During the game between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans, Barry Hall of the Sydney Swans laid one right in the kisser of Brent Staker.
During a tussle between Hall and Staker, Hall quickly span and smacked Staker, dropping him like the proverbial bag of potatoes.
Even Hall himself was shocked at how bad it looked like when he saw replays of the incident, and he’s stated he’ll not contest whatever penalty the tribunal lays down.
“It’s pretty hard to defend my actions, it’s there in black and white and there’s no more I can say about it. I made a mistake, there is no doubt about that. It was just a mind explosion and it looked really ordinary on the replay and I certainly regret what I did. I’ve already phoned Brent and left a message with him. I haven’t heard back.”
Many people – including Staker’s parents – have called for Hall to be suspended for the season.
Whatever the length of the suspension (and there will be a suspension), during the game Hall also broke his wrist, and is expected to be out for 4-6 weeks with the injury, regardless of what the tribunal hands down.
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With Malice... 
The punch from Hall was awful and he deserves to be suspended for a decent stretch. But….. Bazza has to wish he was playing in the days of yore (in my case late 70s/80s when even if all 5 umpires (one field, 2 boundary, 2 goal), Lou Richards, Peter Landy (this was pre Dennis Cometti after all) and the pie lady were within spitting distance of the punch he would have been rubbed out for maybe 4 weeks and without the commotion associated with it. Barry is guilty and Barry will pay, but come on folks, suspended for 18 games + finals? I’m not sure that Brent Staker’s parents are doing him any favours either – “Daddy fighting your battles for you?”
And a point of perspective – Phil Carman only got 16 weeks for head butting an umpire!!!
Well, that’s not final yet – is it? As far as I knew,
So, we’ll know tonight. It’s going to be large tho’.
Thing is, one of the biggest battles the AFL fought was against the perception that it was a thug’s game – so stuff like this will receive a far, far greater penalty than it would have ‘back in the day’. And rightly so.
suspended for 7 weeks… seems about right given the offence and the current “climate” in the game. I wonder how long his wrist injury will kep him out anyway???
I disagree. Given that he’ll be out for about 6 weeks because of his wrist injury, it’s a pretty lame penalty.
I don’t think any message at all has been sent out.
forget the wrist injury – do you think 7 weeks is an appropriate penalty for the incident?
It opens up a huge can of worms if you start factoring in injuries sustained after being reported.
You have to treat each incident on its merits alone which comes back to the question of whether you think 7 weeks was an appropriate suspension for the incident?
I’m not usually one to support the tribunal (particularly after their unjust treatment of St. David Rhys-Jones) but I think they were on a hiding to nothing this time round.
put a number on it – how long do you think he should have been suspended for?
10 weeks.