LEAGUE MUST ENSURE MESS IS NOT REPEATED

The availability of Drouin’s best forward Ben Hughes to play in Sunday’s elimination final against Warragul was a talking point over the weekend and not just between the two clubs.

Hughes had been suspended for three matches by the Gippsland League tribunal last Wednesday.

The penalty was subsequently reduced to one week by an AFL Victoria appeals panel last Saturday morning.

The appeals panel also deemed that the oneweek suspension had already been served because Hughes was stood down from the last home and away match against Leongatha.

The rules are that a reported player cannot play until he appears before the tribunal.

The hearing on Wednesday had been deferred a week, at Drouin football club’s request, to enable it to engage the services of player advocate Ian Finlay, well known for his appearances at tribunals on behalf of AFL players.

The saga started at Drouin’s second last home and away match against Sale.

Hughes was “red carded” in the first quarter and could take no further part in the game.

The officiating umpires charged him with striking and after play offered him a “set penalty” of two weeks’ suspension.

The club was advised early the following week that a set penalty for Hughes could not be accepted because a oneweek suspension the previous year required him to appear before the league tribunal.

The striking charge remained but the penalty didn’t.

The tribunal on Wednesday found Hughes guilty and set its own penalty - three matches.

According to Drouin officials Finlay strongly suggested the severity of the penalty be contested especially as video footage of the incident that led to the report had become available.

Contact was made by the club with AFL officers to clarify procedures of an appeal and, after an executive meeting on Thursday night, the decision was made to contest the penalty.

The appeal was lodged on Friday afternoon and an appeal panel was able to be convened for Saturday morning.

Other advice Drouin had received was that if the appeal could not be heard before Sunday’s game Hughes would have been available to play pending a hearing.

As it transpired the appeals panel deemed the GL tribunal’s three-week penalty severe for the level of the offence.

My information is that the panel viewed it as it “low impact”, did not cause any injury and that a one week suspension was appropriate.

All in all it was a pretty messy episode and there’ll no doubt be plenty of continuing debate about what should or shouldn’t have happened.

But the powers that be, especially Gippsland League, need to be at the forefront of making sure things are a lot clearer and cleaner with the handling of reports in the future.

A couple that come to mind are:The need for all umpires to be informed how to access player suspension histories on game days, by smart ‘phones or computer, so that “set penalties” are not incorrectly offered.

That is especially important in Gippsland League where four umpires’ panels officiate in matches on a week-toweek basis.

And local tribunal members also need to be fully informed about appropriate penalties that are able to survive appeal to AFL Victoria.

One good thing that did happen was that at short notice on Friday afternoon AFL Victoria was able to put together an appeal panel to deal with the Hughes case.

It would have been a lot more of a mess had he been able to play - especially in a knock-out final - pending the hearing of the appeal.