SEN lead commentator Gerard Whateley believes Luke Parker needs to be suspended for his head-high hit on Jarman Impey during last night’s victory over the Hawks.
Parker’s hip connected with the top of Impey’s head as both were contesting the footy and the Hawthorn forward was forced to leave the ground under the blood rule.
Whateley wants to know if Parker’s incident isn’t worthy of suspension, then what is?
“I guess I would pose the question, whose head are we protecting these days?” Gerard told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“We weren’t prepared to protect Dylan Shiel in the finals last year, we weren’t prepared to protect Shaun Higgins, we were prepared to protect Karl Amon and now I read we’re not prepared to protect Jarman Impey.
“It’s not about Parker. It’s about Impey.
“Impey has his head over the ball in the most vulnerable position in the game and Parker hits him on the top of his head with his hip.
“We took that out of the game, we said that’s an illegal action and it doesn’t matter whether it was accidental or malicious, that’s the one thing you can’t do.”
Whateley broke down how he thinks MRO Michael Christian should evaluate the incident.
“To me, it’s careless, it’s medium and it’s high so it’s a one match suspension,” he said.
“I seem to be clearly in the minority on this and I don’t know why.
“If this comes back clear today then I don’t understand the way the system is operating anymore.”
Former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy agreed, saying the focus needs to be protecting the player in Impey’s situation.
“I’m staggered that there’s debate around this,” Murphy said.
“I’ve got an enormous amount of empathy when the ball is between two players in a 50-50 contest and there’s the instinctive reaction, but last night that wasn’t a 50-50 ball.
“That’s Jarman Impey’s ball, Parker comes from a much further distance at great speed.
“Parker’s gone and I love Parker, but he’s gone.”
WIN tickets to the 2018 Toyota AFL Grand Final and everything in GF week.
Correctly guess the total possessions in Round 8 of: Dylan Shiel (GWS), Jesse Hogan (MEL), Travis Boak (PA), Matt Crouch (ADE) & Ben Cunnington (NM). Eg.: 128
Enter below:
