Goodwin offered 3 for strike

COBURG’S Tom Goodwin was last night offered a threematch suspension over an incident that is claimed to have broken the jaw of hard-nosed Geelong VFL midfielder Jordan Keras on Saturday.

Keras had surgery on Sunday and is in doubt to return in time for the Cats’ premiership campaign.

No report was laid on the day, but Goodwin was last night cited by the AFL Victoria match review panel for striking Keras during the first quarter of the match.

The incident was assessed as careless conduct with high impact and high contact.

“Due to an existing bad record, the incident was classified as a four-match base sanction. An early plea enables the player to accept a threematch sanction,” the AFL Victoria match review sheet read.

Keras, who has suffered a broken jaw previously, managed to play out the remainder of Saturday’s match, finishing with 20 possessions, four clearances and four inside-50s in the 80-point victory.

But he said he knew immediately that something was wrong after he had felt contact to his jaw after attempting to win the ball at a stoppage in the first quarter.

“I’ve broken my jaw before so I knew I had broken it straight away,” Keras said.

“I spoke to the surgeon and he has put a plate in to give it some support and he thinks I’ll be right to play in two weeks for the first final, but we’ll see how I go.

“I was hoping to not get too much contact for the rest of the game because any sort of nudge I would have felt it moving around, so with my style, the way I play footy … I wouldn’t put myself in that situation again. I didn’t play the game I usually would.”

Keras, who was part of the drought-breaking St Joseph’s flag in the GFL in 2015, came to GMHBA Stadium this season after playing two seasons for Southport.