St Kilda's finals hopes have been rocked after star tagger Steven Baker was hit with the heaviest suspension of the 2007 AFL season on Tuesday night following his off the ball collision with Fremantle's Jeff Farmer.

Baker, who shared the Saints' best and fairest in 2005, was suspended for seven matches for an incident which left Farmer with a broken nose and concussion.

This was despite supportive evidence from leading player manager and former St Kilda player Ricky Nixon, who told the tribunal he saw the incident while watching Saturday's match at Telstra Dome from a corporate box.

The incident was not captured on video and was seen by few of the 24,000 spectators in attendance.

Nixon corroborated Baker's evidence that he had merely tried to block Farmer as the pair ran into the Dockers' forward line.

"I saw 100 other blocks like that (during the Saints-Dockers match) and probably 1000 on the weekend," he said.

"As a former half-back flanker (like Baker) I would try to block the run of a half-forward flanker (like Farmer) to get to the ball."

Baker told the tribunal that Farmer had merely run into the back of him as he stepped into his path to prevent him running into the forward line.

"My intention (in blocking Farmer) was to stay goal side of him and to stop him getting the ball," he said.

However Baker conceded the ball was more than five metres away when he blocked Farmer and conceded his actions warranted a free-kick but not a report.

In contrast Farmer said he was standing watching the play when he felt someone make contact 'to the right hand side of his face.'

But he was unable to tell the tribunal who had made contact with him.

"Basically I was watching the play and the next thing I remember contact was made to my face and then I remember being on the ground on all fours."

Farmer then needed assistance to leave the field and did not play the rest of the game and is in doubt for this week's game against his former club Melbourne.

Fremantle trainer Barry Kirkwood also gave evidence telling the tribunal that Baker ran in from about 20 metres away from Farmer from 'a diagonal direction' and made contact with him.

But he was unable to tell the tribunal what form of contact Baker made because his view at the moment of impact was obscured.

However AFL tribunal counsel Andrew Tinney successfully argued that no matter whether the three-man jury believed Farmer's version of events or Baker's version of events (and in handing down their decision jury chairman Wayne Henwood said they accepted Baker's version) that the contact still equated to rough conduct because it was unnecessary in the circumstances given that it occurred so far off the ball.

The jury agreed and after a deliberation of about 30 minutes found Baker guilty of engaging in rough conduct in a reckless manner.

They also found that the impact was high and the contact was high equating to a base tally of 425 points or a four-game suspension.

But because of Baker's recent tribunal record this was increased to 722.5 points or a seven-match ban because he had a carryover of 127 points for two striking offences from earlier this year while his base tally was increased by 40 per cent because of a total of four weeks