“Pay the price”: Lynch sent directly to Tribunal after lashing out

Richmond’s Tom Lynch is facing a lengthy ban for his brain fade against Adelaide on Sunday.

The Tigers veteran lashed out with a haymaker strike to the head of Crows defender Jordon Butts during the second quarter at the MCG.

Lynch had reached his boiling point and reacted angrily, creating a scene we don’t often see in the modern game.

The strike has been graded as intentional conduct, high contact and severe impact, with the forward being sent directly to the Tribunal for a minimum four-week ban.

David King is calling for a lengthier stint on the sidelines given the potential to cause serious damage.

“It’s no good,” King said on SEN’s Fireball.

“He’ll pay the price for that and so he should. It should be five weeks.

“No one is stronger on this stuff than me. There’s nothing wrong with being overly physical. But he’ll pay a huge price for yesterday, I’m saying five weeks.”

Co-host Kane Cornes can see the incident being sent straight to the Tribunal to work out the length of suspension.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing from the Tigers player, especially what teammate Noah Balta went through with his assault case earlier in the year.

“The matrix doesn’t say that it will be (five weeks),” Cornes said.

“I think you send it to the Tribunal and you work out what was going on. He’s just so lucky that he didn’t make contact properly.

“The other thing is the Noah Balta discussion. I think it’s impossible not to link the two with what that footy club has been through off-field.

“To do that after the situation they’ve been in is just mind-blowing to me for Tom to go down that path.”

Lynch finished his dirty day with just two disposals, one goal and five free kicks against in his side’s 68-point loss to the Crows.