Melbourne players have gone into bat for Clayton Oliver after he copped a shot from Richmond’s Marlion Pickett late in the first quarter at the MCG on Wednesday night.
Bayley Fritsch was in the process of kicking the Demons ahead when a fiery melee erupted metres to his left with Pickett and Jack Viney scuffling underneath a group of players.
Channel 7 commentator Cameron Ling was quick to note it stemmed from Oliver going down.
“He went to ground, he’s copped a belt to the guts and straight away his teammates got over. They are not happy at all here,” he said.
Replays showed Pickett threw his right hand at the stomach of an unsuspecting Oliver.
“Viney spotted it immediately and as soon as the Melbourne players were aware of it they were straight over,” Ling added.
Oliver went down grabbing his stomach, with Richmond’s Rhyan Mansell staying out of the melee to check on his rival.
The Melbourne star quickly returned to his feet and showed no ill effects at the final centre bounce before the break.
Gut punches and open-hand high shots have fallen foul of the AFL in recent years with commentators suggesting Pickett might face a nervous wait.
Brian Taylor called it “a little tickler” but did acknowledge it was “hard to say the severity of it”.
Former Melbourne captain Nathan Jones, without the benefit of a front-on view, suspected it was an open-hand blow with “not much in it”.
Ling later argued the AFL crackdown could still come into play.
“Maybe he’s looking at a week’s suspension, potentially a fine. The match review officer will take a very close look at that,” he said.
“Clayton Oliver is fine, though, as you can imagine.”
Oliver had 10 disposals in the first term, recording a goal assist and two clearances while turning the ball over three times.
The 26-year-old was cleared for Wednesday night’s game after battling through the opening month of the season with a finger injury.
He struggled in the Dees’ heavy loss to Brisbane on April 11 and underwent surgery in their subsequent 13-day break before facing the Tigers.
“There’s no question that carrying that finger for three weeks, the weight of that in the last game, especially, was getting really hard for him,” Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin said.
“So to get that fixed, to get him healthy and to get him functioning really well is important.
“And you can see once again, similar to the start of the season, he’s got that smile on his face. He’s got that eagerness and that energy to come out and perform.
“You can see the energy and life that it’s brought back into him, and the way he trained was unbelievable the other day.”
When asked if in hindsight Oliver should have had surgery earlier, Goodwin said the intention had always been for the operation to take place during the bye period.
“It was pretty compact time for our fixturing, so it was always planned to do that,” he said.
“Clayton was aware and embraced … the situation and he wanted to go down that path. The main thing is it’s been fixed and he’s ready to go.”
