GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade says he is flummoxed by the "mind-blowing" three-week suspension handed to key defender Steven May.

May copped the ban for his hip-and-shoulder on Tom Rockliff early in Saturday night's QClash, which left the Lions skipper with a concussion and a sore jaw.

The Tribunal rejected May's appeal, leaving him with a suspension of the same length as Hawthorn's Luke Hodge, who elbowed North Melbourne's Andrew Swallow in the face.

"I'm totally bemused to be honest, totally flummoxed by it," Eade said on Thursday.

"All the respected experts you listen to, who have a good idea on football, are totally stunned by it.

"For him to get the same as Luke Hodge? Steven’s, we thought, was a solid bump, but he didn't go off his line much.

"We coach about protecting the ball, protecting the space where the ball is, to use your body.

"It's one of the arts of playing AFL football.

"He only had one alternative option, that was a viable option as far as winning the ball, and that's what our game's about.

"I thought the system was really improved this year, but that decision leaves you flat."

May will miss Gold Coast's home clash against Adelaide on Saturday, as well as next week's trip to face West Coast and their meeting with Collingwood at Metricon Stadium the following round.

Rockliff has recovered from the incident and should be fit to line up for the Lions against Carlton on Sunday.

Eade said he accepted that the head was now sacrosanct in the eyes of the Match Review Panel and Tribunal but said the severity of May's sanction was over the top.

"I was really surprised the Tribunal in the end, (after) we challenged, couldn't say 'we find him guilty, but it's worth one or two weeks'. I mean, three weeks? It's mind-blowing," he said.

"People are saying we're sanitising the game too much and I tended to side with the law-makers that we have to protect the head, but there's also an element of the game where things are going to happen."