Bomber bummer: Pair handed lengthy bans

LAUDERDALE midfielder Jordan Roberts was banned for six weeks by the TSL tribunal last night, ruling him out of all but one of the Bombers’ remaining games before the finals kick off in September.

As they left the hearing, the Bombers’ tribunal advocates stated their intention to appeal the Roberts suspension, but not the three-match ban handed out to teammate Scott Hill.

Roberts was cited for rough conduct against Launceston’s Stewart Williams and the case was sent straight to the tri- bunal, which was shown video of the Bomber picking up his opponent and slamming him into the Windsor Park turf.

The tribunal ruled Roberts’ action was “an intentional act with high contact and high impact” and he had “failed to provide a reasonable level of duty of care” to his opponent.

The tribunal also gave consideration to the potential to cause serious injury.

After a hearing lasting almost 1½ hours, Roberts was slapped with a six-match suspension. He will not be available again until Lauderdale’s Round 20 clash with Clarence at Blundstone Arena on August 19. The Bombers have a bye in the final round the following week.

Lauderdale coach Darren Winter said he was “extremely bitter” about the result.

“It looked bad, but the Launceston player wasn’t injured — surely that has to come into consideration and it obviously hasn’t,” Winter said.

“The club has already started preparing to put an appeal in. I don’t want to say too much before it goes to appeal.”

Hill was suspended for three games for a sling-type tackle on Launceston’s playing coach Sam Lonergan, which left the Blues leader unable to take any further part in the game.

Lauderdale argued that Lonergan had hit his head on a Launceston teammate on his way to the ground.

The tribunal assessed the incident as “careless” and ruled that Hill “failed to provide a reasonable level of duty of care in his actions”.

Hill was originally offered a base sanction of three matches, with a reduction to two matches with an early guilty plea.

Lauderdale chose to contest the charge.

Hill will be available to play Glenorchy in Round 17.

Lauderdale must lodge its appeal by 5pm today, along with a non-refundable fee of $500, for the appeal to proceed tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, Glenorchy breathed a sigh of relief when midfielder Matty Joseph walked free from a charge of striking Tiger Lachlan Clifford in their clash at the Twin Ovals last Saturday.

The tribunal found there was “insufficient evidence to sustain the charge”, freeing Joseph to play against the Burnie Dockers at KGV on Saturday.