Melbourne forward Jacob van Rooyen will come under scrutiny from the Match Review Officer for an incident that saw Gold Coast Suns defender Charlie Ballard taken off the ground on a stretcher.
The incident occurred in the fourth quarter of the Dees’ Saturday night win over the Suns, with van Rooyen crashing into Ballard as he was trying to take a mark.
Ballard grabbed the back of his head and lay flat on the ground, before club medicos ultimately had him taken from the ground on a stretcher.
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It was a bruising night for Ballard, who had a head impact assessment after an errant knee from Kysaiah Pickett earlier in the match.
Suns coach Stuart Dew told reporters post-game Ballard was concerned about his neck but was in good spirits after the match, with the club medicos taking an abundance of caution with the 23-year-old.
“He’s alright. He obviously got the one on the beak (earlier) and he was OK, just got the watery eyes. I think it was just his neck at the end there, I think it was just real precautionary,” Dew said.
“I think he said ‘felt my neck crack’, which probably fair enough after what happened. Just precautionary from the doctors, which is the right thing to do.”
The Match Review Officer will have to determine whether van Rooyen was genuinely contesting the ball.
If he wasn’t, van Rooyen would then be reported, with a grading of careless conduct and high contact.
Should those findings come with a grading of medium impact, van Rooyen would miss one match.
A finding of high impact would mean a two-match ban, while severe impact would result in a three-match ban and direct referral to the AFL Tribunal.
“You can compete with the ball without your eyes on it, but you can’t be taking your opponent out,” Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson said, before referring to an incident with Darcy Fogarty and Nathan Murphy last week that did not result in a sanction.
“I go to last week and (Darcy) Fogarty is running back with the flight of the ball, but he’s running with his eyes on the ball the whole time, he hits Murphy in the nose and Murphy should’ve got a free kick.
“That one there (van Rooyen), he doesn’t look at the ball or where the ball is going. He’s trying to anticipate where the ball will land based on his opponent’s actions.”
Melbourne faces Hawthorn next week, before clashes against Port Adelaide and Fremantle.
