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Former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos has called the $20,000 fine handed to the GWS Giants for Jason McCartney's bump on Tom Papley as "irrelevant", believing the Giants official should be banned from entering the field of play instead.
The AFL issued the fine after McCartney came into contact with Papley at the quarter-time siren of Saturday's qualifying final clash between the two teams at the SCG.
After a scuffle between players from both sides, McCartney initially went in to separate Giants players from their Swans counterparts, before making contact with Papley using his chest.
Loading...Speaking on the ABC AFL Daily podcast, Roos, who coached the Swans to the 2005 premiership, suggested a ban from entering the field of play would have been a more suitable sanction for McCartney.
"If you're looking at trying to stop that incident, he probably should be banned from going onto the ground," he said.
"If the incident is chesting someone while you're on the ground and you want to punish someone for doing it, obviously the fine is significant, but for the Giants, in some way, shape, or form, every club is funded by the AFL, so the AFL end up paying their own fine, which is pretty bizarre.
"I would say probably not going onto the ground for a week or two would've been a better outcome, because 20 grand is irrelevant, to be perfectly frank."
Roos praised Papley for not escalating the incident after McCartney made contact.
"Hats off to Papley that he didn't respond because that could have ignited something a lot more serious than what happened," he said.
"You just can't have that in a game of football, but thankfully it didn't escalate too much."
McCartney, who played 182 games, has been renowned for being a fiery customer and was previously fined $20,000 for a mid-match tirade at umpires in 2021.
"We're all competitors," Roos said.
"I guarantee all of us would've thought at some point in our coaching or football manager careers, 'Should I go over? Should I say that to the umpire?', so if we're really honest with ourselves, we've all been close to that situation.
"I'm not saying what Jason did is right, far from it, but I'm saying if we're honest with ourselves we're probably a step away from doing something similar."
McCartney apologised for his actions in a statement and received the backing of Giants chief Dave Matthews despite the fine handed to him.
Swans star Tom Papley was in the middle of a big quarter-time scuffle between Sydney and GWS. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
"I'd like to apologise for the part I played in an incident during the quarter-time break of Saturday's game," he said.
"My intention was to shepherd some of our younger players to our team huddle.
"However, I understand that I should not have put myself in a position to have any interaction with an opposition player and I unreservedly apologise for my actions."
Matthews was quick to lend support.
"Jason has accepted responsibility for his role in the incident, understands the ramifications of his actions and is very remorseful," Matthews said.
"A respected and highly regarded member of our industry, he has our full support in the important role he plays at our club."