Melbourne key forward Jacob van Rooyen has been handed a three-match ban by the match review officer after his swinging arm collected Port Adelaide key defender Aliir Aliir high.
With three minutes remaining before halftime in Saturday night's match, Aliir ran back with the flight to take a chest mark inside the defensive 50.
van Rooyen, going for the ball but arriving late to the contest, swung an arm in an attempt to spoil but hit Aliir's head and neck.
The Power star lay motionless on the ground for a few seconds in scary scenes; however, recovered. Albeit failing his HIA and missing the rest of his 200th game.
On Sunday, match review officer Michael Christian deemed the action as striking and that the incident was careless conduct, high contact and severe impact.
Speaking after the Demons' 76-point win in Adelaide, Melbourne coach Steven King preferred not to comment on the matter without further analysis.
"I haven't really seen it to be honest," King said in the post-game press conference.
"Obviously, Aliir went down, which is really unfortunate for him, being such a brave intercept player, but it's something I'll need to go and have a good look at tonight when I start coding."
His counterpart, Port Adelaide coach Josh Carr, believed there was no nasty nature in van Rooyen's actions.
"(Aliir's) okay, he's a little bit flat and a bit quiet, but Aliir is Aliir, and he'll find a way to get himself up," Carr said.
"I haven't looked at (the incident) closely, but I can see how it happens. Obviously, it didn't look great, but I didn't think it was overly malice either."
The action did cause a concussion, and thus match review officer Christian went over the incident with a fine-tooth comb.
Melbourne has one home-and-away round left before finals, and the Demons are in a fight for a top-four spot.
If van Rooyen's suspension is upheld at the tribunal, assuming the Demons will challenge the length of ban, he would miss Melbourne's first two finals if the Dees make it that far.
van Rooyen is Melbourne's leading goal kicker this season.
The 23-year-old has booted a career-high 42 goals from 22 games so far this year.
Collingwood's Beau McCreery has been handed a $5000 fine from the MRO for making careless contact with an umpire during the second quarter of the match against Hawthorn on Saturday night. The fine can be downgraded to $3125 with an early plea.
