Sydney face an anxious wait on the playing future of Barry Hall after the rugged forward threw his elbow back towards the head of Collingwood defender Shane Wakelin in Saturday night's AFL match at ANZ Stadium.

Hall, who was playing only his third game back from a seven-match suspension for king-hitting West Coast's Brent Staker at the same ground, was involved in what Wakelin described as a "tangle" twenty minutes into the second quarter of the match.

Hall had a poor game, conceding five free kicks in the first half before being briefly dragged from the ground to take a phone call from the coaching staff upstairs.

The three-time All-Australian and former club captain finished with one goal and 10 possessions as the fourth-placed Swans crashed to a 29-point upset defeat, with Collingwood jumping to fifth spot after their 11.13 (79) to 6.14 (50) victory before 59,202 fans.

Hall, who said after the Staker clash that he needed to regain the respect of the playing group following his "brain-snap", will find out on Sunday if he faces another possible suspension, adding to his 23-game career tally of bans.

"Look I'd rather not comment. I had my eyes on the footy," said Wakelin, who had 22 possessions and earned four free kicks on Saturday night.

"We had a tangle of arms. That's about as much as I knew about it.

"One of the boys told me they saw it on the scoreboard afterwards.

"I didn't actually see it.

"So I'm not sure what happened. We'll have to see Monday night."

Asked if the blow connected with his chin, Wakelin said: "Not with my chin, no."

Pressed on whether his head was struck, he added: "Next question. Let's talk about the great win hey?"

Wakelin said he fell over as an attempt to win a free kick.

"Oh look, you've got to. You've got to try to milk a free kick whenever you can," he said.

"I thought I would give it a crack and unfortunately I didn't get one."

If Hall is cited, whatever penalty he is handed will be ramped up to a huge extent because of the hangover from the Staker incident.

He faces a 50 per cent penalty loading, as well as the addition of 90 carryover demerit points from that incident.

That means that even the lowest grading of striking offence would result in a suspension.

Swans coach Paul Roos admitted he was surprised to see Hall still showing signs of frustration out on the field Saturday night.

"Two weeks ago he had 10 scoring shots, using his body he bumps his opponent out of the way and all those sorts of things," Roos said.

"So hopefully it's a technique thing and he can address that next week."

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