Match review panel member Jimmy Bartel believes the MRP made the right call in handing Sydney's Zak Jones a fine for his punch on Hawthorn's Luke Breust on Friday night.
Jones struck Breust in the chest with a closed fist in the third quarter of his side's loss to the Hawks, less than a week after the AFL implored a crack down on punches.
Zak Jones made contact with Luke Breust in this incident. #AFLSwansHawks pic.twitter.com/S1h4dyhYz8
— AFL (@AFL) May 26, 2017
The Jones incident was the first case in which the MRP was able to showcase its new hard-lined stance on the issue, but according to Bartel, they could only hand Jones a $1500 fine and nothing more.
โThe bar has been lowered as far as force,โ Bartel told RSN 927.
โYou canโt sacrifice Zak Jones. Thatโs still low impact to the body, intentional. Itโs a fine.
โThe job weโve got to do at the MRP is to put it through the matrix that currently exist.
โHe (Jones) would have been touch and go (last week) to get a fine. We are going to be tougher on them.โ
Because the hit was graded as low impact, the most severe punishment a body shot can be given is a fine, and that's what they decided.
โI think we did the right thing yesterday,โ Bartel said.
โThey brought in the fines (two years ago) for these exact incidences so weโre not getting one week here, one week there, handing them out.
โItโs just a fine and move on.โ
Ahead of the panel meeting on Monday, AFL football operations manager Simon Lethlean met with the MRP to discuss the guidelines, but confirmed they couldn't make mid-season changes for legal reasons.
Lethlean was the driving force behind last week's push to ban punches, and Bartel said he wanted the panel to begin to grade impact differently.
โHe spoke to us and said โlook, we need to tighten up how we measure impact and force,โ Bartel said.
โSome of these incidents would have been let off with insufficient force but now the bar has come down so theyโre down in low.
โThe ones probably that comfortably sit in low have probably now gone up to medium.โ
