HAWK Jordan Lewis is free to play in Saturday night’s clash with Collingwood after being found not guilty by the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night.

Despite Lewis admitting he had delivered a punch to the stomach of North Melbourne midfielder Michael Firrito, the Hawks successfully argued the force of the strike was “not more than negligible”.

The AFL’s match review panel had cited Lewis following his team’s win over the Kangaroos at Aurora Stadium on Sunday.

Lewis was risking nothing by taking his case to the tribunal, as the MRP had offered him a one-match ban earlier in the week.

Tuesday night’s hearing by the tribunal lasted about 25 minutes and for most of that time Lewis had agreed with the League’s legal counsel Andrew Tinney when he said the strike was “unreasonable and unnecessary” in the circumstances.

However, after deliberating for about five minutes, the three-man jury of Emmett Dunne, Wayne Henwood and Richard Loveridge returned with their not guilty verdict.

And it was a relieved Hawk who left the tribunal.

“I’m very happy,” Lewis said after the hearing. “Obviously [there were] no excuses for what I did … the force wasn’t too hard and I’m very lucky to get off.”

When Tinney questioned Lewis about his scuffle with Firrito, Lewis admitted he had tried to remonstrate but had been “silly”.

“I’ve probably got no excuses,” Lewis said.

The Hawk then went on to agree with basically every suggestion put forward by the AFL’s legal counsel.

He agreed that he had been annoyed just prior to striking his opponent, that he couldn’t punch an opponent when he felt like it and also replied “yes” when asked whether there must have been sufficient force for Firrito to react in the manner he did.

While the Kangaroo did not go to ground, he briefly held his stomach before turning to umpire Michael Vozzo – who had just paid a free kick to the Hawthorn player. The free kick was not reversed, nor was Lewis reported on the day.

Lewis did not believe the force was severe, however.

“You probably get four or five of those a game … the degree of impact was soft, I thought,” he said.

In wrapping up, tribunal chairman David Jones praised Lewis for being “commendably frank” with his evidence.