Staker, who did not suffer any break to his jaw, was only a 50/50 chance to play this week.
"Hearing the doctor's evidence, it was not good hearing that kind of stuff," Hall admitted.
However Hall, who had served six previous suspensions totalling 21 weeks during his long career, came under fierce cross examination from the AFL's legal counsel Jeff Gleeson over his actions.
Gleesen was particularly concerned that Hall had again struck a player to the jaw having broken the jaw of Kangaroos' player Sam McFarlane in 1997 while playing for St Kilda in a reserve grade match - which resulted in a five game suspension.
He told Hall that despite having previously broken the jaw of McFarlane in a similar incident 11 years ago, "you still swung a punch (at Staker) with maximum force."
Gleesen said Hall - whom Australia's greatest boxing trainer Johnny Lewis has described as a champion in waiting if he quit footy to return to the boxing ring - had deliberately set about trying to knock Staker out by rotating his shoulder - as a trained boxer would - in delivering his punch to Staker.
"This is a punch that would have made Rocky Balboa blush," Gleesen said.
"This was a punch thrown with maximum force with the intention to cause serious injury."
"But the difference is this wasn't boxing, Hall didn't have gloves on and his opponent wasn't expecting to be punched."
But Hall maintained he had not set out to hurt Staker, although he admitted his actions had damaged the AFL as a code and also the image of the game up in New South Wales for which he apologised.
"It was more a get off me type of thing," he said.
Hall's counsel Terry Forrest - the same QC who enabled Hall to lead the Swans to the 2005 premiership when he got a one match suspension for a minor striking offence downgraded to a reprimand following the preliminary final - urged the jury to ignore the hysteria that had surrounded the Hall case.
"We accept this is a serious offence but it is far from a worst case scenario," Forrest said.
Forrest said the fact Staker had suffered no lasting injury and could even play this week and that Hall had not been suspended since 2002 should be taken into account when assessing his penalty.
The suspension equals the one St Kilda's Steven Baker received for rough conduct against Jeff Farmer last year and