St Kilda coach Ross Lyon says damage from a "firestorm" around the AFL Tribunal weighs heavily as his club signals an appeal to Lance Collard's suspension.
Collard has been banned for a second time for making a homophobic comment while, separately, Port Adelaide and Zak Butters will appeal a tribunal verdict that the star midfielder abused an umpire.
In both cases, the tribunal delivered guilty findings and rejected evidence from the players who denied making the offensive remarks.
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell labelled the Butters case a "debacle".
"We have the tribunal for a reason, but it's not for every reason," Mitchell told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday,
"There are much better ways we could have handled this, as a competition ... it has been really messy; no-one's winning out of this battle."
His Saints counterpart Lyon said debate around the tribunal and its processes had "lit up".
"It's a firestorm and the AFL is in the middle of it and the processes are in the middle of it," Lyon told reporters in Adelaide.
"All of us from club-land are concerned about our individual players and the stress that they're put through and potential damage to that individual - whether it's Butters or Collard or the people being caught up on the other side of the fence.
"It's very challenging and there's no doubt there's going to be losers and people that are damaged ... that sits really heavily."
Asked if the Saints would appeal Collard's seven-week ban for directing a homophobic slur at an opponent in a VFL game, Lyon replied: "They (Saints officials) are working through, again, the detail in the process, what's possible, what's not.
"But clearly, we'll take it as far as we can. What that looks like, I don't know."
Collard was also banned for six matches in 2024 when he admitted to using the same homophobic slur in a game.
St Kilda have until Saturday to lodge an appeal against the Collard sanction, which was announced on Tuesday - the same day as Butters' controversial tribunal hearing.
The Power's triple club champion was fined $1500 after being found guilty of using abusive and insulting language towards field umpire Nick Foot during Port's clash against St Kilda last Sunday night.
Port believe Butters has been branded a liar by the tribunal, which found it was "implausible that Mr Foot would invent the offending comment".
Foot told the tribunal: "The comment that Butters made to me was 'how much are they paying you? It questioned my integrity."
Butters vehemently denied making that comment.
Brisbane coach Chris Fagan echoed Essendon's Brad Scott in querying how the tribunal reached its decision.
"Given all the noise and clutter that goes on out there (on-field), it's more than possible for a misunderstanding to have occurred," Fagan told reporters in Brisbane.
"Both think they're right. I don't know how you decide when there's no conclusive evidence ... that didn't seem to make any sense to me."
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge, speaking broadly about the tribunal, urged the use of "common sense".
"We have got to protect the umpires but the players also need support as well. We're talking about two cohorts that need to be looked after," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"I don't know how that can happen in this situation. It sounds like both parties are under duress and it's not ideal."
