DEAN Solomon will not play football again this year and his future at Fremantle could be jeopardised after he was suspended for eight matches at the AFL Tribunal last night, despite pleading guilty to striking Geelong's Cameron Ling with an elbow to the face in last Saturday's spiteful match at Skilled Stadium.

Ling received a depressed fracture of the cheekbone that required surgery.

Geelong club doctor Chris Bradshaw told the tribunal the midfielder was expected to miss from three to six matches.

Fremantle football manager Robert Shaw told media attending the video conference hearing in Perth that the club would be seeking legal advice on the length of the penalty.

Solomon, who told the tribunal the incident was "one of the lowest points of my career" and that he was "quite ashamed" of his actions, made no comment.

With Fremantle unable to make the finals, Solomon will miss the remainder of this season and the first premiership match of the 2009 season.

It is believed to be the most severe penalty for a single offence since Greg Williams received nine matches for interfering with a field umpire after a game against Essendon in 1997.

Sydney's Barry Hall received a seven-game penalty earlier this year for striking West Coast's Brent Staker, an action in which he similarly pleaded guilty and expressed remorse. Like last night's case, Hall was referred directly to the tribunal rather than dealt with through the demerit points system.

Then the tribunal chairman David Jones was criticised in some quarters for strongly suggesting to the jury that it apply the 25% discount normally given for a guilty plea. Last night, he said only that the jury could take the guilty plea into account but it was a matter for it, as was the 30% loading for three games suspension.

In handing down its decision, jury spokesman Emmett Dunne gave no detail as to how it had arrived at its total of 850 demerit points.

Solomon told the tribunal that he had regretted his actions as soon as the incident occurred and that it had been "eating away at me inside". He made his apology after the game without any advice from Fremantle officials and repeated it last night without any legal advice.

He said he had tried to contact Ling by phone on Sunday morning, but the Geelong player was in surgery. They had exchanged text messages later in the day.

"I wished him all the best and a speedy recovery," Solomon said. He told the tribunal that he had met Ling socially several times and that they had surfed at Torquay and enjoyed "a couple of cold beers together".

"It hasn't been easy on myself or my family the past few days," he said.

Former Essendon colleagues Kevin Sheedy, James Hird and Adam Ramanauskas gave character references. Ramanauskas said "the real Dean Solomon was not the person we saw for a couple of seconds on Saturday".