By Malcolm Conn
Swans premiership star Luke Parker has been suspended for six matches by the VFL tribunal, compounding his frustration at failing to break into the senior side this season after recovering from a broken arm.
Playing his fourth game in the reserves after returning from the injury, Parker laid a heavy shepherd on Frankston’s Josh Smith, which left him with significant facial fractures and concussion.
The incident was graded as careless conduct with high contact and severe impact.
The VFL had the option of handing Parker a four-week suspension but sent him to the tribunal instead, seeking a six-week penalty for carelessness.
Parker pleaded guilty and the Swans submitted that the penalty should be three weeks given his good record – a one-week suspension in 14 seasons – and that he had attempted to block, resulting in an accidental head clash.
The medical report said Smith will be sidelined for at least 10 weeks, having suffered concussion and multiple fractures to his eye socket and cheekbone, which will require surgery.
Luke Parker has been banned for six matches.Credit: AFL Photos
Speaking before Tuesday night’s hearing, Swans coach John Longmire said Parker had been part of an accident rather than venting anger in the collision last Friday night.
Longmire denied that Parker acted out of frustration at not being able to break into the high-flying AFL side. The Swans are a game-and-a-half clear on top of the ladder after a comfortable victory over Carlton at a packed SCG last Friday.
“I think that’s a pretty long bow to draw,” Longmire said at the Swans’ Moore Park HQ on Tuesday. “I just think if you look at it real closely, he just went to block a player and shepherd a player that was coming towards his teammate and got it wrong,”
The Swans coach said it was a case of the Frankston player’s face colliding with the back of Parker’s head.
Swans coach John Longmire.Credit: Getty
“It wasn’t as if he jumped, it wasn’t as if he was at speed,” Longmire said.
“It didn’t work out the way that he intended it to, clearly, and unfortunately the Frankston player got injured. He [Parker] feels badly about it ... we really feel for Josh and the Frankston players.”
The Swans will also be without defenders Tom McCartin and Robbie Fox for Thursday’s match against the Bulldogs at the Docklands.
Longmire said McCartin, who is under concussion protocols, may have been a chance to play if the match was a normal weekend game. Fox has a shoulder injury, although it is not as bad as first feared.
A multiple club best-and-fairest winner and All Australian, Parker has played 283 games for the Swans and was part of their 2012 premiership season.
However, the outstanding form of early Brownlow Medal favourite Isaac Heeney, who has been moved from half-forward, the exceptional strength and skill of Chad Warner, and the arrival of Collingwood premiership player Taylor Adams, means there has been no room for Parker to return.
The midfield squeeze will become worse over the next month, when captain Callum Mills returns from a long-term shoulder injury.
Longmire was unable to say how he would fit Parker back into the side when available but said “whether it’s form or injuries, opportunities always arise”.
“We want him to be playing senior football and I’ve been on the record saying that,” Longmire said. “He’s handled it [reserves] so well.
“He’s been terrific with our younger players, with our VFL program, our VFL coaches. They comment on a daily basis about how good he’s been. And he’s been really invested in our young players.
“He’s been a leader of this footy club for a long time and, as a leader, he’s taken that role to the next level, and that needs to be acknowledged as well.
“Clearly he wants to play senior footy and would be disappointed. But he can also help, and he takes great pride in doing that. He’s doing a very good job with that at the moment.”
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