IT'S BEEN a big few days in footy, that’s for sure.

The Barry Hall incident has been talked about everywhere and it’s been no different down at training.

All the guys were talking about it in the days after it happened, but not only because we’re up against the Swans this week.

I was at home watching the match, and Barry in particular, just before the incident occurred.

I have to say, the incident left me a little surprised. Barry has been so well behaved over the last few years, and has been in such good form recently, that to me, it just came out of the blue.

When I saw him punch Brent Staker, I was disappointed because I look forward to playing on guys like him and when he did it, I knew straight away that he wasn’t going to be playing against us.

I think the seven weeks he copped is a pretty reasonable penalty. Some people thought he’d get more and some thought he’d get less, so I think the AFL Tribunal did a fair job with it.

I think the tribunal got Cam Mooney’s tripping charge from last week right too. If he’d got a week for that it would have been, well, a bit soft I suppose.

Unfortunately Ryan Gamble will be missing this week after copping a one match suspension for striking.

It was a silly act from him and he knows that, even though it was out of character for him to do it.

I think something had happened just before Ryan’s incident, but that’s no excuse as the retaliator always gets caught.

So both us and the Swans will go into this week’s game missing a forward.

I guess without Barry Hall in the Swans side they won’t be as predictable as they might have been when they go inside 50.

They’ll obviously throw a few new things up at us this week.

I don’t know who’s going to come in for him. Maybe they’ll start a few small guys down in the forward line. Time will tell and we’ll have to be ready for anything.

The Swans could have their best 10 players out and they’d still be competitive, it’s just the club they are.

You’ve always got to prepare yourself for a really hard contest against Sydney. We know it’s going to be another huge test for us.

Some good news for the club this week was the number of Cats that were selected in squads for the AFL’s Hall of Fame tribute match on May 10.

It’s a great concept and the guys are really excited about it.

This State-of-Origin type of football hasn’t been around for quite a few years now, and the boys can’t wait to play in the game if they get their chance.

There’s 13 of us from Gee long, and I think all of us warranted selection.

I was really happy to make the Victorian squad and would love to get picked in the final team - although looking through the Dream Team’s forward line there’s a few scary blokes in there.

No, I seriously hope to get a run, as playing in a game like that would be sensational.

I think everyone would want to see or play in a game like this.