Geelong’s Mitch Duncan has escaped a sanction from the match review officer for a high bump on Sydney’s Robbie Fox, while Port Adelaide’s Thomas Jonas and GWS’ Callan Ward have been offered one-match sanctions for rough conduct.
The AFL said Duncan had tracked the loose ball as Fox approached from the opposite direction and attempted to knock the ball forward in Saturday’s big win by the Cats.
“In doing so, Fox runs past the ball and lowers his body position before contact is made with Duncan,” said the AFL. “It is the view of the MRO that Duncan’s actions were not unreasonable in the circumstances.”
Mitch Duncan of the Cats celebrates after kicking a goal.Credit: Scott Barbour
It means Duncan will be available to face Essendon in round seven, while Jonas will miss the Power’s clash with the Saints and Ward will sit out his side’s derby with Sydney if they accept the sanction.
The decision echoed Cats coach Chris Scott’s defence of Duncan’s actions after the match.
“I’m not [concerned]. I’ve looked at it really closely, and it’s almost impossible to do anything differently when a player is coming at you at that speed,” he said.
“I’m not saying Fox deliberately ran past the ball, but he ended up past the ball, and Mitch has got to protect himself somehow, and it looks to me like the contact was to the shoulder. Fortunately, Robbie is OK.”
Sydney doctors reviewed footage of the incident and determined Fox did not require a concussion test.
Port’s Jonas crunched heads with West Coast’s Jai Culley in the first half of the Power’s win at Adelaide Oval, after he elected to bump the young Eagle, leaving him sporting a shiner near his left eye socket.
The MRO graded the incident as careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.
Culley completed the game after being assessed and went on to boot three of his team-high four goals after half-time.
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley described Jonas’ collision with Culley as “instinctive” and “accidental”, and stressed that it’s important to remember with accidental head clashes that the player stayed on the ground and got through the whole game.
“From ground level, which I was at again today, I saw a head clash which is an unfortunate part of the game. That was an instinctive action,” said Hinkley.
“It was just a collision that happens in games of football, but there is some risk with that because we’ve seen what’s going on.”
Giant Ward’s charge came for his tackle on Brisbane’s Lachie Neale, which GWS coach Adam Kingsley nor Lions coach Chris Fagan commented on.
The incident came in the third quarter of the Giants’ loss at Manuka Oval on Saturday. Ward swung Neale to the ground, which the MRO graded as careless conduct, medium impact, high contact.
Neale was awarded a free kick.
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