Scott backs Selwood’s ‘complete accident’ claim

Geelong coach Chris Scott says he has “complete faith” in Joel Selwood after the Cats skipper explained the reasons behind the two actions which saw him fined.

Selwood found himself in hot water after Geelong’s thrilling one-point win over the Western Bulldogs, when footage emerged of him involved in two ugly incidents.

Cameras caught the 33-year-old punching down on Bulldogs defender Bailey Dale’s head in a tussle on the ground, before appearing to step on Taylor Duryea’s leg, leaving the halfback with blood streaming down his leg.

Selwood was hit with a combined $3000 fine for the two incidents, and Scott opened up on the conversation he had with his captain over the two acts.

“I’ve spoken to Joel about them,” Scott told 3AW.

“He was disappointed with the first one (Dale punch) and he said the second one (stepping on Duryea) was a complete accident. I just have complete faith in him as a person, to be honest.

“He cops and he stands up when he needs to accept blame or criticism and he doesn’t lie, so when he told me where he stood on the Bulldogs player was a mistake, I believe him.”

Scott’s tepid take on the two incidents was a stark contrast to ex-Collingwood captain Tony Shaw and Kangaroos premiership star David King.

“One was stomping on a leg. It was intentional. The other one looked like a little sneako punch. If that was Toby Greene he would be getting three or four weeks,” Shaw told 3AW.

“I know Joel has been a great player but when I saw that I thought, ‘that’s shocking’. When I saw the (David Mackay) bump the week before I thought, ‘that’s great football’,” he said.

“If he had stood on (the leg of the Bulldogs player) the right way he could have cracked a bone and the other one he scraped the face. They are two of the worst things you could do on a football field and I was taken aback that maybe he didn’t get a week at least.”

King expressed his disappointment in the fact that Selwood avoided a suspension, urging the AFL to come down hard on such acts in order to remove them from the game.

“C’mon mate that’s rubbish. You can’t have players punching players on the head when they’re on the ground,” the Kangaroos great said.

“It’s crap, get it out of the game. If players are going to do this stuff, you clean it up in one full swoop.

“We’ve been fining them for 10 years and nothing’s changed. I keep talking about this changing behaviour. If you suspend one player for one action like that the whole competition stops

“It’s clearly not worth a week, but you do it once and you never have the conversation again.”

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