Hall of Famer calls for AFL ‘red card’ shake-up after ugly swinging arm has star in ‘big trouble’

Hawthorn’s Conor Nash is expected to come under serious scrutiny after collecting Geelong’s Gryan Miers with a swinging arm, reigniting calls for a send-off rule.

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The incident in question took place in the third quarter of Monday’s game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with Miers helped off the field by medicos in concerning scenes.

Speaking in commentary for Fox Footy, Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall predicted Nash would be in serious trouble while David King forecasted the conversation would quickly turn to the introduction of a red card for serious foul play.

“That’s a man in trouble big-time, you just can’t have swinging arms like that and we’ve seen in it recent times,” Dunstall said.

“The ramifications on this game are huge,” added King.

“The conversations will start again about red cards and all sorts of things because Gryan Miers has set up five scores for the Cats. He’s their most creative half forward, particularly with the ball in hand.”

That conversation continued on Fox Footy’s ‘On the Couch’, where AFL Hall of Fame legend Leigh Matthews said this was the “exact incident” that warranted a send-off rule.

“There’s no doubt he’ll get a few weeks,” Matthews said.

“This is the exact incident, you only see a handful a year, where there should be a send-off rule because Geelong have lost Miers, so they’re one man down and of course Nash stays on the field.

I just think there has to be a system in place for an incident like this that it’s obvious he’s going to get reported and suspended. But it’s an evening the numbers up thing for me, so now Geelong have only got 22 players active and Hawthorn have got 23.”

There were calls for the AFL to introduce a send-off rule in the wake of Dan Houston’s bump on Izak Rankine in last year’s Showdown, with Mark Robinson declaring at the time that the league needed to take action.

“We must instantly change the rules to sit to be able to adjudicate when a player is knocked out by an illegal act,” Mark Robinson said on AFL 360.