Former North Melbourne champion David King says Port Adelaide's Tom Jonas "got off light" with his six week ban from the AFL tribunal.

Jonas was sent straight to the tribunal by the Match Review Panel after his vicious hit on West Coast's Andrew Gaff.

The hit left Gaff, who was running back with the flight of the ball at the time, unconscious and he was stretched from the ground.

“If you want to be brutally honest about it, I think he got off light. I think it’s an eight-week offence," King said on RadioTAB on Wednesday morning.

“You’ve got a player running back with the flight of the ball, completely open, there is no more vulnerable position in our game than a player coming back with the flight of the ball like that.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 21: Andrew Gaff of the Eagles is taken from the field on a stretcher during the round nine AFL match between the Port Adelaide Power and the West Coast Eagles at Adelaide Oval on May 21, 2016 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Morne de Klerk/Getty Images)
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 21: Andrew Gaff of the Eagles is taken from the field on a stretcher during the round nine AFL match between the Port Adelaide Power and the West Coast Eagles at Adelaide Oval on May 21, 2016 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Morne de Klerk/Getty Images)

“Now, players make decisions in split seconds, we know that, but they generally make great decisions in split seconds.

“You know when you’re going to get to a ball and you know when you’re not going to get to a ball.

“Tom Jonas knew he wasn’t going to get there. He would have known three steps out, four steps out."

King said that the hit was "as bad as what we’ll see" in AFL.

“To strike him on the back of the head — I was 30 metres from that on the boundary line, I felt sick," he said.

“I saw him go down, I just think it was such a violent act I was surprised he hasn’t got eight weeks, because that is as bad as what we’ll see.

“There's sometimes you’ve got to stamp actions out."

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