West Coast Eagles defender Brad Sheppard says he erred in diving for the ball in front of Bailey Banfield

Craig O'DonoghueThe West Australian
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VideoAFL: Eagles defender Brad Sheppard suffered a nasty cut to his head, but he was lucky he didn't do more damage to Docker Bailey Banfield's leg.

West Coast star Brad Sheppard has admitted he was in the wrong during the incident which left Fremantle youngster Bailey Banfield with a syndesmosis injury, despite the umpire awarding the defender the free kick.

Both Banfield and Sheppard needed treatment following the clash on Sunday, with Banfield seriously injured and Sheppard needing stitches to his face.

Sheppard dived on the ball and his body crashed into Banfield’s legs during the contest. The Docker will spend several weeks in a moonboot and Sheppard said he’d done the wrong thing by the way he attacked the ball.

“Hopefully Bailey’s ankle or knee is okay,” Sheppard told TABradio.

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“Looking back on the vision it was probably a bit careless on my behalf. My thoughts are with him. Hopefully he’s OK.

“What the AFL have done to protect the bloke with lower leg injuries – we’ve had Jaymie Graham as a coach go down with a sickening leg injury when he was playing for South Fremantle in the WAFL. You’ve got to protect the guys and the legs. I would have thought the free kick would have been Bailey’s. I wasn’t expecting it to be my way.

“In the heat of the moment, you don’t quite think about the consequences and the rules. I just wanted to get the footy.”

Sheppard has had an unusual start to the season with a broken nose, ankle issue and now stitches.

Having been remarkably resilient in recent years, he hoped those problems would be the end of his injury issues in 2021.

“It’s not the ideal start. Hopefully things happen in threes,” Sheppard said.

“The week before it was a broken nose and rolled ankle as well. Hopefully that’s me done for the year and it’s smooth sailing for here.

“That’s part and parcel of footy. It’s a contact game and if you put your head in the wrong spot, you’re going to wear one.”

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