Suns coach Stewart Dew shocked by friendly fire free kick

When Gold Coast rookie Ben King lashed out at Blue Lachie Plowman, he was lucky he missed — but teammate Michael Rischitelli was the unfortunate recipient of his fist, not that the umpires clicked on the friendly fire.

Young buck Ben King was involved in a bizarre incident in the Suns’ loss to Gold Coast. icture: Getty Images

He is unlikely to have a date with the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night, but Gold Coast’s Ben King might have to buy teammate Michael Rischitelli dinner after accidentally collecting him with a left hook.

WATCH THE INCIDENT IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

Young buck Ben King was involved in a bizarre incident in the Suns’ loss to Gold Coast. icture: Getty Images

King, who was selected at pick 6 in last year’s draft, had just taken a mark on the lead in front of Carlton opponent Lachie Plowman during the second quarter of Saturday’s match at Marvel Stadium when his moment of madness began.

King pushed back Plowman with an elbow before turning around and throwing a punch with his left hand in the direction of Plowman.

However, the Carlton defender had moved out of the way and King instead landed the blow on teammate Rischitelli, who was standing just behind.

Umpires seemingly thought King had collected Plowman with the punch and mistakenly handed the Blues a free kick, denying King of a shot at goal from 25m out.

Suns coach Stuart Dew was shocked when told of the incident in his post-match press conference, unaware of what had happened in the scuffle.

“Is that really what happened?,” Dew asked reporters.

“I wondered front on contact. It should have gone our way then.

“I wasn’t sure what happened. I didn’t want to go back and get frustrated so I wanted to move on.”

Rischitelli played on but was clearly shaken in the immediate aftermath of the hit.

The Suns suffered a 13th consecutive loss to the Blues in the match, but at least they packed a punch and fought back from a 43-point deficit in the third quarter to go down by only 24 points.

David Teague leads Carlton to another win as caretaker firms for full-time coaching role

Richmond continues late-season surge with easy win over Port Adelaide

Originally published as Suns coach Stewart Dew shocked by friendly fire free kick