Essendon forward Peter Wright has learned his fate for heavy Swan hit

There has been a strong reaction after Essendon’s Peter Wright learned his fate for his sickening high shot on Harry Cunningham.

Peter Wright has learned his fate for that hit on Harry Cunningham. Photos: Getty Images

Essendon forward Peter Wright will spend the next four matches on the sidelines after he was handed a lengthy ban by the AFL Tribunal.

There was intense interest in Wright’s date at the Tribunal on Tuesday night after the Essendon forward knocked Sydney’s Harry Cunningham unconscious at the SCG.

Wright was referred straight to the Tribunal and his conduct was determined as careless, with severe impact and high contact, with the AFL seeking a minimum of four weeks and Essendon hopeful of negotiating a shorter ruling.

Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >

Rather than try to fight the charge, however, Wright and the Bombers took a different route in the incident that sparked a fierce debate.

“They are playing the contrition card so Peter Wright has pleaded guilty to all aspects of the charge,” David Zita said on Fox Sports.

“The AFL would like a four-match ban, Essendon are obviously seeing if they can get that down to three matches, which is the minimum for this kind of incident.

Peter Wright has learned his fate for that hit on Harry Cunningham. Photos: Getty Images

“Either way he’s missing three matches at the very least.”

The Tribunal deliberated for around 25 minutes before handing Wright the ban, which means he will miss matches against St Kilda, Port Adelaide, the Bulldogs and Adelaide before he can return in round seven to take on the Pies.

During the hearing, Essendon suggested Wright should be acknowledged for accepting the charge and “being part of the cultural change that is happening and must happen within our game”, Zita reported.

The Tribunal still opted for the month-long ban the AFL had been seeking and there was a strong response on social media.

“As a swans fan I thought 3 would’ve been satisfactory,” was one comment.

“The sport is cooked,” wrote another.

“Absolute joke. AFL is now a non contact sport. Well done AFL. AFL is now dead,” added a third.

Ihle (Bombers) says by pleading guilty Wright is adopting evolving community standards "perhaps in a way where his conduct ... maybe even two years ago, would have been much more defensible."

— David Zita (@DavidZita1) March 26, 2024

The ruling also means Wayne Carey won’t be watching football for the next month.

Speaking on his podcast The Truth Hurts, Carey slammed the decision to send the incident to the Tribunal and said he wouldn’t watch footy for as long as Wright is suspended for.

“So this has been sent to the Tribunal? Weak as piss straight away to the AFL,” Carey said.

The AFL has cracked down on head high contact in the wake of Angus Brayshaw’s early retirement at the age of 28 due to ongoing concussion issues.

The Melbourne premiership player was knocked out by Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard in last year’s qualifying final, but Maynard escaped suspension.

Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper was banned for four games for a bump that concussed Adelaide’s Mark Keane in the pre-season.

The Maynard-Brayshaw incident was similar to Wright’s bump on Cunningham and Carey argued players should still be allowed to “attack the footy”.

Wayne Carey plans to stop watching football for as long as Wright is suspended. Photos: Getty Images

“It’s just gone too far for me,” said Carey, who won two premierships with North Melbourne in the 1990s.

“I will not watch footy … if he gets weeks. I’m not going to watch it for as long as he’s out of the game.

“A waste of his time, a waste of money. Just could not be more disappointed. And the fact they’re not strong enough to make a call on it, so they have to send it to the Tribunal.

“Players are going to be petrified to even go at the footy hard. Players are going to be tiptoeing around the footy and not wanting to attack the footy. Is that what we want to turn this game into?”

St Kilda great Leigh Montagna was also opposed to a harsh sanction for the key-position goalkicker, citing his opinion that contact between Wright and Cunningham was “inevitable”.

“I think (four weeks is) too harsh for a player I saw instinctively brace at the very last second when contact was inevitable,” he argued on Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“The fear is now, if this is going to be four weeks, let’s not be surprised if players start pulling out of contests. Because that would be the smarter option and be called soft than it is to miss a month of football and really hurt a team’s chances of trying to win games.

“It just doesn’t sit easy with me when you watch it in slow-motion to say ‘he had other options’. We know how fast the game is. They’re coming at each other a million miles an hour and it’s instinctive.

“You don’t know in that situation until contact is inevitable what you’re going to do.”

Wright’s bump on Cunningham was the flashpoint in a fiery contest between the Bombers and Swans at the SCG on Saturday night.

Swans livewire Tom Papley said Wright could get ready for a “holiday” and called Essendon’s new approach of playing on the edge under coach Brad Scott a “facade”.

“They really gave it to us. Brad Scott came out and said they want to have that Essendon edge and Peter Wright took it a bit too far,” Papley told 3AW.

“They were still getting into us. You can be tough and do all that stuff, but you’ve still got to be able to play four quarters.

“They were hitting us behind the play and things like that. They’re trying to do that stuff and I don’t know if it’s them or not.

“Brad Scott came out and said it’s the Essendon way, but … anyway I won’t go into it.

“You can pretend to be tough, but you’ve still got to win the ball and win the game.

“It’s all a facade I think, but anyway.”

Essendon next play St Kilda on Saturday afternoon.