SOPHIE GANNON: Some of our footy legends are miles off target on the Tristan Xerri hit

Over the last 48 hours, the footy world has debated Sunday’s nasty incident between North Melbourne’s Tristan Xerri and Melbourne’s Tom Sparrow and have I been left shocked at some of the takes.

All have had their say, from legends of the game and experienced footy reporters to Joe Blow at the pub.

Everyone has given their thoughts and I can’t believe what I am hearing, even from a couple of my favourites footy minds.

“I think you can make the case that this is not a careless action it was just an accident…he was trying to make a tackle, the arm was there,” Saints great Leigh Montagna said. “You can’t say that that arm action was careless on a footy field.”

“I reckon three is too much,” said player of the 20th century Leigh Matthews. “The Ed Richards one is not that much different, and he got off.”

“I would be disappointed if he missed games for that,” said Channel 7 firebrand Kane Cornes.

“When it’s a competitive game of footy and there are lots of numbers around the ball, sometimes accidents like that are going to happen,” said North coach and four-time premiership mentor Alastair Clarkson

There is room for accidents in the game and that not all actions resulting in a concussion require three-weeks on the sidelines.

But this one is clear cut. It’s a no brainer. It is a forceful horizontal, swinging arm into player’s jaw resulting in a serious injury.

For the sake of the argument, let’s break down the incident.

After a boundary throw-in, Xerri finds himself following up the play.

He is situated to the right of Sparrow and North Melbourne captain Jye Simpkin, who is hot on Sparrow’s heels and just centimetres away from laying a tackle.

Now, for those arguing that Xerri was attempting to lay a tackle.

He was nowhere near being in position to lay a correctly executed tackle. He didn’t have time to shuffle his feet or change his body position to attempt a proper technique. Instead, he lived up to his “combative” reputation and swung a careless and reckless arm to his left.

Since when does a tackle look like that? His right arm doesn’t even attempt to move towards Sparrow. It’s a lazy swinging arm.

This incident is not an example of a natural “footy action”.

Xerri tries to gain an edge each week by being the most physical player at every stoppage. But this time he got it wrong.

He swung his arm. It hit a player in the head, and now that player will enter concussion protocols, be out of action for at least 10 days and who knows what the long-term impacts will be?

I don’t believe Xerri’s contact was intentional or meant to hurt Sparrow, but it was undeniably careless and is worthy of a suspension.

Was Xerri trying to knock Sparrow out? No. Was it a punch to the face? Not quite.

Did he get it wrong? Yes, and badly.

If the tribunal lets Xerri off it sets the precedent that players can carelessly swing limbs in contested spaces, as long as the ball is in the same vicinity and you didn’t mean to do it.

Imagine the fall out in junior and local footy. You can’t teach kids at Auskick that a lazy horizontal arm is an accepted tackling technique.

It feels to me as if people are looking for every opportunity to criticise the overly rigid MRO/review process.

I agree a review into the system’s lack of flexibility is required in the off-season but in this instance, Xerri deserves his three-weeks off.