Originally Posted by
Meg
I think two weeks is excessive. However there are precedents for penalty for similar incidents, including our own Josh Kennedy last year.
Kennedy was charged with striking Sam Docherty of Carlton after he hit Docherty in the head in a late spoiling attempt. Though Docherty had to leave the ground for treatment the impact was graded as medium (whereas van Rooyen’s hit has been graded as high impact, presumably on the basis of the potential of the strike to cause more serious injury than eventuated).
This difference in impact grading led to a one week suspension for Josh compared with two weeks for van Rooyen.
The incident was particularly unfortunate for Kennedy (who had never previously been suspended) as he tore his hamstring while attempting the spoil. As a result the one week suspension became irrelevant to Kennedy’s playing time. And there were no screams about destroying the ‘fabric’ of the game.
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