“I don’t think[Greene] breached his duty of care. I don’t think he should be suspended,” Ling told ABC Radio on Sunday.
“People will make the comparison with Peter Wright and Harry Cunningham. Peter Wright got there probably only half a second late,but Cunningham had hands on ball or was arriving there,and Wright was a bit later and turned and got Cunningham and got the four weeks,done.
“If you watch[Saturday’s incident],the ball and Boyd and Toby,they are all meeting together at pretty much exactly the same time. It is Toby Greene doing what he is entitled to do and that is to fly for a mark. He makes contact with the ball and then makes incidental contact with Boyd.
“He does get him high ... absolutely pay a free kick,but on this one where it is simultaneous that they meet,Toby Greene is entitled to contest the football there and a player running back into his path is very,very brave,but also it is contact in a game that is incidental,accidental,unfortunate,but not suspendible.”
Giants coach Adam Kingsley had been confident post-game that Greene would escape suspension.
“There won’t be anything in that,” Kingsley said of Greene. “He’s allowed to contest the ball,isn’t he? He’s allowed to launch for the ball? And if you’re running and launching at the ball,you’ve got eyes for the ball,you’re trying to take a chest mark and you get knocked,free kick against? It’s hard being Toby.”
Barrass also received a one-match suspension for rough conduct on Fremantle’s Michael Walters.
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