ESSENDON stalwart Dylan Shiel has been banned for one game for rough conduct in an AFL Tribunal test case which has split opinion.

And Adelaide's Rory Laird has lost his Tribunal challenge and is suspended for Saturday night's blockbuster against Collingwood.

In Shiel's polarising case, the Tribunal took almost two hours to reach a verdict - twice as long as the hearing for his unusual charge relating to an incident that felled a teammate.

The Bombers veteran pushed Geelong's Mark O'Connor, causing the Cat to collide with Shiel's teammate Luamon Lual.

After a 66-minute hearing, the Tribunal returned 113 minutes later with its decision to suspend Shiel for one match.

"This case is a little out of the ordinary," AFL counsel Nick Pane KC said, conceding the charge "doesn't fit neatly" in the League's gradings.

Shiel's counsel Ben Ihle KC said the charge was an over-reach.

"It is clear, in our submission, that the intention (of laws) is the protection of opposition players," Ihle said.

"And therefore the invitation that the AFL has extended to the Tribunal to look beyond O'Connor, and look at the incidental consequences by Shiel's conduct to another player, is misconceived.

"Not only does it not fit neatly, to use Mr Pane's words ... this is a situation that rules do not cover."

Shiel said he intended to mark or, at worst, protect the drop zone of an incoming ball.

"After I contested and got the ground ball, I was quite shocked to see another teammate on the ground," Shiel said.

"I didn't know how he got there."

Lual flipped spectacularly and landed awkwardly on his neck and shoulder, but after being assessed by medicos, returned before being substituted.

Tribunal chair Renee Enbom said the force of Shiel's push on O'Connor was "unreasonable".

"It was not conduct that a reasonable player would consider prudent," she said.

"Shiel breached his duty of care."

Essendon coach Brad Scott, previously the head of AFL football operations, earlier on Tuesday said the Bombers had copped a "triple whammy" of punishment: a free kick against, Lual's injury and a Tribunal case.

"We have been penalised three times without the opposition actually being the victim, as far as I can see," he told reporters before the hearing.

And Adelaide's Laird was banned for one game after failing to beat his rough conduct charge stemming from a collision with West Coast's Jamie Cripps.

His counsel Andrew Culshaw said Laird didn't bump but "this was an attempt to push an opposing player which has gone wrong".

But the Tribunal differed.

"We find that Laird did bump his opponent and, in doing so, he made high contact," Enbom said.