A STUNNED Barry Hall yesterday told the Herald he was "shocked" at being stood down indefinitely by the Swans, adding that he was concerned about his future and standing in the game.

The Swans took the extraordinary step yesterday of standing him down and said the star forward could not return until he had been cleared by the club's psychologist, Grant Brecht.

The move followed an incident in Saturday night's clash with Collingwood where Hall swung at Pies defender Shane Wakelin and brought immediate reaction that perhaps the premiership-winning captain had played his last game for the club, a scenario later refuted by Swans coach Paul Roos.

Hall said yesterday he had been intending only to push Wakelin away, but the AFL's match review panel charged him with attempted striking and, after an early guilty plea, the forward received a one-match ban.

However, before the panel had even decided upon the matter, Roos met with Hall and told him he would not be eligible to be selected until cleared to do so by Brecht. "I've had everything run through my head over the last few days, from the extreme to not so extreme," Hall said.

"Being used as trade bait, being sacked by the club, all the above, there hasn't been one thing I haven't thought of … actually I didn't think of this. It surprised me. I'm still a bit shocked.

"I haven't really taken it all in, to be honest. Roosy said, 'I'm not going to pick you to play at this stage'. He said, 'You're obviously going to sit out a week and it will be determined by Grant when you're right'.

"So I don't know where to from here, and what I do. I'll be guided by whatever Grant says.

"To be honest, I don't think that's the answer, to not play football. I don't know if that's going to help, that's my only query. I can understand from the club's point of view - they are looking to do the right thing, but I don't think missing games is going to help the situation.

"What I am concerned about is how all this, the incident and being stood down like this, now affects my future and standing in footy."

Roos said he was not able to answer how long the full-forward might be out of the team, adding: "When he's available. I don't have that expertise."

But asked if Hall had a long-term future at the club, Roos replied: "Oh, absolutely, I would think so. We will support him, as we did after the last incident, and hope to get him back playing with the Swans."

Hall was suspended for seven weeks after punching West Coast's Brent Staker in round four.

Hall admitted at the time that a build-up of personal problems had caused him to snap.

He said yesterday he thought he was "definitely in a different state of mind now, that's why this has come as a bit of a surprise".

"I thought everything was going good," he said. "I haven't seen the footage, but what I meant to do was push him away. Yeah, it was high, but I didn't try to whack him or anything, that's for sure."

Roos said he hoped Hall could "work through some issues" with Brecht and "come back reasonably quickly" but did not know when.

"We're not sure how long before he plays again," he said.

"He put on the agenda he was working on some personal issues during that seven or eight weeks [of his suspension], and the unfortunate side of it is that he probably hasn't been able to overcome those issues at this stage, so he won't play this week and I'm not sure when he will play again.

"During the first process, he was pretty honest in telling the media that he thought he did have some issues and one of the things I asked him to do was identify why he did what he did with Brent, and then if he was able to do that, to work out a way it wouldn't happen again.

"I think what we've all seen on the weekend, he hasn't been able to do that. So from that point of view, we as a footy club can't put Barry in a position that it just seems at the moment he's not capable of handling.

"So, at the moment, he's like a player - like Nic Fosdike who has a hamstring [injury] - who's unavailable for selection."

Roos said it was not a matter of discipline at this time, but more of helping Hall overcome his aggression problems. Once that was done, Hall may need to face his fellow members of the leadership group, which could prompt further disciplinary action.

"I suppose there's the code of the Bloods and all those things, but the main issue for Barry is to try and get himself in a space where he can perform at the best of his ability and we don't see those things that he did on the weekend and that he did 12 weeks ago," Roos said. "Prior to 12 or 13 weeks ago, we hadn't seen that happen, but for whatever reason it's happened twice now in the space of 15 weeks.

"We haven't got around to addressing it from a discipline point of view. He'll continue to work with Grant and Grant will determine when he's able to play. How long, I really don't know."

Asked if he was surprised Hall did what he did, Roos said: "Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, there was some frustration in the first half in terms of the free kicks [he conceded], but this is an area out of my jurisdiction. I'm a football coach and there's some things that have come up over the six years [he has coached] and I'm reasonably well-equipped to handle most of them, but this is one I don't have the expertise to answer some of the questions."

Meanwhile, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou yesterday applauded the Swans' decision to make a hard call against Hall.

"I commend the Swans and I will commend all clubs who feel it appropriate that if they sign up to a set of standards at the beginning of a season with their leadership group that they follow through with their actions," Demetriou said.

"I think in the past what has happened is there have been agreed principles at the start of the season and depending on who the player is at the club sometimes those things haven't been followed through.

"You have to congratulate the Swans - they are a club who I do believe are true to their word."