Mayer said La Rocca was horrified and confused with the suspension when told the news as Adelaide is now lodging an appeal to the disciplinary committee which will be heard next week.
“We basically fought the suspension on three issues,’’ Mayer said.
“First of all they talk about the use of an elbow.
“The footage we believe is inconclusive with what part of his arm made the alleged contact with Matt Simon.
“The second issue with that ‘show cause’ notice is he made contact with his (Simon’s) face.
“We believe the footage is inconclusive with regards to that and this is the footage that we’ve seen.
“The third part to that is we believe Matt Simon’s arm is contributing to where La Rocca’s arm finishes, it’s used as a fulcrum if you like.
“So there’s a clear lack of intent from La Rocca apart from trying to get onto his feet after being dragged down in a scuffle off the ball.
“Clearly he is not even looking at Matt Simon so to be given three weeks we find completely baffling.
La Rocca who was forced off injured during last Friday’s 2-2 draw with Sydney FC at Coopers Stadium on Friday was cited by the independent match review panel for an incident in the 24th minute of the clash.
Football Federation Australia issued the ban on Wednesday night claiming La Rocca “committed the offence of assault on a player.”
Mayer was not impressed with how the incident has been handled.
“Having come from a background of NRL and AFL I’m just absolutely blown away by the process and how this has played out,’’ Mayer said.
“The fact that the player himself and his history is not considered in the first instance just seems nonsensical.
“We’re going to have no other option than to take this to the next stage and fight it.
“Even on that automatically we accept a one match penalty, no matter what we do, he gets one week.”
At the time of Friday’s incident La Rocca and Sydney’s Matt Simon were jostling inside the box.
Referee Chris Beath halted play, had a word to the pair, took no further action before restarting the match with a drop ball.
La Rocca has been expelled once in his 62 A-League appearances.
Despite being sent off which warrants a mandatory one game suspension, La Rocca copped a four game ban as a Western Sydney Wanderer.
In 2013 the match review panel determined La Rocca should be punished further after he was involved in an incident with former Sky Blues midfielder Terry Antonis.
That suspension cost La Rocca a place in the 2013 grand final where Wanderers lost 0-2 to Central Coast.
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