ST KILDA tagger Steven Baker received a seven-game suspension last night after being found guilty of reckless rough play in an incident that left Fremantle's Jeff Farmer with a broken nose and concussion.
Despite the tribunal accepting Baker's account of events and rejecting that of Farmer and a Fremantle trainer, Baker's poor record and the fact that he had instigated contact more than 50 metres from play counted heavily against him.
The incident happened midway through the third term of St Kilda's win over the Dockers at Telstra Dome on Saturday.
With no television footage of the incident, AFL investigations officer Graeme McDonald interviewed the concerned parties and referred the matter straight to the tribunal.
The AFL Tribunal was forced to decide Baker's innocence or guilt on the basis of what tribunal chairman John Hassett summed up as "diametrically opposed accounts" from Baker's and Farmer's sides.
The tribunal had heard evidence from the Farmer party that the play had been on Fremantle's half-back flank and wing area on the city side of Telstra Dome when Baker made contact with Farmer, who had been standing or walking near the edge of the centre square on Fremantle's half-forward line on the opposite side of the field.
Farmer told the tribunal via telephone hook-up that while he could not recall exactly where the play was he received contact to his face that left him "on the ground on all fours bleeding from the nose and mouth".
Melbourne-based Fremantle trainer Barry Kirkwood told the tribunal Baker came at Farmer from the top of the 50-metre arc and hit him from behind at a 45-degree angle with his "hip and shoulder, including the arm". He claimed, however, that Farmer's body obscured his view of actual contact.
He claimed that from the angle, there was no way the Fremantle forward could have seen Baker coming at him.
Baker claimed he was running from Fremantle's half-back flank on the interchange side in front of Farmer, heading down the wing but slightly towards the Fremantle goal.
Baker said he had initially been about five metres ahead of Farmer but when the Docker forward got within about a metre of him he checked his stride and jumped into Farmer's path.
He said he did not know what part of Farmer had come into contact with him but said the impact left him with a bump on the back left side of his head.
Player manager Ricky Nixon was a late witness at the tribunal, having contacted St Kilda yesterday after hearing views on radio he claimed were inconsistent with what he saw.
His evidence supported Baker, saying the St Kilda tagger had been running ahead of Farmer along the interchange wing and had deliberately blocked his path with a move, he said, you would see 100 times in an under-11s game.
