Swans premiership star Luke Parker has been suspended for six matches by the VFL tribunal, compounding his frustration at not being able to break into the senior side after a delayed start to the season following a broken arm.
Playing his fourth game in the reserves after returning from the injury, Parker laid a heavy shepherd on Frankston’s Josh Smith, which left him with significant facial fractures and concussion.
The incident was graded as careless conduct with high contact and severe impact.
The VFL had the option of handing Parker a four-week suspension but sent him to the Tribunal instead, seeking a six-week penalty for carelessness.
Parker pleaded guilty and the Swans submitted that the penalty should have been three weeks given Parker’s good record, a one-week suspension in 14 seasons, and that he had attempted to block, resulting in an accidental head clash.
Luke Parker has been banned for six matches.Credit: AFL Photos
The medical report stated Smith will miss ten weeks or more having suffered concussion, and multiple fractures to his eye socket and cheekbone which will require surgery.
Speaking before Tuesday night’s hearing Swans coach John Longmire said Parker was part of an accident rather than displaying anger when he put the VFL player in hospital last Friday night.
Longmire denied that Parker acted out of frustration at not being able to break into a high-flying Swans’ side that is now a game and a half clear on top of the ladder, after a comfortable victory over Carlton at a packed SCG last Friday night.
“I think that’s a pretty long bow to draw,” Longmire said at the Swans’ Moore Park HQ on Tuesday. “I just think if you look at it real closely, he just went to block a player and shepherd a player that was coming towards his teammate and got it wrong,” Longmire said, claiming the Frankston player’s face collided with the back of Parker’s head.
Swans coach John LongmireCredit: Getty
“It wasn’t as if he jumped, it wasn’t as if he was at speed,” Longmire said of Parker.
“It didn’t work out the way that he intended it to clearly and unfortunately the Frankston player got injured. He (Parker) feels badly about it….we really feel for Josh and the Frankston players.”
The Swans will also be without defenders Tom McCartin and Robbie Fox for Thursday’s match against the Bulldogs at the Docklands.
Longmire said McCartin, who is under concussion protocols, may have been chance to play if the match was a normal weekend game, while Fox has a shoulder injury, although it is not as bad as first feared.
A multiple club best and fairest and All Australian, Parker has played 283 games for the Swans including the 2012 premiership.
However, with the outstanding form of early Brownlow Medal favourite Isaac Heeney, who has been moved from half-forward, the exceptional strength and skill of Chad Warner, and arrival of Collingwood premiership player Taylor Adams, there has been no room for Parker.
The midfield squeeze will become worse over the next month, when captain Callum Mills returns to the team following a long-term shoulder injury.
Longmire was unable to say how he would fit Parker back into the side when available but claimed “whether it’s form or injuries, opportunities always arise.”
“We want him to be playing senior football and I’ve been on the record saying that,” Longmire said. “He’s handled it (reserves) so well.
“He’s been terrific with our younger players, with our VFL program, our VFL coaches. They comment on a daily basis about how good he’s been. And he’s been really invested in our young players.
He’s been a leader of this footy club for a long time and as a leader, he’s taken that role to the next level, and that needs to be acknowledged as well.
“Clearly he wants to play senior footy and would be disappointed. But he can also help, and he takes great pride in doing that. He’s doing a very good job with that at the moment.”
