Collingwood champion Scott Pendlebury is likely to be sweating on the Match Review after a whack to the guts of Lions star Lachie Neale.
The Magpies veteran was seen striking the dual Brownlow Medallist’s stomach with an open hand late in the third term.
Neale visibly grimaced in pain, fell to the ground and stayed down for a while.
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The question will be whether the incident, which was near a contest, will be considered off the ball and therefore intentional or careless.
If it is the latter he would be unlikely to cop a suspension.
“It was very uncharacteristic of Pendles, very unsociable as well,” said Leigh Montagna on Fox Footy.
“I think something like that, he might be getting a bit of a fine coming his way and hopefully that’s all.
“It just shows what this means to both these teams that he’s prepared to do that.”
George Hewett was fined, along with Neale, for a similar moment in Opening Round which Pendlebury himself cited post-game.
“He said he got a fine for a similar thing after the game,” Pendlebury said.
“I said sorry to him, I didn’t mean to get him right there.
“What will be will be, retaliator always gets caught, Mum taught me that, I got sucked in tonight.”
Meanwhile SEN’s Sam Edmund tweeted: “This is where the AFL ties itself in knots.
“Had the chance to suspend George Hewett and botched it. Didn’t suspend Neale for a retaliation strike either. So Scott Pendlebury can’t go for that can he? Both incidents while waiting at a stoppage.”
