Lawyers for convicted "one-punch" attacker Levi Freeman-Quay say enlarged CCTV footage shows another man could have delivered the offending blow.
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The Albury Thunder player was found guilty of assaulting Matt Pridham in 2013 and sentenced to nine months prison last year.
Freeman-Quay, who returned to the ACT Supreme Court for an appeal on Monday, has been out on bail since late last year.
Mr Pridham, who spent weeks in hospital after the drunken brawl on Canberra’s Bunda Street, will live with brain damage for life. Clicking frame-by-frame, Freeman-Quay's defence barrister David Dalton said where Freeman-Quay can be seen to throw a punch, Mr Pridham was obstructed by another man.
He said both Freeman-Quay and the man had wound their right arms back and argued Freeman-Quay's punch missed Mr Pridham.
He argued there wasn’t enough evidence to dismiss the possibility the man blocking Mr Pridham had thrown the punch.
Crown prosecutor Margaret Jones said the stills were blurry, suggesting movement, and at only five frames a second, didn’t show every part of a movement.
She said Freeman-Quay's punch avoided the other man and landed on Mr Pridham's head and there was a “chronology”.
As Freeman-Quay's arm drew back and went forward in a punch, Mr Pridham's legs started to tilt sideways, indicating a fall coincided with contact from Freeman-Quay's fist, she said. Ms Jones said the court also had to look at expert evidence and a witness account connecting Freeman-Quay to the punch.
Justices John Burns, Michael Elkaim and Iain Ross reserved their decision and will give their judgement at a later date.
