WEST Coast's Daniel Kerr will be cited by the match review panel for a headbutt to Western Bulldog midfielder Scott West, while the Eagles' Brent Staker was reported for striking in a bad-tempered encounter at Telstra Dome last night.
The Kerr incident occurred 10 minutes into the first quarter of the Bulldogs' 60-point win over the Eagles, a loss that coach John Worsfold conceded had probably ended their chances of making the finals.
West stepped into the path of Kerr at the tip of the Bulldogs' goal square after the Eagles had cleared the ball from the last line of defence. Kerr stopped, confronted West, lowered his head and launched himself at the Bulldog veteran, ramming the top of his head into West's face.
West lay on the ground for about 30 seconds after the incident and left the ground to be assessed by the club doctor.
Teammate Robert Murphy raced in to remonstrate and, in the resulting skirmish, Staker threw a right-hand punch that appeared to strike Murphy in the face. Staker was reported for striking by umpire Jacob Mollison.
Staker's punch comes two weeks after the Eagle was collected by a haymaker from Sydney's Barry Hall, a punch that rendered Staker unconscious before he even hit the ground and saw Hall suspended for seven matches.
Worsfold said he believed Kerr was being manhandled and although he didn't think Staker should have retaliated the way he did, believed the type of attention midfielders such as Kerr received needed to be looked at by the AFL's rules committee to ensure more protection.
"Kerr had players coming at him from every direction, so I don't know if he was reacting too much to those things because you can't react when someone hits you from behind and you can't react when someone blindsides from the side," Worsfold said.
"You are hoping that the umpires notice if a player gets bowled over off the footy. Because I see players get free kicks when their jumper comes away from their body because someone grabbed it.
"But midfielders, the best players in the game, and this is not just Daniel Kerr, we see it every week with every team, what are deemed to be free kicks in other areas of the game there is a lot more leniency with midfielders. You can knock them off the ball whether it's five metres away or 10 metres away or whether they are expecting it or looking for it. And unless you actually knock them out that's fine.
"I think it is time for the AFL's rules committee to say 'are we on the right track?' with a hand in the back of a full-forward leading out or a backman under the footy is a free kick but physically bumping a player or elbowing them (is allowed)."
The Eagles' fifth straight loss is the worst start to a season in the club's history and Worsfold admitted that playing finals was probably out of the question.
"I said at the start of the season our aim, as always, make the eight and to be your best chance you need to be in the top four," he said.
"That's probably out of reach, the
Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said he was pleased with the way his side played for three quarters, but was disappointed it could not finish the game as strongly, when it could manage only 1.4 in the final term.
"Last quarter was probably a little bit down, we could have really iced the game completely, missed some shots and looked a bit as if we were just playing out time," Eade said. "But anyway, you take a 10-goal win against a team like that."
Jason Akermanis was the subject of plenty of attention early due to him again writing about Michael Braun in his blog on the Western Bulldogs website, even if he did admit in the post that he was wrong in accusing Braun of using performance-enhancing drugs.
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