Dermott Brereton says that Sydney defender Heath Grundy was extremely lucky to only receive a $1000 fine for what he believes to be a blatant strike to Hawthorn veteran Luke Hodge’s head.
The AFL Match Review Panel graded the incident from last Friday’s game as intentional with low impact to the body, a ruling which the five-time Hawks premiership forward has branded “weird.”
Brereton says that the footage of the incident indicated that Hodge was struck on the chin by the elbow of Grundy, and that the former captain did not milk the contact for a free kick.
“I don’t know what part of our game allows for a bloke to run away from the play, look at another bloke who is not actively involved in playing, run straight at him and ram his elbow into his chin,” he said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“How did he get away with that, just a fine?
“If you look at the footage, Hodge is not acting. His head violently gets thrown back and then he slumps forward for a second and then dusts himself off.
“Hodgey doesn’t like acting.”
Heath Grundy raised his elbow in this incident involving Luke Hodge. #AFLSwansHawks pic.twitter.com/4K5pL2twFt
— AFL (@AFL) May 26, 2017
In other incidents assessed by the MRP this week, Grundy’s teammate Zak Jones also escaped a suspension for a gut punch, receiving only a $1500 fine despite the League’s crackdown on jumper and stomach punches in the past seven days.
Hawk Shaun Burgoyne was also cleared for a tackle that left Swans forward Sam Reid concussed.
Jon Ralph believes that the Match Review Panel did all that they could to penalise Jones, but says nothing less than giving players who jumper or gut punch a one match ban can suffice long-term.
“23 players have been fined for punches this year, so they have been fining players,” the Herald Sun journalist said.
“What the AFL should have done is changed the rules and what they should still do is commit at the end of the season to changing rules so that blokes who punch people, like Zak Jones did get a week’s penalty.”