Two-match bans for Howat, Hartlett

Sportal ©

Richmond wingmen Cam Howat and Carlton forward Adam Hartlett have both been offered two match suspensions by the AFL match review panel following their respective off-the-ball hits on each other during Thursday night's season opener at the MCG.

The match review panel took a dim view of the two incidents with both players charged with level four striking offences - meaning they could end up with three match suspensions if they choose to fight their cases at the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night.

Neither incident was entirely captured on video with footage of Thursday night's game showing Howat first felling Hartlett off-the-ball on the outer wing during the third quarter but it was not clear just how he did so.

Then just minutes later Howat was felled in an almost identical incident by Hartlett - also well off the ball - on the members' wing with the Tigers' midfielder then forced to leave the ground in a groggy state.

The match review panel classified both charges identically as intentional conduct, medium impact and high contact - equating to a level four striking offence of 325 points and a three match ban.

But with both players having unblemished records they can escape with 243.75 points and two match suspensions by accepting the 25 percent points discount for an early guilty plea.

The only other player booked following the first seven matches of round one - with the Easter Monday clash between North Melbourne and Essendon to be reviewed on Tuesday - was the Dockers' serial offender Dean Solomon.

The former Essendon badboy was only charged with a level one rough conduct offence against Collingwood's Shane Wakelin during Saturday's MCG clash but because of his previous bad record he cannot escape with a reprimand - even with a guilty plea.

The offence was classified as 125 points but because of Solomon's past record his tally was increased to 232.81 points which means that even by pleading guilty he will still have a tally of 174.61 points - well over the 100 point cut-off for a one match suspension.

Meanwhile the match-day report laid against Port Adelaide forward Daniel Motlop for charging Geelong's Joel Corey was thrown out after the panel ruled that while Motlop made contact to Corey after the Geelong midfielder had taken a mark, he did not leave the ground during the incident with the panel believing the 50 metre penalty paid against Motlop at the time of the incident was sufficient punishment.