West Coast AFL defender Brent Staker copped it on the chin and now Sydney forward Barry Hall says it's his turn.

Hall evoked memories of some of the big hits behind play of the 1970s and 80s when he popped Staker flush on the jaw with a left hook in the first quarter of Saturday night's AFL match.

The Swans won their third game of the season, overpowering the injury-depleted Eagles by 62 points at ANZ Stadium.

Staker was unable to play any further part in the match after being felled behind the play by Hall just before quarter-time.

"Certainly watching the vision afterwards, it looked terrible," Hall, 31, said, adding he was likely to require surgery for a suspected broken right wrist suffered in a collision with the fence in the fourth quarter.

"I certainly didn't mean to hit him high or to cause damage the way I did for him to be off for the rest of the game.

"But the thing is it did and it shouldn't happen in the first place. I shouldn't put myself in that position.

"I'll cop that on the chin and whatever the tribunal comes up with, I've just got to cop.

"I'll take my medicine. Whatever they think is fair. It's pretty hard to defend my actions. It's there in black and white."

Hall, Sydney's six-time leading goalkicker, has been suspended for a total of 16 matches and found guilty six times.

The three-time All-Australian's most recent suspension was in 2002, but this time a ban of four weeks or more appears likely.

The former St Kilda hard man denied he had an anger-management problem.

"I went on to play the game and I wasn't running around whacking blokes so I think anger management is a bit extreme," the 2005 premiership player said.

"I suppose it's an ongoing thing that if you have a bit of a reputation about something, if you take two steps forward and have a little slip-up, you are back to the start again.

"I have to prove to everyone again that I can control myself.

"I've been really good with that sort of stuff for a long time and I made a mistake.

"There was frustration there. It was a spur-of-the-moment, split-second thing.

"It was a mind explosion and it looked really ordinary on the replay. I certainly regret what I did."

Hall said he had left a message on Staker's phone in a bid to get in touch with the dazed defender.

The Eagles players were fuming after the match.

"I saw it. I was five metres from where the incident was," an angry West Coast centre half-back Adam Hunter said of the Staker-Hall clash.

"Seeing Stakes go down behind play like that certainly stirs the blood.

"It was something that you don't see too often any more."

The Swans (3-1) face unbeaten defending premiers the Cats in Geelong next week.

"I apologised to him," Hall said of his telephone call to Staker.

"I wished him the best for next week and hopefully he plays and plays well (against Port Adelaide).

"I left it up to him. If he wanted to call me back, I'd be quite happy to chat to him."

With the AFL hoping to establish a team on the Gold Coast in 2011 and another in western Sydney a year later, Hall's hit comes at a bad time for AFL chief Andrew Demetriou.

"We've got a lot of young kids in NSW, we are trying to grow the game. We can't have incidents like this setting the game back or giving it a bad name," Hall said.

Swans coach Paul Roos said: "It's not great for footy, it's not great for the footy club, it's not great for the development of the code.

"We'll stand by Hally, he has been exemplary while he has been at this footy club, certainly under my reign (mid-2002 onwards)."

Hall said he couldn't promise he wouldn't have another "mind-snap".

"I wouldn't like to guarantee it because I didn't think it would happen even two years ago, I thought I was past all this stuff," he said.

"I've let them (Sydney's leadership group) down a bit and I've let footy in NSW down as well."

Hall said he was prepared for the endless TV replays of the punch over the next few days and the front-page headlines.

"I just think the reputation and the boxing and all that sort of stuff has probably made it a little bit worse, the aftermath of it," he said.

"I'll take my medicine. Whatever they think is fair. It's pretty hard to defend my actions."

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