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One-week ban for Glass, Ballantyne

Darren Glass pleads his case. Pic: Lincoln Baker/WA News

UPDATED: West Coast will have to find a replacement defender after captain Darren Glass was offered a one-week suspension by the match review panel.

And Fremantle are likely to be without Hayden Ballantyne after he was offered reprimands for two separate indiscretions in the clash with Sydney last Saturday.

But when added together there are sufficient points penalties for Ballantyne to miss a match.

Glass says he had little option but to collide heavily with Port Adelaide's Chad Wingard in an incident in the clash at Patersons Stadium on Saturday night.

The 32-year-old leapt in the air and had his eyes turned away from the ball when he collected All-Australian forward Wingard to the head with his shoulder in an ill-judged spoiling attempt that led to an immediate free kick.

Wingard recovered to take the set shot and convert a crucial goal, but was taken to hospital by ambulance after the match.

Glass' situation is not helped by his 93.75 carryover points.

Scans yesterday cleared Wingard of any damage in the one saving grace for the Eagles captain with the incident deemed low impact,

Asked post-match if he was worried about the hit, Glass said: "No, not initially. The umpire obviously paid a free kick. He didn't report me then and there, so we'll just have to wait and see.

"It felt like there wasn't too much else I could do. I sort of attacked the ball and that happens in football sometimes."

Glass received a one-game ban in 2012 for an almost identical bump on Jonathan Brown.

Increased efforts by the league to crack down on head-high contact this season could count against him.

Glass refused to blame the side's fitness levels for the last-term fade-out.

"We felt like it was our ball use that let us down," he said.

"We felt like we had plenty of run left, but it was our lack of composure going forward."

Nic Naitanui responded to intense speculation over his form and fitness with an improved performance.

He finished with 16 disposals - 11 of them contested - to go with 17 hit-outs, four clearances and three score assists.

Glass said Naitanui would keep building as the year progressed.

"We're still yet to see the best of him," he said.