MATCH Review Officer Michael Christian believes a blanket crackdown on striking would lead to suspension "carnage" in the AFL, reiterating his belief that fines are a sufficient deterrent.
Essendon's Cale Hooker was offered a $1500 misconduct fine for his strike on St Kilda's Daniel McKenzie during Friday night's clash at Etihad Stadium, despite calls for tougher penalties on striking in the wake of Andrew Gaff's brutal punch on Fremantle's Andrew Brayshaw.
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The force involved in Hooker's clash with McKenzie was not deemed sufficient enough to warrant a striking charge, leaving Christian with little choice but to fine him for misconduct.
After criticism that the AFL had not been harsh enough on striking incidents in the lead-up to Gaff's punch, Christian warned tougher penalties could lead to mass bans across the competition.
"To suspend every player that strikes or punches with negligible impact … I think we've got to be a little careful what we wish for because there will be carnage in terms of the number of suspensions," he said.
Christian outlined that the contact made between Hooker and McKenzie wasn't enough to warrant a ban, but said the action was the reason why he earned a misconduct charge.
"That's why he was fined," Christian said.
"There's still got to be a degree of impact to even consider those other provisions. It was certainly considered, but in this particular case we didn't believe it warranted a suspension.
"I think this gets a little bit misread. There's no doubt in the situation with Andrew Gaff, it was a clear intentional strike and severe impact.
"With respect to Cale Hooker, there was a striking action but no impact. There's got to be more than negligible impact to constitute the charge."