{"id":661773,"date":"2026-05-10T12:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661773\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:05:11","slug":"afl-news-2026-melbourne-star-kysaiah-pickett-in-hot-water-for-high-bump-on-west-coasts-jake-waterman-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/661773\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Melbourne star Kysaiah Pickett in hot water for high bump on West Coast’s Jake Waterman, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne star Kysaiah Pickett will face MRO scrutiny for a high bump on West Coast’s Jake Waterman in the opening moments of the match on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Waterman fell to ground holding his head and received a free kick after Pickett flew through at speed, clipping the key forward’s head.<\/p>\n

The Eagle was able to get up and take his kick, and hasn’t come from the ground, which will certainly help the Melbourne midfielder’s case. <\/p>\n

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READ MORE: Madge brushes off ‘excuse’ after Broncos thrashed<\/a><\/p>\n

“Kozzy’s looking for the replay. He’s sweating on this replay like a lot of people are,” commentator Dwayne Russell told Fox Footy<\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs champion Brad Johnson feels Pickett may dodge suspension, saying he didn’t brace to bump Waterman. <\/p>\n

\"Kozzy<\/p>\n

Kozzy Pickett clips Jake Waterman’s head.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

“He’s put his hands down, he didn’t brace to bump him on that occasion,” Johnson said. <\/p>\n

Pickett has found himself suspended by the MRO multiple times in his career already, including a three-game ban in 2024 for a high bump on Collingwood captain Darcy Moore. He’s been suspended four times since the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

A ban would be a huge blow for Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has broken out this season as one of the game’s elite midfielders, averaging 24 disposals and five tackles and has kicked 12 goals.<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide star Zak Butters avoiding a suspension<\/a> for a bump to the head on Friday night will likely ease Melbourne fans’ worries.<\/p>\n

The AFL has softened its stance on head high bumps under new head of football Greg Swann, after they effectively automatically resulted in one-game suspensions in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Harry Edwards comes from the game bleeding from the head.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

It was an eventful start to the Eagles-Dees game, with West Coast defender Harry Edwards forced from the ground after copping a friendly-fire elbow to the head that left him bleeding profusely.<\/p>\n

He was donning a protective helmet for this game, and had to remove it as blood streamed from his forehead. <\/p>\n

Edwards did not return to the game and failed his concussion testing in the rooms.<\/p>\n

A tough blow for the 24-year-old who has already suffered two other concussions in 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne star Kysaiah Pickett will face MRO scrutiny for a high bump on West Coast’s Jake Waterman in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-661773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}