SUSPENDED Sydney Swans forward Barry Hall says he should have been sent off after last Saturday night’s incident with West Coast’s Brent Staker.

Hall was suspended for seven weeks by the AFL Tribunal after being found guilty of striking the Eagles’ defender in an incident that was repeatedly broadcast nationally during the week.

Writing in a column in The Age on Friday, Hall said he should have been ‘red-carded’ for the act.

“The AFL must bring in a send-off rule because there is no doubt that's what should have happened to me on Saturday night,” he wrote.

“There should be a send-off rule for an act such as mine, particularly if the player injured is not coming back on to the field. It is unfair to have the opposition one good player down when you've just whacked him and you are still able to keep running around.”

Hall said he was happy to see a card-style system brought in, or a discretionary-type system, such as which has been adopted in rugby league.

The burly forward admitted it had been difficult to come to terms with his actions, and that he understood why Staker’s parents had so vehemently come to the defence of their son.

“As I've said already this week, what I did was totally unacceptable. We don't need that sort of thing in the game, and I've apologised to everyone for my undisciplined indiscretion, but the person who deserves the biggest apology is Brent Staker,” Hall wrote.

“I won't lie and say it's not tough being called things like a ‘weak mongrel’ and I can't say I was surprised by the comments from Brent Staker's parents. If it was my kid, I'd be doing the same thing. Of course you would be going in to bat for your son.

“There was going to be criticism from everywhere and that's what happened, and whatever came my way, I was prepared to cop on the chin.”

Whilst Hall’s suspension keeps him on the sidelines for another seven weeks, he could be set to miss more matches on top of that after surgery on his broken wrist, injured on signage during the last quarter of the match at ANZ Stadium.

“The surgery on the wrist went well,” he wrote, adding that the operation meant he hadn’t been able to sleep properly until Tuesday night.

“There was a bit more to it than they first thought and they had to put a screw and some wire for the tendon into my wrist, and they think it will take around six weeks to heal properly.

“I can't do much training for a couple of weeks as there is a risk of infection if sweat were to get into the wound, but I'll be back into running late next week. I'll make sure that I am as fit as I can be when it's time to come back.”

Hall also denied that he had a half-time bust-up with Paul Roos, saying the pair were merely having a discussion about the state of Hall’s troublesome hamstring.