Port Adelaide forward Ollie Lord will be unavailable for selection this weekend after being charged with striking and accepting a one-game suspension following an incident from the SANFL.
The incident in question occurred during the fourth term of Saturday's match between Port Adelaide and West Adelaide, with Lord arriving late to a marking contest where Bloods player Hamish Ellem was parked under the ball.
Lord flexed his right arm and struck Ellem in the back of the head with his elbow/forearm, with the young forward's actions viewed as intentional conduct, high contact and low impact by the competition's Match Review Panel, resulting in a base sanction of two matches.
With an early guilty plea, Lord has accepted a reduced one-game and therefore will be unavailable for the Power's Round 17 matchup with Gold Coast on Saturday night.
The suspension also sees Lord ruled out of the Magpies' upcoming clash with Woodville-West Torrens.
The ban comes as Port Adelaide looks to shift their taller stocks for Round 17, with ruckman Scott Lycett set to miss the coming weeks with a knee concern.
The Power are already without Brynn Teakle (foot) and were required to rely on debutant Dante Visentini for last week's thrilling win over Essendon.
Lord made his debut in Round 6 against West Coast before playing a further five matches, sharing his duties as a tall forward and pinch-hit ruck option.
This is a joke.
While fully deserving of a suspension given the late contact and the elbow to the head……. this arrived “earlier” (that is, there was at least some possibility of getting to the ball) and with far less force than when Coleman-Jones smashed into Murray’s head.
If this was deserving of a 2 week ban (no argument with that) then the hit on Murray should have got 4……. but of course, it simply was not even reported.
Rules for some……
Now I see – this suspension was in the SANFL…. a real league with real rules, real umpires and a far better idea of the game………