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Maister on sidelines pending ban appeal

Beau Maister to be sidelined during WAFL appeal. Lincoln Baker/The West Australian.

Beau Maister will not be able to play for Claremont today despite his appeal against a four-week ban for striking being delayed until Thursday.

The WAFL confirmed yesterday that Maister’s suspension would stand until the appeal was heard.

“The lodgment of an appeal does not affect the original penalty,” a WAFL spokesman said.

Maister was playing his first match for the Tigers in four years when he was found guilty of striking East Fremantle’s Matthew Jupp at ATOM Stadium last Saturday.

Jupp’s jaw was broken in the incident and he is not expected to play for up to two months.

It was the longest WAFL suspension in the five seasons since East Perth duo Pat Travers (six weeks) and Michael Swan (four weeks) were outed in 2010.

Tribunal chairman Trevor O’Sullivan found that Maister’s clash with Jupp comprised intentional conduct, high impact and high contact.

Claremont can contest only the severity of the penalty, rather than the finding.

A reduction to careless conduct and high impact and contact would reduce the ban to two matches under the WAFL’s new penalty matrix.

Maister, who was playing as Beau Wilkes when he won the Simpson Medal in the 2011 grand final in his previous appearance for Claremont, has spent the past three years at St Kilda.

His return to WAFL action was delayed by a bout of golden staph that prevented him completing a full pre-season and kept him out of the teams that lost to Subiaco and South Fremantle.

East Fremantle hope that State defender Tom Howlett will return to the club this month after a change in his work commitments.

The absence of Howlett and Steven Dodd (retirement) meant that Jupp had been the Sharks’ primary tall defender in the opening month of the season.

West Perth’s Marcus Adams is likely to be out of action until June after breaking a hand against Perth in round three.

Coach Bill Monaghan said the extent of Adams’ injury was a surprise after he appeared ready to take on Subiaco last week.

“We were under the impression he was going to be able to play against the Lions, but he came to training late in the week with a splint on his hand,” Monaghan said.