Fremantle forward Hayden Ballantyne is lucky AFL players can’t bump any more, Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley says.
If they could bump, Hinkley reckons Ballantyne’s suspect right shoulder would get a working over from Port players in Saturday’s clash in Perth.
“He’s lucky in today’s game that you can’t bump, so he’s probably not going to get in too much problems,” Hinkley told reporters in Adelaide on Friday.
Hinkley’s pointed comment comes in the wake of the two-match suspension of Port midfielder Hamish Hartlett for a bump which knocked out Gold Coast’s Seb Tape last Saturday.
Port believed the ban was unjust but Hinkley said it was too risky to appeal with the finals looming.
An unsuccessful challenge would have increased Hartlett’s ban to three games and result in him missing the first week of the finals.
“I thought everything Hamish done was inside the rules,” Hinkley said.
“Clear evidence showed that Hamish made head contact (with Tape).”
Hinkley said Hartlett’s case was similar to that of North Melbourne’s Lindsay Thomas early in the year, when the Roos player was cleared for a bump on Collingwood’s Ben Reid.
“We know what happened in the early part of the season and how that was ruled upon – we felt that Hamish was very similar,” Hinkley said.
“We make no secret of the fact that at another point of the year we perhaps would have challenged that with everything we had.”
But Port reluctantly accepted the ruling, meaning Hartlett won’t return until the finals – should Port get there.
The Power hold eighth spot but must win against the Dockers, or against ninth-placed Carlton in the last round, to seal their return to finals for the first time since 2007.
“If we win (against Fremantle) … that will make us a lock,” Hinkley said.
“But it’s about the first quarter. How we perform in the first few minutes and stay in the contest as long as we possibly can against Freo and then push them to a point where they perhaps become a little bit nervous about what we’re able to do.”