Fremantle's Alex Silvagni will miss four weeks of football after being found guilty of striking by the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night.
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The penalty will mean the player will miss the rest of the home and away season, and at least the first week of the finals.
Silvagni has not cemented his spot in the successful side and may struggle to play another AFL game this year.
The Dockers player was charged with striking West Coast's Jamie Cripps in the second quarter of the match on Sunday afternoon.
Vision of what happened appeared to show the Dockers player raise his elbow as he ran towards Cripps behind the play, hitting him in the jaw.
The incident was assessed by the match review panel as intentional conduct with high impact to the head.
Trainers took Cripps off the ground, the player gripping his jaw, clearly in pain.
He missed the remaining eight minutes of the second quarter as he was tested for a possible concussion.
Cripps returned to play after being given pain relief medication, but went off again towards the end of the final term.
A medical report from West Coast said Cripps had suffered severe pain, missed four days of training and may miss one match as a result of the injury.
Silvagni pleaded guilty to the charges, saying he felt bad about the incident and had since contacted Cripps to apologise.
But the Fremantle player's legal representative, Nick Tweedie, said Silvagni has been running towards a potential marking contest when Cripps got in his way.
Silvagni had meant to use his forearm to bump Cripps out of the way, but had clumsily hit him higher than intended.
"This is not a premeditated targeting of a player," Tweedie said.
Jeff Gleeson, for the AFL, said he accepted that Silvagni was sorry for what he did and that Fremantle CEO Steve Rosich had provided the player a glowing character reference.
But he said the incident had occurred about 80 metres from the play and Cripps could have suffered a broken jaw.
Tweedie said Silvagni deserved to be given a four-week penalty, with one subtracted for his guilty plea, which would allow the player to return to football for the finals season.
Gleeson argued for a six-week penalty, with one subtracted for the guilty plea.
Brisbane's Luke McGuane will pay a $1500 fine after being found guilty at the AFL Tribunal on Tuesday night.
McGuane was charged with rough conduct against Carlton's Kade Simpson during the first quarter of their match on Saturday night.
