Ex-Swan learns fate for contact on Isaac Heeney as six players from fiery clash cop fines
Updated . First published
Carlton recruit Ollie Florent has avoided punishment for kneeing Sydney superstar Isaac Heeney in the head at the SCG on Thursday night, but six players involved in the season-opening match have copped fines.
In a match packed with spot fires, won by the Swans 20.12 (132) to 10.9 (69), Florent got tongues wagging when his left knee made contact with Heeney's head during the second quarter.
The triple All-Australian left play for a head injury assessment and passed it, before returning to the field and playing an instrumental role in Sydney's 63-point triumph.
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Ollie Florent's contact on Isaac Heeney. Fox Footy
Florent's knee to Heeney's head was particularly intriguing because the fleet-footed half-back played 184 games with Sydney, before landing at Carlton during last year's trade period.
But there was no mention of Florent on the AFL's match review sheet released on Friday afternoon, indicating Michael Christian did not deem his contact on Heeney a reportable offence.
Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall had suggested during the Fox Footy broadcast that Florent didn't have anything to worry about.
"He looks to make sure he doesn't tread on him with the right leg, and then he lifts the head to follow the footy, and I think he thinks the left leg's just going to go over the top of him," Dunstall said.
"That's the way I would interpret it, but some people are a little more sinister than that."
Fox Footy presenter Sarah Jones put forward a different view.
"I think it was an accident with an element of carelessness," Jones said.
"If that was [Carlton's] Patrick Cripps on the ground, does his head get knocked [by Florent]?"
While Florent was let off, Sydney's Chad Warner, Callum Mills and Errol Gulden, and Carlton's Sam Walsh, Lewis Young and Will Hayward, were dealt fines.
Warner was offered a $3000 fine for tripping Elijah Hollands during the second quarter. The midfield bull can get away with only a $2000 fine with an early guilty plea.
Walsh was offered two $1500 fines — one for instigating a third-quarter melee and another for his continued involvement in it. He can escape with fines of $1000 if he submits early guilty pleas.
The other fined players — Mills, Gulden, Young and Hayward — were offered $1500 fines for their involvement in the third-quarter melee. They can reduce their fines to $1000 if early guilty pleas are logged.
Hayward, like Florent, crossed from Sydney to Carlton during last year's trade period.
Two-time Coleman medallist Charlie Curnow, whose defection from Carlton to Sydney was among several seismic moves in last year's trade period, booted three goals in his first game in red and white.
Charlie Curnow celebrates booting his first goal as a Swan. Getty
The Swans ripped the game apart in a scarcely believable third-quarter rampage in which they piled on 75 points, including 12 goals.
It ranks as the third-most prolific quarter in AFL history.
"How many teams in the competition could have done what Sydney did in the third term?" North Melbourne great David King said on Fox Footy's coverage.
Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt wondered if Brisbane and Gold Coast were capable of inflicting that kind of damage, adding: "That was unbelievable, that third term."
The Swans mustered only two goals across the first half, before running in 12 majors in the third term and another six in the final quarter.
