Craig will miss the Dragons’ last two games of the home and away season against Maryborough and Castlemaine after he was found guilty of striking Eaglehawk’s Jack Fallon late in the third quarter of last Saturday’s match at Canterbury Park.

Craig was reported by central umpire Scott Baxter, who said he was one metre away when saw Craig strike Fallon with a left fist to the right side of Fallon’s jaw as part of a scuffle involving “four, maybe five players”.

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Fallon said he “felt a whack to the lower jaw” but he didn’t see who had struck him. He described the impact as “pretty soft” and that it didn’t hinder him from playing out the game.

In his evidence Craig said he ran over to break up a scuffle to assist team-mate Blair Holmes and that after he and Fallon had hold of each other, he tried to break contact by slinging his arm down.

Craig said he was “blown away” when informed by Baxter that he had been reported for striking and that there was no contact made to Fallon’s head.

However, the tribunal found Craig guilty of the report and handed down the two-match suspension with some advice to the Dragons’ utility around being more vocal rather than physical when it comes to lending a future hand to a team-mate.

“You have quite a history building up, which makes it hard for the tribunal to be lenient,” chairman Walker said.

“I plead to you to change the way you play the game.”

It’s the second time this season Craig has been suspended for two matches.

The 2016 Sandhurst premiership player was also found guilty of striking Gisborne’s Matt Goodyear in round five.

In response to Walker’s comments about changing the way he plays, Craig said: “I won’t change the way I go at the footy, but towards the man I guess I probably won’t put so much pressure on.

“I will take that (be more vocal than physical) on board, but you’ve also got to stick up for your team-mates.”

Wednesday night was the second time in as many seasons Craig has been suspended from a Sandhurst game at Eaglehawk.

It was at Canterbury Park last year where Craig copped a three-match suspension for “careless contact” with an umpire in what was a ban that led to the rare step of the BFNL appealing the penalty to AFL Victoria.

READ MORE – BFNL APPEALS PASCALE CRAIG THREE-GAME SUSPENSION

Craig’s case was the first of a marathon night for the tribunal at AFLCV headquarters in which another BFNL senior player was suspended.

Kyneton’s Nick Brazil was suspended for one match after being found guilty of striking Maryborough coach Ben Lavars last Saturday. 

Brazil will miss Kyneton’s round 17 game against Castlemaine this Saturday.

The tribunal also heard a case in which Elmore reserves player Mitchell Dickason answered the serious report of “intentionally making contact with an umpire”.

Dickason was reported by central umpires Jordan Bonnano and Sam Marshall.

The incident from last weekend’s HDFNL reserves game against Heathcote centred around contact between Dickason and Bonnano when Bonnano was running backwards to set a mark after paying a 50m penalty.

Bonnano said he had been obstructed from running backwards by Dickason and believed the contact  “wasn’t accidental” and described it as “quite forceful”.

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Marshall also reported Dickason, saying he was 60m away when he saw the player “pull in his right elbow” and make contact to the umpire’s left torso.

Dickason told the tribunal the contact was accidental and that the umpire was “a step away when I noticed him” and that Bonnano had run into him.

Chairman Walker handed Dickason a three-match suspension saying “it’s up to the player to avoid contact with an umpire.”

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