Police have charged young West Coast forward Murray Newman with causing grievous bodily harm after an incident at The Library nightclub in Northbridge last week.
It is alleged 18-year-old Newman punched a 19-year-old man causing serious facial injuries for which the man required surgery.
He will face court later this year.
Newman played four games for the Eagles in his debut season this year.
Tags: assault, australian-football-league, sport, perth-6000 First posted November 16, 2012 16:37:07Carlton defender Heath Scotland has escaped conviction over a fight at a club in southern New South Wales.
Albury Local Court heard Scotland punched a man in the jaw at the Mulwala club in January, knocking him unconscious.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of occasioning actual bodily harm.
Scotland's lawyer told the court that a conviction would impede his client's goal of working for the fire brigade in Melbourne when he leaves football.
Magistrate Tony Murray said he was satisfied Scotland had shown remorse and he imposed a two-year behaviour bond.
"This is a very serious matter and Heath is well aware of the position of the club and the AFL to such incidents," Carlton general manager of football operations Andrew McKay said.
McKay said the club could not comment until the court proceedings had run their course.
"It was important to respect Heath's position in relation to this legal matter and as such we were unable to make comment or discuss possible club imposed sanctions until after the court hearing," he said.
"The club was disappointed in Heath not adhering to the behaviours that all players of the Carlton Football Club are expected to maintain and thus putting himself in a potentially vulnerable position.
"Following today's court hearing we are now in a position to determine an appropriate penalty."
Heath made the Blues aware of the incident at the time and McKay said Carlton kept the AFL informed of the matter.
"Heath has already completed over 25 hours of community work during 2012 and this will be taken into account when we determine the appropriate club imposed penalties," he said.
"We will discuss this with the AFL and the AFLPA and confirm with Heath before releasing any details of the club sanction."
Tags: australian-football-league, sport, carlton-3053, vic, australia First posted October 09, 2012 16:27:29Fremantle's Greg Broughton is risking a one-match suspension when he heads to a tribunal hearing tonight appealing a rough conduct charge against David Swallow.
Broughton could have accepted a fine for sliding into a challenge with the Gold Coast midfielder.
Adam Goodes was suspended in preseason and again for a regular season match for this offence but the Dockers believe Broughton's slide was more similar to North Melbourne Lindsay Thomas' challenge with Sydney's Gary Rohan.
Although Rohan received a broken leg from the incident, a tribunal hearing upheld Thomas' appeal that the contact was accidental.
All other players charged over the weekend's actions accepted sanctions with West Coast forward Ashton Hams banned for two games and Adelaide ruckman Shaun McKernan sitting out for one.
Port's Travis Boak and Shaun Hampson of Carlton have both received fines of $1,800 from the Match Review Panel.
Hams, who struck Kangaroo Andrew Swallow (older brother of David), and McKernan - who hit Sydney's Alex Johnson - would not have been able to reduce their suspensions due to previous disciplinary issues.
Tags: sport, australian-football-league, fremantle-6160 First posted May 08, 2012 11:57:46The AFL has vowed to take every legal avenue available to protect its multi-million dollar broadcast rights deal with Telstra, but its fight might take up to two years.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has warned Telstra's rival Optus that its victory in the Federal Court allowing it to broadcast recorded matches on mobile platforms would be shortlived.
The AFL, NRL and Telstra will appeal the judgement which blurs the AFL's $153 million deal with the telco and throws the NRL's ongoing negotiations into jeopardy.
"We will have our day yet again. We will go through the proper legal processes and exploit all of our avenues through appeal," Demetriou said.
"They can crow all that they like today, but this has a long way to play out."
Demetriou said Telstra had indicated it would honour its five-year agreement. Telstra, however, could not confirm its commitment.
Copyright lawyer David Brennan believes even if the leagues and Telstra successfully appeal, Optus would then take it to the High Court which could restore the original judgment.
The ultimate action for the sporting codes and Telstra is for federal parliament to change the out-of-date legislation to keep up with technology and tighten up the exclusivity of broadcast deals.
But Mr Brennan says any change to the Copyright Act could take as long as two years to get through parliament, but the lobbying will begin immediately.
Although Telstra holds exclusive internet broadcast rights for the AFL and NRL, Justice Steven Rares ruled on Wednesday that Optus customers can record any free-to-air TV program and play it on mobile devices at a later time, even as soon as two minutes after the program begins.
Brennan said many issues in Justice Rares' ruling were contestable.
"Until there's an appeal, I don't think anyone can be really confident as to what the law of the land is," he said.
"If I was Optus I wouldn't be building my house entirely on the strength of this judgement. Everyone involved would be prudent to wait until that is settled."
Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan said the decision was about consumers' rights.
"Yesterday's decision continues to allow millions of Australians to record and play back free to air TV at their convenience - just as they have done since the VCR arrived in Australia and continue to do so today via emerging digital services like TiVo, Play TV and Foxtel IQ," O'Sullivan said.
But Demetriou was adamant Optus was breaching copyright and jeopardising sports which rely on millions of dollars from broadcast rights.
"We are absolutely entitled to protect our content and exploit our content," Demetriou told ABC Radio on Thursday.
"What we do as a not-for-profit organisation is if we derive returns, we reinvest it into our code.
"We will do everything in our power, everything, to make sure that we protect our content, because that's what it is, it's ours.
"When you have a situation where Optus seek to try and use our content without ever undertaking one discussion with the AFL, that is where we say we think it's a breach of our copyright."
The NRL's 2013-2017 agreement will be finalised this year, but the league is concerned the ruling will impact on cash strapped clubs desperately waiting for a windfall from a new deal.
