Greater Western Sydney’s chances of having Steve Johnson available for their home preliminary final appear to have suffered a blow after comments made by a member of the AFL’s match review panel.
Johnson is awaiting the MRP’s assessment of an incident where he felled Sydney’s Josh Kennedy with what appeared to be a shoulder to the head in the first quarter of the Giants’ upset qualifying final win.
The ball had left the area when contact was made and the blow stunned Kennedy who left the field for a concussion test.
“I can’t comment specifically on that case, but the reality is if you elect to bump and you have another alternative then you must execute that bump fairly,” panel member Michael Christian told 3AW.
“If you bump to the head and cause an injury then there’s, potentially, a case to answer.”
A clearly dazed Kennedy fell back to the ground after being helped up by a teammate.
He was then taken to the bench by trainers where he passed a concussion test and came back on.
“Obviously the match review panel will look after that,” teammate Phil Davis told the Seven Network.
“But it was good to see that Kennedy was able to come back on and still play pretty well … he had 30 (possessions).”
Giants ruckman Shane Mumford could also be in danger of copping a suspension or a fine for his bone-jarring tackle on Kurt Tippett.
The MRP will need to determine if there were two motions to the action, which would see it classified as a sling tackle.