King’s phone call to ease Kozzy suspension fears

Melbourne coach Steven King was immediately on the phone to Kozzy Pickett after his head-high bump on Jake Waterman on Sunday.

Pickett and the Demons are sweating on an MRO decision after the star made contact with the head of the Eagles forward at Marvel Stadium.

King says he won’t necessarily have an in-depth conversation with Pickett regarding his attack on the ball as the player is very self aware.

But the Dees coach did speak to him after the moment to let him know he didn’t think there was anything untoward.

“Not sit him down. He knows how important he is to us,” King said on SEN’s Fireball when asked if he has to have a chat with Kozzy.

“With the way Kozzy plays you don’t want to temper too much of his instinct and natural attack on the ball.

“But he is maturing. I think you saw his concern when the incident happened. I did get on the phone and let him know that I thought he was playing the ball and he had nothing to worry about.

“Kozzy knows how important he is to us. We want him to play every game, he wants to play every game because he wants to be a great player for us and the best in the comp.

“We won’t sit down with him but he understands.”

At his post-match press conference King addressed Pickett’s incident and felt that Waterman’s performance thereafter suggests he should be fine.

“I thought he made a pretty legitimate play on the ball, and then watching it back again, I made sure I got to 'Kozzy' on the phone and let him know. I thought 'he's playing the ball there', and it's great to see Waterman get up and have 13 score involvements and have a big impact on the game," King told reporters.

“I was just reassuring (Pickett) to make sure he felt confident enough… When we saw the replay, I got the message (out) pretty quickly to 'Koz' that 'mate, you were making a play on the ball and you'll be fine’.”

SEN’s David King has been a strong advocate for head knocks and believes the action should see Pickett given a one-match suspension.

“Suspend the action and elevate if there’s significant trauma,” King said.

“One week is enough. Fines don’t work.

“The Kozzy one his millimetres from six weeks. He’s got history this guy.

“King needs to sit him down and say, ‘Mate, you are getting six weeks next time you do this’. You’ve got a couple on the rap sheet already and you’ve had about three fly-bys.

“He didn’t actually get him (Waterman), but if he did it’s six weeks. It’s a fine line.”

Co-host Kane Cornes also believes Pickett’s bump is worth a week, as is the one involving Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters who was cleared for a shirtfront on Joel Freijah.

“You could tell Kozzy was mortified by what he’d done. He looked straight up to have a look at the replay,” Cornes said.

“I think both of them are a week. They won’t get a week because the player is not hurt. He (Pickett) was rattled…”

The MRO will release the findings later today.