Cricket Australia, which has a deal with Vodafone, said it will assess the ruling.
The Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS), a lobby group which represents the AFL, NRL, ARU, Cricket Australia, FFA, Tennis Australia and Netball Australia, said changing legislation was the most likely solution.
"Certainly key ministers are aware of the situation and the problems it creates for sport," COMPPS executive director Malcolm Speed said.
Speed said coalition members have discussed the issue and will work out their response in addition to the appeal from the AFL, NRL and Telstra which is likely to be lodged within a week.
AAP
Tags: nrl, rugby-league, australian-football-league, sport, telecommunications, industry, business-economics-and-finance, australia First posted February 02, 2012 19:32:25Eade's Western Bulldogs and Craig's Adelaide Crows meet at Docklands on Friday night with the tenure of both coaches under threat.
The clubs have just three wins each but Eade, whose contract expires at season's end, scotched speculation he would quit if the Bulldogs lost to the Crows.
"I'm going to stick through," Eade said.
"If the club thinks it's better that way (quitting) and you get a tap on the shoulder well, fine, you do what is best for the club.
"But from my point of view I'm here for the long haul."
The Bulldogs, beaten preliminary finalists in the past three seasons, have slid to 13th spot, one position above the under-performing Crows.
Craig says speculation about his future will remain until the Crows consistently won matches.
"I try not to make it a distraction because I can't afford to," Craig said.
"You are not immune to it because you know it's there.
"But you need to develop the tools to keep it at bay so the noise doesn't get in to take your focus away from what you're meant to do."
Preseason, Craig's contract - also due to cease at season's end - was replaced when he was made a member of Adelaide's staff.
Crows chairman Rob Chapman, in rare public comments this week, said Craig had "unequivocal" support of the club's board.
"I don't need to take heart (from Chapman's comments) because I am in constant communication with those guys, that was probably more for outside our club rather than for me," Craig said.
"I haven't got an unconditional job here, I haven't got a job for life.
"I have great trust that the footy club will make the best decision for the footy club in terms of my situation here.
"And I mean that in both ways - if they think I need to continue in this job and I'm happy to do it, they'll tell me that; if they think I need to finish this job for whatever reason, they will tell me that.
"And that situation can happen very quickly, they can get a pen and go 'zap' and it can finish tomorrow with minimal disruption and minimal cost to our footy club."
While Craig believes the Crows' poor form makes talk of reaching the finals redundant, Eade says the play-offs for the Bulldogs effectively start on Friday night.
"We have just got to win and if you win, you can roll on to next week, and we're going to try to win as many games as we can," Eade said.
"Even if it's mathematically impossible at any stage not to make the finals, we're still going out to win as many as we can."
- AAP
Tags: sport, australian-football-league, vic, footscray-3011 First posted June 16, 2011 13:43:00The Bulldogs were much better in Sunday's 13.13 (91) to 9.8 (62) loss to the Hawks than in the previous round's 123-point thrashing by West Coast but with their win-loss record sliding to 3-7 their finals hopes are fading fast.
And the heat will be firmly on veteran players Barry Hall, Brian Lake and Lindsay Gilbee after minimal contributions from all three.
The Hawks' stars shone with Lance Franklin booting 3.5, only inaccuracy leaving him still a goal behind Richmond's Jack Riewoldt (36 goals) at the top of the AFL tally.
Hawthorn's Jordan Lewis told Grandstand after the game that his side was always in control.
"I think our first half really set up the game, we got off to a fairly handy lead in the first quarter, and I think we played in patches tonight," he said.
"We played some really good football and controlled the game, and then we had some down moments where they were able to score easily. We'll review the tape and we've got to fix those things."
He said Chance Bateman will have scans on his ankle after limping off the paddock.
"[He] is one of our major runners so that hurts, but I think we covered that OK," he said.
"I think with Chance going out of the side, he breaks open up lines you might not get, but he really opens up the middle of the ground."
Captain Luke Hodge and ex-skipper Sam Mitchell both made big contributions while Jarryd Roughead (two goals) relished switches between attack and ruck, taking 10 marks, and Cyril Rioli provided bursts of brilliance.
The rebound and kicking of Brent Guerra (35 touches, two goals) and Grant Birchall was also valuable.
In contrast, some out-of-form Bulldogs big names struggled badly.
Gilbee and Lake, late inclusions after initially being left out of the side, will be candidates for the chop again.
Lake, playing his first AFL game since round six, was a shadow of the All-Australian full-back of the past two seasons, while Gilbee did not capitalise on his reprieve with just eight possessions and no tackles.
Hall, back from an ankle injury for his first AFL match since round five, was thrashed by Josh Gibson before being subbed off early in the second half to bronx cheers.
At least, after conceding 18 of the last 19 goals against the Eagles last weekend, this time the Bulldogs fought to the end, reeling back a 46-point deficit early in the third quarter.
Midfielder Ryan Griffen was clearly his side's best despite limping at times.
Robert Murphy showed class at half-back while 200-gamer Daniel Giansiracusa provided a spark in attack with three goals and captain Matthew Boyd and fellow hard-head Callan Ward fought hard.
Hawthorn: 13.13 (91) - L Franklin 3, B Guerra 2, J Roughead 2, L Hodge 2, S Mitchell 2, C Rioli, M Osborne.
Bulldogs: 9.8 (62) - D Giansiracusa 3, T Williams 2, J Sherman, M Boyd, R Griffen, S Higgins.
- AAP
Tags: sport, australian-football-league, australia, footscray-3011, hawthorn-3122, melbourne-3000 First posted May 29, 2011 19:21:00Phil Gould is returning to the Panthers to get his feet on the ground in rugby league's battle against the AFL.
