Eagles ruckman Craig Parry relieved after lifetime ban overturned

RELIEVED Eagles ruckman Craig Parry admits last week was one of his most stressful as he was briefly forced to contemplate life without football.

RELIEVED Woodville-West Torrens player Craig Parry admits last week was one of his most stressful as he was briefly forced to contemplate life without football.

Parry was deregistered by the SANFL after his recent two match suspension for striking North Adelaide's Matthew Campbell pushed him over the 16-game lifetime suspension limit, under the AFL's national code.

The suspension was overturned by the SA Football Commission on appeal, after the Eagles argued most of Parry's suspensions dated back to before the 16-game rule applied.

The ruckman will retire at season's end, but the ban would have prohibited him from having any official role in football, meaning his ambitions of coaching in the future would have been crushed.

"It was a massive relief,'' Parry says.

"You can only be so confident which way the commission is going to go.

"You weren't sure whether they were going to make an example of you or whether they were going to be a bit lenient."

Parry says he is not a dirty footballer but admits to playing on the edge at times.

He welcomes the commission's condition that he attend umpiring and anger management sessions.