Russell: The AFL played us for fools by not banning Ben Long

Ben Long has escaped suspension after executing an open-handed slap to the face of Clayton Oliver.

Dwayne Russell is vehemently opposed to the decision.

Well off the ball, Long and Oliver engaged in a tussle, within which Oliver went to ground – somewhat softly – in attempt to win a free kick.

Long proceeded to grab the face of Oliver, before slapping the Giants star with an open hand.

While the tone of the slap was evidently not with the intention to cause harm, Russell believes that the AFL’s decision not to ban the Suns forward is a highly distasteful decision.

“Smacked him in the face with an open hand – I hate it. Why would they be so soft, the MRO?” Russell told SEN Afternoons.

“It stinks, that what it does. The AFL has got to realise… ‘this will slip under the radar, nobody will notice, Ben Long smacked him in the head with an open hand off the ball, nothing to do with any play, but no one will notice, will they? It’s only a Gold Coast game’.

“We noticed, AFL. Put that on your list of stuff that you need to fix, and it’s a bloody long list.”

Suns coach Damien Hardwick echoed Dwayne’s sentiment on AFL360 on Monday night.

“If I’m being completely honest, you get a week for stupidity if I’m them,” he said.

“That was just uncalled for, it’s not in the football game and it’s a disappointing thing, it cost us a 50 and to be fair, it probably should have cost him a week, I feel like.

“It’s a non-football act. These are the things we are trying to get out of the game.”

With Hardwick on board, Russell believes there’s support enough to alter decisions such as these going forward.

“There you go, Greg Swann, Michael Christian and all of those people setting up the MRO,” he said.

“Even the coach who has defended his players for 15 years at Richmond and now at the Gold Coast is saying that his man should have got a week, but he got a fine.

“How silly does that make you feel?”