Lock was suspended for two matches for striking South Bendigo’s Ryan Connaughton in last Saturday’s clash at Canterbury Park.

The tribunal found Lock guilty despite contact being minimal.

The reporting umpires - Paul Hutchinson and Damian Nolan - said Lock and Connaughton were holding on to each other’s jumpers before Lock swung a right hand at Connaughton and made contact to the South Bendigo player’s jaw.

Connaughton denied he and Lock were holding each other.

“I bumped into Damien and he turned around and I felt slight contact to my jaw and chest,” Connaughton said.

Connaughton didn’t fall to the ground and didn’t require any medical attention.

Lock was adamant he didn’t use his right hand, but admitted to swinging his left arm back at Connaughton.

“As a reaction (to the bump) I turned around in a left-hand slapping motion . . . I didn’t think I’d made contact.”

After a lengthy deliberation the tribunal found Lock guilty.

“The tribunal has no doubt that a punch was thrown,” chairman John Chapman said.

“The umpires and Ryan (Connaughton) stated that contact was made.

“It doesn’t matter how small . . . there was contact and a punch was thrown.”

In handing down the two-week penalty, Chapman urged Lock to control himself better in the future.

“We believe the strike sits on the lower end of the scale, but your action was extremely reckless and negligent,” Chapman said.

Lock’s suspension adds to Eaglehawk’s woes, with skipper Brady Herdman no certainty to return from a calf injury this week.

Herdman has missed the past two matches because of a corked calf and is yet to get clearance from medical staff to resume training.

“It’s a funny one because Brady feels as though he’s right, but the physios aren’t so sure,” Eaglehawk coach Derrick Filo said yesterday.

“Obviously, we want him to play this week, but if there’s any doubt we just won’t take the risk.

“He’s a very important player for us and we don’t want to run the risk of losing him for another four weeks.

“Looking at the bigger picture, we’d rather get him right now so that he’s fit for the second half of the season.”

Filo said this week’s game against Golden Square comes at a good time for Eaglehawk.

“We were disappointing last week, but I’d rather come up against a quality side like Golden Square this week than play a bottom side and win by 20 goals,” he said.

“We’ll learn more about our side this week by playing Golden Square.”