Port Adelaide captain Tom Jonas is set to face MRO scrutiny after a bump on Jai Culley saw the young Eagles assessed for concussion on the bench.
Just after Culley had kicked the ball to teammate Andrew Gaff inside 50 during his side’s clash with the Power on Saturday, he copped high from contact Jonas after the Power veteran appeared to elect to bump.
Culley remained on the Adelaide Oval turf for several seconds before coming to the bench to be assessed by West Coast’s medical team.
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“When you elect to bump and there’s some damage that’s done high above the neck to the opponent, you are responsible,” Fox Footy’s Kelli Underwood said.
“There might not be any intention on Jonas’ behalf, but it will definitely be looked at.”
Match Review Officer Michael Christian this season has shown a tendency to upgrade the impact grading on incidents that have the potential to cause injury.
Players like Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett and Adelaide’s Shane McAdam received two and three-week suspensions respectively, despite their bumps not resulting in concussions to their opponents.
Culley was sporting a decent ‘shiner’ near his left eye socket, but was cleared to play in the second half against the Power after undergoing a concussion test.
Should Jonas’ incident be graded as high contact, careless conduct and, importantly, medium impact, he’d be offered a one-match suspension.
“He’ll be in strife,” five-time premiership Hawk Dermott Brereton told Fox Footy. “I’m the last one to want to cancel somebody out, but unfortunately Tom Jonas, the way this game is adjudicated in this day and age, he’s going to be in strife.
“Culley holds on, he knows he has to run the straight line to get that ball through to Gaff and he accepts that he’s going to get contact. It’s a touch late and the bounce of the body-v-body – it’s shoulder to shoulder, that’s fine – but then the head hits head.
“Under the current way we view this … if you elect to be the bumper, if anything goes wrong with that wrong and you make contact any secondary way with the head, that’s on you.”
It’s not the first time Jonas has been involved in an incident in a Power-Eagles game at Adelaide Oval.
The key defender in 2016 copped a six-week ban for striking Gaff.
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