Brent Harvey has defended the actions of Ben Cunnington, after the midfielder was fined $1,000 by the Match Review Panel (MRP) on Monday for “careless conduct”.

Cunnington fell into the back of Suns’ captain Gary Ablett in the second quarter at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night, but Harvey denied it was a deliberate attempt to hurt him.

“You go back and look at Cunners and he was going pretty hard at Gary Ablett, you know, chasing him,” Harvey told SEN’s The Run Home.

“If you look really, really closely, his foot gets wedged underneath Ablett and he’s got no choice but to go over.”

The MRP’s assessed the incident as, “careless conduct with low impact to the body” and Harvey believes Cunnington’s impeccable record was taken into account.

“He got a fine for it because he landed on top of him but I know Ben Cunnington and there’s no way known, that he would go into a game and knee anybody.

“I know people are going to roll their eyes and say, “It’s his team-mate, he’s got to say that” but that’s the honest truth.”