- Luke Parker has been suspended for six weeks
- Rival VFL player hospitalized with bump
- Parker and Sydney pleaded guilty at the hearing
Sydney veteran midfielder Luke Parker must serve a six-week suspension for the heavy hit in a VFL game that hospitalized opponent Josh Smith.
Parker has not played AFL football for the Swans this season and the suspension means he will not return to his senior team until well into July at the earliest.
He was referred straight to the tribunal over the nasty collision last Friday night while playing for the Swans reserve team.
Sydney pleaded guilty and instead argued during Tuesday night’s lengthy hearing against the severity of his sentence.
Smith was hospitalized after Parker ran the ball and the incident was classified as careless conduct, severe impact and high contact.
Luke Parker handed monstrous six-game ban for big hit on VFL rival
The football veteran sent Josh Smith to the hospital after this hit.
Swans defender Nick Kidd used GPS data to argue that Parker was barely walking when he collided with Smith, to block him from the next contest.
He also used a series of still images from the video to claim that Smith’s injuries were due to an accidental clash of heads, immediately after Parker hit him.
The medical report said Smith has a concussion and facial fractures and will need surgery.
It is expected to be down for six to eight weeks.
In his testimony, Parker said he had contacted Smith to apologize and check on his well-being.
“I didn’t mean to make contact with his head,” Parker said.
But VFL defender Morgan McLay argued Parker had breached his duty of care to Smith in the incident and deserved the six-week suspension.
‘There is a clear need to protect the head. “Everyone’s worst fears have happened,” McLay said of Smith’s injuries.
The Swans star will not make a senior appearance for his team until mid-July at the earliest.
Parker had been unable to return to Sydney’s AFL team since recovering from injury a month ago.
He has played 283 senior matches for the Swans and they argued at the tribunal hearing that Parker deserved a lesser sentence because of his good disciplinary record.
“If you look at it very closely, he went to block a player and guided a player who was advancing and made a mistake,” Swans coach John Longmire said earlier on Tuesday.
‘He went to block and he wasn’t really moving, he was stationary at the point of contact. He didn’t get high, unfortunately things didn’t go the way he intended.’