CORRYONG’S Troy Cooper is free to play against Cudgewa in Saturday’s grand final.
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Represented by Iain Findlay, Cooper had his four-match ban, with two suspended, reduced to one week by the AFL Victoria appeals board on Saturday morning.
Cooper was reported for striking Cudgewa’s Dane Arthur in the dying minutes of last weekend’s second semi-final, which the Blues took out by 38 points.
He missed the Demons’ preliminary-final victory on Saturday but will now be available for the biggest match of the season in a huge boost to their chances.
“Cooper has never been reported in his whole playing career,” Reid said.
“This will more than likely be his last game and he didn’t want to finish his career with his name tarnished by an unsavoury incident.
“So the club decided to fight the decision and went straight to the top and spoke to Iain Findlay.
“We fought to get the hearing on Saturday in the hope he could play against Bullioh.
“That wasn’t the case and if we had lost on Saturday it would have made the loss twice as hard to deal with considering the work we did to try and clear his name.”