Player banned

By RUSSELL BENNETT
A DANDENONG Ranges football tribunal has banned an under-16 player for five weeks after he delivered a knockout blow to another player.
But the father of the injured player has slammed the tribunal, saying it was too soft and did not hear all the evidence.
Gembrook 15-year-old Hunter Wardale was knocked unconscious and his teeth extensively damaged in a sickening clash with a Yarra Glen opponent in their under-16 game at Yarra Glen on 27 May.
And last Tuesday, the Yarra Glen teenager, who admitted to hitting him, was suspended at the hearing at Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League’s Woori Yallock headquarters.
The tribunal heard the Yarra Glen player “expressed genuine remorse” in his actions, which saw Hunter taken to hospital in an ambulance.
The hearing heard that the Yarra Glen player had no control over the impact of a punch, that it could lead to him getting hit even harder, or it could kill the injured player.
Now Joe Wardale, Hunter’s father, says his family may have to pay more than $10,000 in un-covered medical expenses.
Mr Wardale was thrown out of the emotion-charged tribunal hearing.
He later told the Mail that he and his son were “out-maneuvered” in the proceedings.
“Hunter was put through two-and-a-half hours of grilling and they claimed he threw the first punch,” Mr Wardale said.
“But there were no witnesses heard from either side.
“The system that should have been there to protect Hunter let him down completely.”
Mr Wardale said he was “still not sleeping” following the incident, which he saw first-hand as a runner for the Gembrook side.
“Everything just keeps replaying in my head,” he said.
“My heart just sank as this young kid went at Hunter.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mr Wardale said Hunter spent four hours in hospital following the incident, and his son would need three root canals, and extensive work on a dead front tooth as a result of the hit.
“There will be $10,000 to $15,000 in costs and insurance only covers two-and-a-half,” Mr Wardale said.
But Stephen Walter, CEO of the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League, which administers the junior league that includes Gembrook Cockatoo and Yarra Glen, said Hunter sparked the incident by pushing his opponent in the chest.
And, contrary to some published reports, Hunter was not ‘king-hit’, according to Mr Walter.
The league CEO also refuted some media claims that the Yarra Glen player returned to the field to take part in a melee after he hit Hunter.
Mr Walter said the charged player wrote a letter of apology and sent it on the day of the incident, and “expressed considerable remorse” at the hearing.
“This is about rehabilitating the young player,” he said.
“And Mr Wardale can’t be critical of the tribunal or appeals process.
“He and the Gembrook Cockatoo club had the chance to provide input on an appropriate penalty for the Yarra Glen player.
“They chose not to.”
The tribunal heard that the Yarra Glen player was distressed by the impact his actions caused.
But the hearing also heard that Hunter and his family would feel the effects of his injuries and the incident “for some time to come”.