IT'S BEEN a great night for the AFL's power forwards with Harry McKay and Tom Lynch both successfully having their cases dismissed by the Tribunal.

McKay will line up for Carlton on Thursday night against Adelaide after having his one-match ban for striking Harry Sheezel downgraded to a fine, while Lynch is also available for Richmond after his rough conduct charge against Alex Keath was dropped.

Although Lynch has a foot injury and can't play for the immediate future, the dismissal of his charge is great for his playing record.

BLOG RECAP All the action as Blues forward, Tiger learn fate

McKay kicked off the marathon night – that lasted more than four hours in total – by successfully arguing his charge down from medium to low impact.

Tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said there was two main reasons for the downgrade.

Firstly, he said McKay did all he could to reduce the force of impact on the first-year Kangaroo.

"Not only did McKay not move in such a way at the moment of impact to increase the force, he slides up to make it a more glancing impact," Gleeson said.

"He separates his arms … in a way that appears to demonstrate an attempt to reduce the force of impact.

"This movement reduces the potential for injury. We don't consider, in the end, this impact had real potential for a head injury."

Gleeson then referenced a case in 2021 between Brisbane's Rhys Mathieson and Melbourne's Kysaiah Pickett that was raised during the hearing, in which Mathieson had his swinging arm graded as low impact.

"We have some difficulty in finding the actual and potential impact here was meaningfully worse than in Mathieson's (case)," he said.

"When combined with the minimising impact issue we described previously, it is sufficient for us to find that the impact was low."

McKay gave evidence and argued he did not strike Sheezel, but rather pushed him in an attempt to put pressure on the teenager by hitting his left arm to alter the direction of his kick.

The Carlton forward said his team is instructed to push with a forearm, rather than a hand, if they're not close enough to tackle because it's a greater surface area to get to the opponent with and potentially affect the kick.

Although the Tribunal found McKay did strike, not push, Sheezel, he was able to successfully argue on impact.

His counsel Peter O'Farrell called on three previous cases, including Charlie Ballard's incident with Matt Guelfi just two weeks ago, which saw the Gold Coast defender also walk away with a fine rather than a suspension.

They also recalled the incident involving Mathieson and Pickett, along with another from 2022 involving Marlion Pickett and Brandon Starcevich, where the Tiger was graded with medium impact.

"We think McKay is less culpable than Ballard and Mathieson, which were both graded as low (impact). He's certainly no worse."

And ultimately, the Tribunal agreed.

As it did with Lynch in his case after he was referred directly to the Tribunal for rough conduct and was staring down the barrel of a possible three-week-plus suspension.

The AFL argued Richmond's forward made a decision to "bump", but Lynch said he was simply bracing for contact.

Lynch said he had his eyes on the ball and once he realised he misjudged the flight of it, rotated his body to brace for contact.

"What possible time did Lynch have to make that decision to bump someone?," his counsel Sam Tovey asked.

"Keath moves some distance laterally. Lynch is fixated on the ball. Lynch is faced with an extremely difficult situation – take the inevitable front-on contact from Keath or turn and brace for that impact?

"Tom Lynch hasn't chosen this situation – it's a situation that came to him that was completely unexpected."

After a relatively short deliberation, Tribunal chairman Gleeson sided with Lynch, saying he did not bump or engage in rough conduct.

"We find that Lynch intended to fly for the mark, realised he had misjudged it, saw a Bulldogs player in his peripheral vision and rotated and braced for contact.

"Lynch did not have clenched fists, did not follow through with force and tends to pull his body in in a way consistent with a brace for contact and not a bump."