMI Stadium.
The 23-year-old will carry 70.31 demerit points for the next 12 months as a result of his actions.
