After a whirlwind few days, Drew Petrie has opened up about his experience at the AFL Tribunal.

Speaking on the AFL Exchange podcast, the North Melbourne vice-captain took the opportunity to detail his eventful Tuesday evening and also play down a few talking points surrounding the matter.

“On Tuesday before going to the Tribunal I was nervous all day,” Petrie said.

“Then I got to the footy club in the afternoon and sat down with Tony Burns, my representative.

“We went through what I was going to get asked and I felt a lot more comfortable driving into AFL House on Tuesday afternoon once I’d had that preparation.”

PRESS PLAY above to listen to the whole AFL Exchange segment concerning the AFL Tribunal.

Considering the last home and away suspension Petrie received was in the final round of the 2009 season, it had been a while since the Tribunal attention was squarely on the key position forward.

After going through the entire experience, Petrie likened it to a court room when describing the evening.

“You almost feel like you’re the guilty party in there. You’ve got a lot of eyes on you and getting questions thrown at you. You want to answer them truthfully.

“Probably three metres to my right I’ve got a gallery full of journalists scribbling down notes, you can hear their computers clicking away and it’s an uncomfortable environment.

“Having gone through it yesterday, I can understand why our players association don’t want to allow the AFL and the media outlets to broadcast live streams.

“It’s an intimidating, nerve wracking environment.”

Following the game on Friday night, there were comments that Petrie ‘played dead’ during the incident. He was emphatic in refuting those suggestions.

“I didn’t play dead. I put my arms out to the side because firstly, I didn’t want to get a fine for wrestling. Secondly, it was my way of (saying) to stop this and get on with playing footy.

“I wasn’t trying to ham up the situation at all.”

There were also suggestions that Petrie twisted his comments on the Sunday Footy Show compared to the Tribunal’s findings.

“You’re not under oath, so to speak, on the Sunday Footy Show. I would hope if the roles were reversed that the same players’ code would be followed.

“I didn’t lie, I tried to get around the question and deflect the actual question by answering in a way that I could.

“All along I wanted to uphold the players’ code without lying. I was never going to lie in front of a Tribunal and I only got asked about my four second report, not the 11 second incident that Brian got his four weeks for.”