The Adelaide Football Club board has unanimously voted to support Steven Trigg and Phil Harper's return to the Crows at the end of their suspensions.
As well as handing out hefty fines, the AFL Commission yesterday banned the chief executive and football manager from any involvement with the competition over the Kurt Tippett salary cap scandal.
Along with a $50,000 fine, Trigg is banned from the AFL from January 1 and will be replaced in the interim by chairman Rob Chapman.
Read the story: Crows, Tippett found guilty over salary cap breaches
Trigg's total suspension was a year, but half will be suspended for five years.
While Chapman took questions when he fronted the media after Friday's marathon commission hearing, Trigg would only read from a prepared statement and cited legal sensitivities for doing so.
"As chief executive then and now, I've accepted full responsibility for what the AFL considers to be a significant transgression of those rules and for that, I'm very sorry," Trigg said.
He later added on his suspension: "it's unprecedented and it's impossible to sit here without feeling it's extraordinarily tough.
"Obviously, an example has been set."
Chapman then spoke and clearly his top priority was to say sorry.
"The first and most important thing that I want to say tonight is to sincerely apologise to everyone associated with Adelaide," he said.
"I'm talking staff, coaches, players and members, supporters and importantly our sponsors.
"I am sorry on behalf of everyone involved."
Trigg and football operations manager Phil Harper, who is banned for two months, have Chapman's personal support.
But it will be up to the board to decided whether the Crows retain the two key officials.
Trigg has been Adelaide's chief executive for more than a decade and he also received endorsements from AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and chief executive Andrew Demetriou after the Tippett hearing.
"This looked not like a systematic breach, from our point of view," Fitzpatrick said.
"Clearly, Steven would like to have his time again.
"It's fundamentally the one transaction ... in other ways, Steven Trigg has been an exemplary chief executive."
Demetriou said he would gladly work again with Trigg, Harper and former Crows football operations manager John Reid, who also received a six-month ban.
"He knows he made a mistake, in many ways it's an act of stupidity, because it's not in keeping with his performance and his character," Demetriou said of Trigg.
"This is a very hefty sanction.
"He will learn from this and will be welcomed back into the industry."
ABC/AAP
Tags: australian-football-league, sport, adelaide-5000, sa, australia First posted December 01, 2012 09:55:53
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