Hawthorn’s Luke Hodge will miss three matches after the tribunal ruled on a strike he said was intended to be to Andrew Swallow’s chest, but got him in the neck.
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The AFL tribunal of Richard Loveridge, Wayne Henwood and Shane Wakelin took just eight minutes to settle on the middle ground of suggested penalties.
Tribunal counsel Jeff Gleeson had called for three or four weeks and Hodge’s counsel Chris Townshend for two to three weeks.
The penalty will rule Hodge, who pleaded guilty, out of the Hawks’ matches against GWS, Melbourne and last year’s grand final opponent Sydney.
Hodge said he had twice tried to apologise to Swallow, during the game and after it.
He contacted Swallow and North Melbourne coach Brad Scott yesterday to convey his regret.
“I definitely did not mean to get him as high as what I did,” Hodge said after the hearing last night.
“But saying that, I have to cop the punishment that comes with it.”
“I’m very apologetic and rapt that Andrew understood I certainly did not mean to get him as high as I did.”
Hodge gave evidence he had tried to strike Swallow in the chest, but, being off-balance, “obviously missed, and got him in the neck”.
Townshend characterised the incident as “an inappropriate strike gone wrong, rather than a punch to the head” while Gleeson said Hodge had committed a “particularly nasty strike”.
“It was thrown with considerable force and thrown with the forearm and followed through with the elbow,” he told the jury.
In response to Hodge’s evidence he was aiming for Swallow’s chest, Gleeson countered that “what you are left with is a footballer who tried to throw a forearm and elbow at his opponent with considerable force” that could have broken Swallow’s jaw.
Gold Coast’s Steven May will serve a three-match ban after the tribunal rejected his argument he had no alternative to bumping Brisbane Lion Tom Rockliff.
The Lions’ captain was knocked out by the bump to the jaw.
The match review panel had offered May a two-match penalty if he accepted he had done the wrong thing, but he chose to go to the tribunal to defend himself.
The Suns are said to be considering an appeal.