“No love lost” between Lions and Crows after Rankine bump as King calls for big ban

David King thinks Adelaide’s Izak Rankine is set to receive a big ban for his off-the-ball hit on Brisbane’s Brandon Starcevich in Sunday’s 97-86 loss at the Gabba.

Rankine braced to bump the defender off the ball in the opening quarter, with the duo’s heads clashing as Starcevich was caught off guard.

As a result of the bump, Starcevich was subbed out with a concussion while Rankine went off the ground to get some stitches on the top of his head.

Lions veteran Dayne Zorko said the incident fired up his teammates and that there was no love lost between the teams after the hit.

“It was quite heated,” Zorko told SENQ Breakfast.

“Obviously the incident with ‘Starce’ sort of fired the boys up a little bit.

“Look, that will obviously run its course but there was no love lost there in patches.

“It was good that we kept our heads and played our process, played our game style and went on to claim victory.”

Having concussed Starcevich with the bump in a non-football act, King thinks that the Crow must be sent straight to the Tribunal to face a ban of three or more weeks.

He discussed how the MRO could grade the bump with Sam Edmund on SEN Mornings and compared his act to that of Luke Parker who was handed a six-week ban in the VFL earlier this year for bumping and concussing a player off the ball.

Edmund: “It’s rough conduct … whether it's careless or (intentional) it’s severe impact because concussion is a trigger for severe impact.

“I'd say it's three weeks and it might well be three-plus and straight to the Tribunal.”

King: “I think that's where it'll go.

“We were talking last night about the Luke Parker incident versus the Izak Rankine one. The intention to actually inflict some pain on the opponent, I don’t think Luke Parker meant to do that at all.

“But he found himself in a similar situation where he caused enormous trauma to the opposition … whereas I think Izak meant to inflict a bit of pain, so I think he's in a world of trouble with the AFL.

“I'd be surprised if it doesn't go straight to the Tribunal, and everyone just says to me, ’On the table, it comes up as three weeks’.

“But these are the sorts of things we need to stamp out. If we're serious about protecting the head, then this goes straight to the Tribunal.”

The MRO will hand down their findings from Sunday’s Round 17 action on Monday. Star Swan Isaac Heeney could also receive a ban for striking St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster in their loss at Marvel Stadium.